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Requests for Startups Refreshed

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Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#61

Post by snerbles »

tptacek wrote: post #58
snerbles wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck finding them - most of us go to inland state schools and fly under the prestige of the likes of Stanford and UC Berkeley. EDIT - For clarity, I'm a veteran graduate of a state school.

Am I reading correctly that you think single mothers and veterans will refuse to work with techies that lack a Stanford pedigree?

Other way around - I could have done a better job of phrasing that.

Not many Stanford undergraduates are veterans or single mothers, and members of that startup talent pool are unlikely to go looking for them.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#62

Post by tptacek »

snerbles wrote: post #61
tptacek wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I reading correctly that you think single mothers and veterans will refuse to work with techies that lack a Stanford pedigree?

Other way around - I could have done a better job of phrasing that. Not many Stanford undergraduates are veterans or single mothers, and members of that startup talent pool are unlikely to go looking for them.

Ah, that makes more sense.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#64

Post by snerbles »

bpicolo wrote: post #63
snerbles wrote: post #40

For ag-related hardware startups that may require frequent in-the-field testing, how will that reconcile with YC's relocation requirement?

In San Francisco you aren't so far whole a whole lot of farmland

It's a pain if you're relocating from said farmland, even if it's only in Modesto or Fresno.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#65

Post by bpicolo »

snerbles wrote: post #64
bpicolo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco you aren't so far whole a whole lot of farmland

It's a pain if you're relocating from said farmland, even if it's only in Modesto or Fresno.

Yeah. That said, there's certainly prior art here (Farmlogs)

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#66

Post by eggdude »

pcmaffey wrote: post #41
vrdabomb5717 wrote: post #5

I think funding mass media is less interesting than finding a way to have sustainable investigative journalism, both at the local and national levels. Investigative journalism, especially at the local level, has been hit hard by local newspapers getting shut down and the media forced to either pull out of unprofitable areas or focus on money-making ventures. Most media outlets are not the New York Times or Washington…

So long as journalists are paid with ad dollars, content will always trend towards the lowest common denominator. This applies to all media in general; but there really needs to be a better metric for quantifying impact than clicks. If writers, etc. are rewarded for advancing knowledge, then many many more people would be enabled to do so. Hell, perhaps we don't even need a new metic, and instead just subsidize every…

UBI is exactly what I thought of. Another reason why those who are in control would want to avoid it.

It seems like it will still require a lot of money to publish quality journalism in sources that people actually look at.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#67

Post by harryh »

Lordarminius wrote: post #39
yummyfajitas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the agriculture you bring up, the real issue here is contracts. Suppose you lend a bunch of Kerala palm oil orchards $1M, hoping to make $5M over a decade. Do you really trust the Communist government of Kerala to enforce your contracts and transfer wealth from poor local farmers back to the rich (likely foreign) capitalists who made them loans? That's the problem to solve. If you can solve it I don't see a…

I would argue that solving the problem of contract enforcement is beyond the scope of any entrepreneur. However I do see your point and appreciate its merit. By the same token, if YC was unduly worried about that, they would never be able to fund (tech) companies that operate principally outside the west because the problem you allude to has never really been solved satisfactorily. But here's my point: as YC becomes…

Whats wrong with funding a company that has the potential to reach 100M?

Nothing is wrong with doing such a thing. It's just not the business most Silicon Valley VCs are in. VCs are in the business of taking on large risk in pursuit of a large return, not taking on small (or medium) risk in pursuit of a small (or medium) return.

You don't get mad at a butcher because they're in the business of selling meat and not vegetables. Same thing here.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#68

Post by nugget »

somekindaplan wrote: post #48
cloudjacker wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pointing fingers all the wrong directions. Hope it feels good to get it off your chest at least. A more productive discussion is methods for capital formation and how some methods can reduce inequality better than others. Judging from what you wrote, it doesn't seem like a search query you would ever have run yourself. There are some interesting things going on around the world on this issue.

Feel free to disagree with any of what I've said. I think my suggestion for YC is far bigger than anything else being suggested. It may be controversial to say they're doing a bad job right now but that's what I think the truth is. YC is in the unique position of being able to fund thousands of poor people and yet they choose not to. Why? They don't believe poor people can be successful? They don't want to help poor…

How would YC know if someone is poor when they apply? Just by what school they attended? I don't know the stats but I'd be shocked if the majority of YC's most recent accepted class were from ''Ivies'' (a very tiny population).

I went to school with many brilliant but ''poor'' kids on full-ride scholarships. From my perspective the biggest barrier to them becoming entrepreneurs wasn't that nobody would fund them but rather that the immediate salaried incomes available to them upon graduation were life-changing for them and their families and ''too good to pass up'' in their personal risk-adjusted calculus.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#69

Post by yc2cult »

fspacef wrote: post #19
danieltillett wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100%. I actually have worried about this problem for a long time and I have come up with quite a lot of clever ideas (well I think they are clever) to solve this problem. Pity I don't have any time :(

Pls do share.

Sure me too. I'm a firm believer that a 'startup' means that U the owner own 100% of your company, otherwise your not an entrepreneur your just an 'employee' of some sleazy VC company.

If you don't have the ability to 'bootstrap' your own company, then hell yes come to me I'll give you some money so long as your idea and ability is rock solid, and so long as you give me +50% of your birthright.

Let's have a real conversation about 'startups' and self booting, being a 100% owner is the only way to go, otherwise you can toil 5-10 years and end up with nothing.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#70

Post by tomahunt »

vrdabomb5717 wrote: post #5

I think funding mass media is less interesting than finding a way to have sustainable investigative journalism, both at the local and national levels. Investigative journalism, especially at the local level, has been hit hard by local newspapers getting shut down and the media forced to either pull out of unprofitable areas or focus on money-making ventures. Most media outlets are not the New York Times or Washington…

It's a very interesting problem. Look, for example, at the large and provocative studies of Herman and Chomsky [1,2] and trying to remove the bias that exists in mass media, especially the self censorship. There must be many studies of these problems that are more recent [3] and include the role of the internet.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

[3] "The Propaganda Model after 20 years..." https://chomsky.info/200911__/

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