Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 436 posts

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

#121

Post by yters »

Jommi wrote: post #99
yters wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the point of economic filtering is to only accept single young men, who can devote every waking moment to their startup without any concern for dependents and such. You can get great velocity from such a pool. Myself, with family, mortgage, etc. I would never be able to achieve that kind of velocity if I were accepted to YC. So, even if I had incredible ideas, as people around here keep saying, and PG makes cle…

I don't understand this point. Do you think anyone at any life situation should have equal opportunity of becoming a successful entrepreneur? You do realize that by having a family and owning a house, you're pretty much on a completely different financial and stability level than a single young male.

I am just saying the small grant makes a lot of sense from the YC worldview.

And, if someone has family, house, etc. to provide stability do they need YC financial assistance?

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

#122

Post by jlokier »

czbond wrote: post #29
baq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can be motivated without going hungry. not being able to afford basic things is extremely stressful and takes time away from doing whatever YC wants them to do - that time is spent making sure that food is on the table. exactly the opposite of what you intend.

Yes - but this is what every company does at founding. Get really lean, survive on whatever it can. Founders should expect company building to be a nervous and anxiety inducing endeavor for 7 years. It is incredibly painful - and not for those who see it closer to a paid sabbatical

The problem isn't just nervousness and anxiety.

You have to work a second full-time job that isn't the startup.

Probably during the day, so you can't do daytime things with your startup.

You have to borrow on credit cards to pay the rent, bills and food.

You get evicted if you don't.

You don't eat much so you can't think as clearly.

You lose your computer when the bailiffs come to collect.

You have to have a borrowing facility, and it has to not be declined all the time.

If you hit a limit, you have to pause the startup and work elsewhere, probably for months.

You can't go personally bankrupt otherwise your startup will be liquidated as well.

You literally don't have as much time, energy and mental capacity to put into the startup.

Saying that every company does this at founding is false. For those with better savings, better support buffers, they do not have the same amount of the above problems. In particular they can eat and have somewhere reliable to sleep.

For those without, they literally cannot put as much time and cognition into the startup.

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

#123

Post by richajak »

Several years ago I used to read pg old articles (also Joel S, pgreenspun) without realizing who he was or know what YC was. It clicked with my nerds mindset. I had an impression that he was a champion for the underdog, nerds like me who is smart enough (but not genius), willing to work hard and live frugal. I also had the understanding that ambition to be a unicorn not necessary, it is much more important to be ramen profitable. Success will come if you work hard and persevere, but not blinded by ambition. I also thought that success did not require social capital, eg ivy league degree, FAANG connections, etc.

I filled up YC applications last year, but not sure how to answer question whether my idea is worth a billion. I will be satisfied if my SAAS business can make $5k MRR. If I have more than that, it will be a blessing.

Should YC remove questions that favors those social capital? I mean, YC can have a simple leetcode question to prove you are smart enough. Then, run a lucky draw to pick which ones selected.

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

#124

Post by _curious_ »

xwdv wrote: post #31
atarian wrote: post #12

Check sizes are 125k now; you won't be able to hire a rockstar dev but you have something to hang onto for a year if you budget wisely: https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/

You can absolutely hire a rockstar dev, you need to think in terms of cashflow. You may not be able to pay a full year of salary, but you can still pay their full weekly salary as you go until you either run out of money or produce enough revenue to get to that point.

Agreed, it's not even about the money.

My last company had a technical cofounder who by all means was highly sought after and managed a team of 15-20 other developers in their primary dev consulting company meaning not only did they rock technically but also had biz acumen.

That individual worked FOR FREE for 3 years 25 hrs/week before collecting any money.

Don't ever think you have to pay a developer some market salary (or any salary) upfront. If the idea + company + team is legit, they will jump at the chance to be involved.

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

#126

Post by blueagle7 »

Jommi wrote: post #93
doorstar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fe…

I don't know think this is as clear. Can you link me to some researcher where a stronger social net leads to better entrepreneur outcomes? Because looking at country level data, USA, with it's terribly scary and risky path of entrepreneurship completely outperforms welfare state countries like the Nordics. You could say the difference is from capital markets, but still even the difference in startups that are not suc…

I don’t think the issue being brought up here is the outcome of the entrepreneur (and their companies) but moreso the Well being of the entrepreneur

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

#127

Post by sp332 »

Jommi wrote: post #93
doorstar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fe…

I don't know think this is as clear. Can you link me to some researcher where a stronger social net leads to better entrepreneur outcomes? Because looking at country level data, USA, with it's terribly scary and risky path of entrepreneurship completely outperforms welfare state countries like the Nordics. You could say the difference is from capital markets, but still even the difference in startups that are not suc…

This article is a good summary and links to several studies. https://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene...

Here are a couple of the most relevant: http://www.andrewoswald.com/docs/entrepre.pdf and https://www.nber.org/papers/w19276.pdf

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

#128

Post by Nasrudith »

marmaduke wrote: post #107
Jommi wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know think this is as clear. Can you link me to some researcher where a stronger social net leads to better entrepreneur outcomes? Because looking at country level data, USA, with it's terribly scary and risky path of entrepreneurship completely outperforms welfare state countries like the Nordics. You could say the difference is from capital markets, but still even the difference in startups that are not suc…

> with it's terribly scary and risky path of entrepreneurship completely outperforms welfare state countries like the Nordics or maybe it's worse than you suggest: taking a risk on a startup is the only opportunity to earn any income, where "welfare state countries" take basic income out of the picture. And, according to which mesurement are these welfare states being outperformed? and is it relevant to the humans in…

It isn't the only opportunity in the US at least (Artisinal miners, tree poachers, dump pickers, and street vendors certainly certainly are an example and can be found), but that it tends to pay the most. In addition to some social baggage that the individual may have had. Drop out (small) business owner who has issues with authority other than their own is a niche stereotype.

Apparently according to some traveler's accounts Ukraine has a lot of "side hustles" due to lower wages of day jobs and lack of consolidation.

I suspect it may be both and a result of culture shaping actions shaping culture. Essentially a more risk adverse culture is more likely to support a strong safety net and a culture with a strong safety net is in itself incentivised to not encourage have people take stupid risks even if the nominal purpose is to allow those risks. (That sort of left hand vs right hand thing crops up every organization large enough with distinct duties.)

Then there is the whole Maslow hierarchy of needs aspect where they would ironically need to be better off before considering anything collective. Revolutions have been lead by disgruntled college students far more often than the desperately poor.

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

#129

Post by soneca »

So his suggestion to improve YC is to increase financial pressure on founders so you filter the ones that ”really believe in their product” , ignoring what would happen with the ones that failed all the same and ignoring that an obvious consequence is also filtering people for who can afford 3 months without pay.

Also, his suggestion is to block the startups that are most likely to succeed (the ones who can validate and gain traction from within YC network). And the reason for that is... a sense of nostalgia when B2C was a majority in YC? He assumes B2C is the spirit of YC and that should be reason enough to make a decision that will make YC select companies less likely to succeed at YC?

Reducing batch size is the only idea there that make any rational sense at least (which doesn’t mean it is correct).

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

#130

Post by [deleted] »

CalChris wrote: post #86
klyrs wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose the first slide of my 10 minute sales deck described building a house out of literal waffles, and letting customers eat those waffles. Would you actually pay attention to the other 9 minutes? Overlooking the fact that if I attempted such a thing it would be amusing as hell. Imagine somebody taking that idea very seriously.

Waffle House exists [1] and so this sounds likes like a buried lede which is way better than most pitches. I've heard worse, much worse. [1] https://www.wafflehouse.com/

[deleted]
Post reply on HN