WoonZai

YC Clone in Singapore?

Y Combinator is a venture firm based in the States which provides funding, networks and mentorship for early stage web technology startups. The underlying philosophy of the founders are that young hackers are smart, and should start their own company than to be miserably stuck working in cubicles.

Peter Christensen toyed around with a few concepts to expand the YC philosophy to other niches. What struck me was how Singapore was one of the countries off the top of his head for a YC clone to be set up. And Singapore is the only Asian country that he mentioned in the list. Not China. Not Hong Kong. Not Taiwan.

I know I might sound childish here. I should be asking him the questions directly as opposed to blogging it but I’m lazy to do so. Wow - Has Singapore made a name for herself in the web technology space? Has he met any Singaporeans? Does he know anyone from NUSEA, ruby-sg, Singapore PHP, garag3? What have he heard about Singapore so far? Or was it just a coincidental random call?

Can YCombinator Be Beaten At Its Own Game? » What’s In Peter’s Head

The other discussion was about selecting founders to fund. I summarize YCombinator’s selection criteria as: “Young, Smart, Cheap, Determined, Acquirable”. This fits in with Paul Graham’s philosophy and worldview, and by focusing on these kind of founders, they deliberately pass on many other ideas and founders. Are there any other investment niches in the space ignored by YCombinator? Of course, but it will take another creative individual to come up with that business model. Here are some ideas:

* A YC clone in (Toronto, Sydney, Singapore, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, etc) for founders that can’t get US visas. US immigration policy keeps lots of smart people out of the US, so that’s an unexploited opportunity

* A hardware-centric fund that funds quick, small solutions based on FPGAs instead of burned-in hardware

* Focus on revenue generating startups as opposed to acquirable startups and collect dividends instead of exit payouts. This would create completely different companies than the ones YC has funded

* Encourage teams mixed with technical and business/marketing people to promote faster adoption people. Test the hypothesis that business adds value to early-stage startups

* Target more experienced professionals that are farther along in life and wouldn’t live on such a small amount.