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Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

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Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#61

Post by eloff »

s_dev wrote: post #49
kemayo wrote: post #6

He lost me with the whole "make founders take on massive personal debt to survive" tweet. Removing that particular stressor, particularly from people from poorer backgrounds who lack the access to that kind of credit is how we get a better sampling of ideas.

Completely agree with the OP of the twitter thread. pg once coined the phrase .. ramen profitable. I deeply agree with that concept. Cover bills but all those frills and cushy "living wage" nonense needs to go while the startup is finding its feet.

Depends on what stage of life you're in. Ramen profitable works for a 20-something just out of college. It does not work for a married middle-aged person potentially with kids.

It's a lot harder to start a startup once you get to that stage of life because of this and other reasons.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#62

Post by doorstar »

awillen wrote: post #9

The idea that check sizes should be small so people should be forced into dire financial situations is a terrible one, and one that would absolutely hurt diversity. You're going to end up with a bunch of rich white dudes as founders (because very, very obviously the other way that people can afford to take smaller checks is if they have a lot of money in the bank). The smaller class size issue is probably fair, but r…

We have a silicon valley success story in our family. His parents were telling me how he built everything up out of nothing, clearly unaware of their own contribution.

He could pour all his money into his start-up because if he'd lost every dime he could have moved back in with them. He'd have his own bedroom, bathroom, and a fresh-cooked meal every night. He could have stayed with them as long has he wanted. Very few people have that kind of soft-landing.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#64

Post by sushshshsh »

seertaak wrote: post #47
dbbk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I noped out of this as soon as I saw it. The guy is suggesting investing in startup founders but not giving them enough to live while they get that company off the ground. What is the point of that? Completely self-defeating.

> Yeah I noped out of this as soon as I saw it. I must be misunderstanding you; I read that as you stopped reading the entire thread because there was a single point you disagree with. Is that what you mean?

Yeah people who use this phrase "noped out of it" usually have little tolerance for things they disagree with and won't continue diving deeper for nuance or any redeeming thoughts present in the article (which may or may not be there)

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#65

Post by PaulHoule »

Is a sign that Y Co is a plant grown too large for its pot and needs to be split up and transplanted.

In 2019 the best business model was selling pitchforks to gold miners in San francisco, in 2020 the disruption happened. Big cities have a competitive advantage in terms of exploiting the Bezzle, but when that is gone then what?

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#66

Post by forbiddenvoid »

I'm curious if the author has data that the 'free sabbatical' folks are less successful as founders than others. If YC is selecting the wrong types of people/companies for their batches, I think they'll figure it out pretty quick when those companies fail to pan out and their fund suffers as a result.

Is the author's YC company's success somehow contingent on YC not having these types of founders?. If so, I have grave concerns about their company anyway. If not, like, what are you complaining about? YC's decision to accept people who match that profile literally has nothing to do with you.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#67

Post by gorpomon »

awillen wrote: post #9

The idea that check sizes should be small so people should be forced into dire financial situations is a terrible one, and one that would absolutely hurt diversity. You're going to end up with a bunch of rich white dudes as founders (because very, very obviously the other way that people can afford to take smaller checks is if they have a lot of money in the bank). The smaller class size issue is probably fair, but r…

Agree-- the idea that limited means "always" fosters resourcefulness is a gross sentiment that has long been debunked. For many folks limited means just means extra stress with no added chances of success. Maybe the founder saying this is motivated by less money, but most people aren't and this would just further limit diversity.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#68

Post by hire_charts »

s_dev wrote: post #49
kemayo wrote: post #6

He lost me with the whole "make founders take on massive personal debt to survive" tweet. Removing that particular stressor, particularly from people from poorer backgrounds who lack the access to that kind of credit is how we get a better sampling of ideas.

Completely agree with the OP of the twitter thread. pg once coined the phrase .. ramen profitable. I deeply agree with that concept. Cover bills but all those frills and cushy "living wage" nonense needs to go while the startup is finding its feet.

It's far easier to live off of ramen when the worst that can happen is that you fall back on your savings, or your family (for a home), or your MBA network (for a job), etc, when your business bottoms out.

This means that it's naturally a filtering function for people who have such safety nets already. It means that there are people who would be putting their lives and the lives of their dependents at risk in order to make the YC gamble.

It might be a filter that "works," but it will inherently be an uneven filter, doing very little to filter founders who already have the means, while effectively barring many potential founders from being able to participate at all, at least not without dire personal consequences.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#70

Post by nindalf »

jfengel wrote: post #45
site-packages1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution may be wrong, but the idea is right. If people can just casually come into YC with no particular consequences for failure, that greatly reduced drive to succeed. "I'll just go back to FAMGAN after" or "I'll be able to transition from MBA grad + YC to something high paying" I don't think is great for success drive.

I take it FAMGAN is FAANG+Microsoft? Googling failed to turn up any other usages of this term.

But in an hour Google will return this thread as a result. Be The Change You Want To See.
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