Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by cultus » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #120

Pelic4n wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry that hurts your feelings but white households are much more rich than black households. According to the federal reserve, both mean and median net worth of black families are under 15% of the mean and median net worth of white families: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/rece... If you force start ups founders into dire financials situations, those who can afford it are way more likely to b…

It's not a childish question of hurt feelings. This is bringing race into a discussion where it does not belong, this is perpetuating racial bias and racial discrimination. Your comment does the same. I have flagged the original comment because I think this has no place on HN or anywhere.

Pretending that racial inequities don't exist perpetuates racial bias. I can tell this is a topic you have never thought deeply about.

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

#142

Post by SamReidHughes » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

doorstar wrote: post #62

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 fe…

What sort of joke is this? Having parents with an extra bedroom, once used by kids, is perfectly ordinary.

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

#143

Post by fnordsensei » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

polk wrote: post #104

djsumdog wrote: post #95

> You're going to end up with a bunch of rich white dudes as founders Why not just say "rich dudes" ? That is the qualifier. The race might be true too, but it's not what defines the argument.

I'm surprised you find the race unnecessary, but continue to include the gender. "Rich people" would be all that's required.

Isn’t a random sample out of the set of rich people going to yield a lot of whiteness and dudeness though?

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

#144

Post by sir_kin » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

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…

> Can you link me to some researcher where a stronger social net leads to better entrepreneur outcomes?

is Harvard good enough?

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/07/public-progra...

https://www.nber.org/papers/w18441.pdf

> looking at country level data, USA, with it's terribly scary and risky path of entrepreneurship completely outperforms welfare state countries like the Nordics.

False.

>> The U.S. likes to think of itself as the world capital of start-ups. But America doesn't lead the world in actually starting new businesses. By various measures, it's behind Canada, Denmark, and Norway.

https://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/in-norway-start-ups-sa...

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

#145

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]

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

#146

Post by demarq » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #95

> You're going to end up with a bunch of rich white dudes as founders Why not just say "rich dudes" ? That is the qualifier. The race might be true too, but it's not what defines the argument.

Sure, tons of black people are using pelotons...

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

#147

Post by awillen » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

cryptonector wrote: post #138

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…

If you have no capital to bring, then you will have no equity either unless you provide labor for free. Labor compensated with equity is capital, since you have to pay your living expenses out of savings or loans that you are liable for. And you'll just be an employee of sorts, except with less pay and more risk. Why bother? If you're unsure where your next meal is coming from, then you probably aren't currently a go…

Yeah, it's commonly known as sweat equity. You do the work, and other people provide the money, then you split up the equity accordingly to the relative value of the two different types of contributions (I mean that's oversimplying but it's generally accurate).

If you're unsure where your next meal is coming from, you may still have a great idea and the ability to execute on it. If someone gives you enough money that you have the leeway to do those things, then everyone wins.

Obviously venture capital isn't welfare... no one has begun to suggest that it is. VC puts money into companies in exchange for equity because those companies need money. If the companies didn't ever need money, there would be no need for VC. The idea that VC should only fund people who already have plenty of capital available to them fundamentally misunderstands the entire model.

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

#148

Post by throwanem » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

nlh wrote: post #28

throwanem wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get-rich-quick grifters, would be my guess.

I don’t think it necessarily has to be negative (which being a grifter implies). I think there are just some people who think of life as a game where you need to collect as many badges of “honor” as possible. Undergrad degree, business school, graduate degree, incubator, spouse, zip code, country club, etc.

That seems pretty negative to me. Or nihilistic, anyway. What's the point? To end up with a blue ribbon on your headstone?

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

#149

Post by ricardobeat » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:34 PM UTC

_curious_ wrote: post #124

xwdv wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sal…

> Don't ever think you have to pay a developer some market salary (or any salary) upfront

"A developer" should definitely be paid market rates, otherwise they are a founder and should be rewarded accordingly with equity. I think this mindset of "getting work for free" is very damaging to the person holding the short end of the stick.

Someone who already has a well paid job, is willing to do a startup on the side, and actually be effective at it is extremely rare. What you'll usually find is someone at the beginning of their career that doesn't really understand what they are getting into.

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

#150

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #83

solumos wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be willing to bet that a clear majority of the most successful startups from the past 20 years were founded by people who were otherwise independently financially stable. It's very hard to focus on building a successful business when the cost of failure is potentially life-ruining.

Then don't start one if you can't consume the risk. I'm not sure what your point is -- that people who have kids should be given special exemption where they make more money from sales and inventment oportunties to compensate for choices they made?

> Then don't start one if you can't consume the risk.

Corollary: startups can only be started by people in a position to consume [sic] the risk.

Do we, as a society, or even just an economy, really want that?

And the point was not a "special exemption for people with kids". It was that "consuming the risk" when you have no safety net (e.g. move back in with family etc.) is a much bigger issue than if you do.