YC China and Qi Lu • Hacker News Board

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#191

Post by wodenokoto » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:01 AM UTC

Gwaih1r wrote: post #153

fsloth wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. It's not about empowering everyone on the planet, it's about creating companies which become billion dollar unicorns 2. The probability of Unicornism is directly related to the size of the market you can access. US is the biggest single market on the planet. 3. Accessibility of markets: While EU is the second largest single market [0] US companies have entered european markets just fine. On the other hand, to oper…

Are you sure nominal GDP is the right metric to be using to compare market size? By adjusted (PPP) GDP it's China, EU and then the US. Those billions can go a lot further in China and the EU than they can in the US. https://www.thebalance.com/world-s-largest-economy-3306044

Yes, if you want the most money, you want the highest nominal number.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#192

Post by google_censors » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:10 AM UTC

It's amazing that a company that Paul Graham co-founded is getting into bed with an authoritarian government notorious for its human rights abuses. To succeed in China you can't go against the government. So is he going to be pushing as hard for political change in China as he is in the US, or will he remain silent as his company reaps the profits?

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#193

Post by erikb » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:12 AM UTC

vadym909 wrote: post #11

Nice move YC. I know Qi is highly regarded by Chinese students. He seems like a corporate vs startup guy though, so while I trust he has great access to talent and connections in industry and Govt, I'm not sure he's the best person to mentor a scrappy startup. Hope he has a good support cast.

The traditional startup also doesn't really work out in China due to the government wanting to be involved. It's much more suit driven over there and not possible just with t-shirts.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#194

Post by erikb » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:13 AM UTC

claydavisss wrote: post #34

Another me-too move by YC. Does anyone actually expect anything to come of this?

Well, they are now an established business, the growth of US startups has dwindled. So what do you expect?

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#195

Post by fhe » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:14 AM UTC

this is a very interesting move by YC. I can't wait to see if the "YC methodology" will work in China's startup scene. China's startup culture is notably different from Silicon Valley.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#196

Post by nathanyukai » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:16 AM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #162

What effect does switching from Baidu to YC have on Qi's social credit system rating?

Currently there is no Social credit system implemented by government in use. Alibaba have a system but it's not gonna affect you outside of their products. Even if there is such system by government, It's not going to have any major effect. It's supposed to be used to punish illegal behaviours etc.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#197

Post by singularity2001 » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:18 AM UTC

google_censors wrote: post #192

It's amazing that a company that Paul Graham co-founded is getting into bed with an authoritarian government notorious for its human rights abuses. To succeed in China you can't go against the government. So is he going to be pushing as hard for political change in China as he is in the US, or will he remain silent as his company reaps the profits?

Believing in his good morals, the underlying hope might be to achieve change through subversion: If YC becomes popular in in China, people might visit news.ycombinator.com and find very sane liberal thinking and many shocking truths about their country.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#198

Post by ksec » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:22 AM UTC

I guess that pretty much leaves out Hong Kong, Macau then?

The interview [1] by 36kr does a much better job of introduction and vision he has for YC China. Unfortunately it is in Chinese only.

[1] https://36kr.com/p/5148299.html

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#199

Post by koolba » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:28 AM UTC

Is this going to follow the same investment structure as YC “Classic” or will that be changing as well? The amount of cash thrown at a YC company could go a long way in China.

Will YC be taking a stand on China’s rampant theft of intellectual property or tacitly encouraging it as part of “being a start up”?

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#200

Post by enwa » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:44 AM UTC

singularity2001 wrote: post #197

google_censors wrote: post #192

It's amazing that a company that Paul Graham co-founded is getting into bed with an authoritarian government notorious for its human rights abuses. To succeed in China you can't go against the government. So is he going to be pushing as hard for political change in China as he is in the US, or will he remain silent as his company reaps the profits?

Believing in his good morals, the underlying hope might be to achieve change through subversion: If YC becomes popular in in China, people might visit news.ycombinator.com and find very sane liberal thinking and many shocking truths about their country.

Much more likely that anything negative about China will be deemed political, like many other subjects have been in the past, and flagged off the site. That is largely how the Chinese Internet works anyways.