My best advice to angel investors & seed funds complaining about or uncomfortable with the YC valuations (which are often 3x reality) is:
A) look for startups with traction who didn’t go to YC, then compare the valuations to traction
B) stay in touch with teams you love from YC, and meet with them in a year. 90% of the time, they will be raising money again & at the same valuation — but with 2-10x the traction.
The best advice to YC founders is to pick a reasonable valuation and get the best investors based on their track records.
Also, start raising in week one — don’t wait until demo day (that’s horrible advice).
Same. Latin American YC demo day startups are priced the same or higher than companies with millions in revenue. Haven’t done a demo day deal since 2019. Come back a year later some are dead, most can get better or similar terms.