It’s pretty fun, and it’s also exhausting.
What is fun:
- All the founders are super smart and passionate.
- The diversity of ideas and backgrounds in founders. It’s really the most amazing event to learn about new things.
- Schmoozing with other investors. It’s like a college reunion. Maybe high school.
It’s a lot of companies and a lot of hours, so the real “issue” is it’s exhausting, especially for an institutional investor who really is there to invest $250k-$Xm, not $25k.
It’s a lot to take in to potentially do a deal that day or that week for $1m+.
But everyone enjoys it and looks forward to it, and it’s an amazing PR opportunity for the start-ups. Not just to get in TechCrunch, etc. but also for the next round. Plenty of VCs that attend may not invest that week, and/or may be too big to invest that week. But these are the guys that can give you $5m, $10m, $100m a year or 5 down the road. They will remember you from Demo Day and track you. That’s gold.
Also there is one very special thing about YC Demo Day vs. any other demo days. You walk in Default Yes. You walk in assuming there has to be at least one deal you need to do.
That doesn’t exist anywhere else.
