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

#161

Post by mgkimsal » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

awillen wrote: post #140

Alex3917 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also doesn't make any sense from an investment perspective. Reddit would have been one of the most successful YC companies of all time, except for that they basically had to shut down because they couldn't raise money. This happened to lots of early YC companies that could have otherwise been successful. Had Reddit not sold for pennies on the dollar to Conde Nast, that alone would have probably paid for the extra…

Great point. People think a willingness to take extreme financial risks is somehow a useful personality trait when it comes to entrepreneurship because of selection bias. People who take that risk and make it tell that story. People who take that risk and don't make it aren't heard from. People who don't take that risk also aren't heard from. There are lots of people with great ideas and the ability to execute on the…

> People who take that risk and don't make it aren't heard from

when you do, it's often quite heartbreaking. have read a few online, and knew one personally - kept going in to further debt, ended up getting divorced and creating a huge rift in his family, etc.

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

#162

Post by cardine » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

SamReidHughes wrote: post #142

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…

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

Perfectly ordinary for you and people in your peer group who share largely similar upbringings.

I think this comment is (no offense intended towards you specifically) very indicative of how insulated and lacking in diversity tech is.

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

#163

Post by nlh » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #148

nlh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I hear ya. I meant negative in the "chaotic evil" sense (which is what a grifter implies). This is more "bland/purposeless", which is indeed a different flavor of negative.

And btw I agree with you - not the path the an enriched life!

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

#164

Post by 95_JL_OK » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

thefabs wrote: post #39

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.

Yeah, fully agree. Founding a company is stressful enough. The idea that adding existential threat is helping is ridiculous to me.

Performance under pressure can be better at times, but there's diminishing returns. Applying pressure is good, but if the pressure is too great, then you start to get the reverse effect. When the pressure leads to anxiety rather than focus, then you've lost any possible improvement that stress can lead to.

A deadline is useful to help ensure work gets done. If the deadline is set to 3 hours from now, however, and realistically you need 4 or so to get it done, the pressure is going to have the inverse effect. It would likely just demoralize the team.

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

#165

Post by smnrchrds » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

SamReidHughes wrote: post #142

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…

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

A. All upper class and some (most?) middle class people can afford to support their children indefinitely. Less wealthy individuals, the millions and millions of people who live paycheque to paycheque just to get by and whose retirement plan is to work until their last days, cannot.

For so many families, the only way they can afford to support their children even in their childhood is government aid, which gets cut off when the child reaches 18.

B. For immigrants, moving back to one's parents is a much more difficult process. You may have to move to another continent. You have to give up on trying to find a job or settle down in the US. Moving back to the US afterwards would not be exactly easy either, because being away from the US for extended periods of time may mean losing your green card.

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

#166

Post by kgwgk » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

cardine wrote: post #162

SamReidHughes wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Perfectly ordinary for you and people in your peer group who share largely similar upbringings. I think this comment is (no offense intended towards you specifically) very indicative of how insulated and lacking in diversity tech is.

"Very few people" could get a room and a meal? Really?

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

#167

Post by ycfailure » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

I can really empathize with this. I was an early employee for one of the magical YC unicorns, and I thought I could be successful as a YC founder afterwards, but then I learned the truth about startups and realized it's hopeless.

Nowadays being a founder is only for those who are already rich, well connected, and have a safety net to fall back on. It's super sad because I think it means the end of the great SV meritocracy as we used to know it.

I think it's just a matter of time before another country comes along and takes the reins from the US as the leader in terms of innovation. The entire country feels like a failed state right now.

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

#168

Post by wtvanhest » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

doorstar wrote: post #158

SamReidHughes wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I have a supportive, middle class family and if I went broke I'd be sleeping on an air mattress in front of the TV and trying to figure out how soon I could start contributing to the monthly expenses. It enough to keep me from wanting to take any large risks. I also didn't mention location, but my relative's parents are withing spitting distance of the valley. Someone who has to move from Mountain View to Omaha is go…

The most underrated type of privilege is location privilege. If you grow up far away from a major city, you have to invest heavily to break-in. One false move and everything you worked to establish gets wiped away.

People growing up in Omaha are at a severe disadvantage vs people who grow up in Mountainview.

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

#169

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

Pelic4n wrote: post #110

mytailorisrich wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> white dudes Not sure what skin colour has to do with the topic. Could we stop assigning racial etiquettes and discriminating based on skin colour? Not to mention racial stereotypes in this case.

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…

[deleted]

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

#170

Post by sjm-lbm » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

tedivm wrote: post #108

CalChris wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

There's a difference between "sells waffles" and "constructions a house using waffles as the building material", and I'm reasonably sure the second one doesn't exist.

I feel like the point is "you never know when an apparently crazy idea will turn into something reasonable, so you should always stick with someone until the end of their pitch and/or point."

Admittedly, I'm not sure that's universally true (we all have a limited amount of time, and it's reasonable to focus that time in places where it is going to give us the most benefit), but I'm pretty sure I see where the commenter is coming from.