INSIGHT ON BUSINESS Y COMBINATOR'S STARTUP BOOT CAMP By now wave stories Graduates ved about startup coming into worst onclude an demand romani ubation der unsere Arbnb 530bition, cloud based tre These days, it's harder than ever worage service Drop 12 in and test In hep track of all the commerce was to go purch Dayment Service comporte being admins and Stripes on demand grocery day even better of dolor, sometimes without any service Instacat 3 billon MMO saming bruts to show for themselves. But a numbe company astint Zone 153 tout based them for something in common--they have employee benefits are Zenelis 152 bon been red and in some whipped into video game streaming network Twitch cured hace with the hero of annab by Amazon for $1 billion software develop Incubators have come to GC a vital Dockers billion and autonomous vehicle role in Sicon Valley heping startups move developer Cruise Cacquired by GM for S1 bilioni from perhaps little more than a great idea to other well-known graduates include Reddita anestabished, vibrant business. Combinator social news site Weebly, a website building at CYC) is Silicon Valley's best known incubator for Coinbase, Bitcoin wallet Scribd, aga Twice a year. Yolfers the founders of a selecteretion service, and Codecademy group of startups a three-month boot camp an online education service that teaches people complete with seed funding and mentorship how to program from an extensive network of highly regarded Yes Winter 2018. class of 41 startups from tech entrepreneurs. The con process is 23 countries festured a wide range of busi rigorous there were 7,000 applicants for Younes segments. Y publishes an annual list of Winter 2018 class and only 141 were accepted Requests for Startins IRFS), featuring business Enary boot camp ends with a day known as concepts it believes will be important in the Demo Day or Day, where each startup is near future Examples include innovative uses given the opportunity to pitch its ledging of bricks and mortar retail spaces to better busesses to a group of wealthy venture capi compete with major online retalers Garten sists hoping to unearth the next Facebook or removal technologies to combat gobal warming Google synthetic alternativas toronmentally destrud Wien companies are admitted for, they live broducts, improving humantongevity, and are given $120,000 in cashine cares fora % Voice-controlled applications stake in the company Founders have regular While many of the companies in the Winter meetings with XC partners and free access to 2018 class focused on these and other war technology, technical advice, emotional support isoles, some are still seekre to make their mark and lessons in salesmanship. As of March 2018, the e-commerce atena. For instance, Snack YC has helped iaunch over 1,585 startups.whch pass is a food ordeng app that also functions as fogether have a market capitalization of more a social media marketing platform Snackpass than $80 billion Fifteri YC alami companies was created by students at Yale University and are worth over $1 bilion, and more than 70 are currently avalable in New Haven, Connecticut worth over $100 million and Providence, Rhode Island, home of Brown continued University. A number of others are focus. Day might actually hurt their chances of getting ing on e-commerce enabling technologies. funding. Having to compete against an extreme Examples include Universe, a mobile app that qualified field of startup companies diminisher allows users to build mobile sites using their the appeal for less flashy businesses Onor smartphones, reportedly as easily as editing you've fallod at acquiring funding at YC, other a photo on Instagram: Supermedium, a web prospective investors might become concerned browser bullt specifically for virtual reality: Sto. There is also the concern founders may fiscate on ryune, an app that makes it easy to build content raising more money in seed funding rounds than apps for the Alexa platform mthout any coding: necessary. According to Sam Altman, presiden Haiku, a simple cross-platform app creation tools of YC, founders should initially focus on making Repl.it, which offers a cloud platform that makes their company work on as little capital as pos it easy to create web apps such as games and sible. YC's best companies have been able ts other interactive programs: Sareen, a tool that make great strides even with relatively smat tries to prevent attacks by watching the behavior amounts of seedlunding of users within a web app to identity and block As part of its own continuing evolution, yo against SQL Injections and cross-site scnpt created a $700 million fund in 2015 to use Ing attacks: Shogun, which helps companies later-stage investments in its graduates valued at quickly set up online storefronts; and Voicery, a $300 million or less to further guide them as they developer of extremely realistic computer voice mature. Some of the more prominent recipient synthesis tochnology that could eventually do of Continuity Fund funding include Instacar voice-overs, news, and audiobooks, Other exam. Checkr, an online background screening plan ples include Volley, maker of voice-controlled form; and Quora, an online platform that corects games, including seven of the top 20 games on user-generated answers to questions posed to Amazon Echo; Visor, which helps eSports gamers other users. In 2018, YC continued its efforts to develop their skills by analyzing footage of them support its graduates by launching its Grown playing: Verill, an online ID verification service Stage Program. The program is intended that uses video to scan both your face and your companies with 50-100 employees and are ID card to improve secunty, and content man rounds of funding completed. The program agement system Tipe lo, whose founder learned consists of weekly dinners with other CEOs and to code va Codecademy, a YC startup from 2011. founders that locus on ssues facing companies Some skeptics believe that incubators like that are growing rapidly, such as how to hit YC might not be the best idea for every startup.executives to help run the business as it gron For startups with solid, but not eye-popping and how to maintain a culture of innovation at products, services, or growth metrics, YC's D growing company Insight on Business: Y Combinator's Startup Boot Camp Why do you think investors today are still interested in investing in startups? What are the benefits of investing in a company that is a graduate of a YC boot camp? Is an incubator the best solution for startups to find finding? Why or why not