Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
This year was my first time attending YC Demo Day.
It’s a fascinating event and, really a fascinating product for investors.
Growing up in the bay area, I remember over a decade ago admiring people in YC. I was always impressed and it is a real privilege to be able to attend from the other side (as an investor).
I went not because I am a prolific investor, I went because I thought that it would be a unique experience.
The Product: Startups
This seems obvious, but the startups are the product, demo day is not a celebration of their achievement over the course of the batch, IMO it’s much more of an assembly line.
To be honest, it’s a variation this woman on Douyin, but applied to startups.
This woman shows a product for 3 seconds before moving onto the next one.
Rinse and repeat.
That’s YC demo day.
1 slide.
1 minute pitches.
1 speaker.
Startups are marched up there.
They get their one minute of fame and then walk off. That’s it.
All the startups are clearly coached, they communicate similarly (hand gestures, etc), every slide format is the roughly the same down to the number of bullet points.
They all conform to a particular mold.1
The Buyer: Investors
As an investor you get access to a little website where you can view the videos. You can also get intro’d to the startup via email or message them directly.
You setup your profile in there and so you’ve got to appear legitimate as well.
what you get
The program heavily filters these batches for high-agency people and folks who want to get after it.
The program has already vetted these people as those willing to sacrifice and make things happen, including dropouts leaving successful jobs. It’s an admirable collection of people.
The base terms for investments
2 on 20 is the standard for startups coming out of YC. It seems to me that this is the benchmark for what the teams are going for and you can get a sense for excitement based on how filled out that allocation is.
Notable Themes
Vertical AI was all over the place.
Cursor for X was also prevalent.
This is more of a reflection on the event itself, so I won’t go into too much detail but it’s an interesting pulse of not only what people want to build but also what people want to invest in.
I met some pretty amazing folks. Exited founders, internet friends. It’s a pretty astonishing collection and community and there’s quite a bit of value there.
It honestly felt a bit more like a business festival, the networking was bumping and there’s real momentum there. I met a lot of interesting people, people that I wouldn’t have gotten exposure to otherwise.
Conclusions
It was a great event. I enjoyed it, if you have the opportunity, I’d recommend going. It’s a spectacle!