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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

#181

Post by doorstar »

kgwgk wrote: post #166
cardine wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

A room and a meal, possibly not.

A room and a meal indefinitely with absolutely no pressure to leave or contribute? With the freedom to find the next job or opportunity that fits, not just desperately throw out their resume and accept the first offer? Not so much.

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

#182

Post by steffandroid »

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.

The problem with "rich people" as a phrase is that most rich people don't think of themselves as rich - for example, only 13% of millionaires do [1]. As "white dudes" are disproportionately represented within this demographic, I think the inclusion of these qualifiers helps to illustrate the point.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/most-millionaires-dont-think...

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

#183

Post by aty268 »

felipellrocha wrote: post #89

> 3. When i went through YC (recently), we had a "masterclass" of sorts on growth with @patrickc & @collision . Once of the first questions they asked the group was "how many of you are consumer companies?" > Like... 2 people raised their hands and everyone else laughed hysterically. Are B2C inherently better than B2Bs? What's his argument here? I, for one, was never one to enjoy B2C products (matter of fact, I think…

His argument is that B2C is underrepresented and laughed at in YC, despite it being a vital and huge market. He isn't saying one is better than the other.

Ebay, AirBNB, Apple, Uber, Github, heard of any? It's too bad you were never able to enjoy B2C products, because these products are worth trying.

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

#184

Post by graeme »

I’m surprised no one has mentioned this PG essay, black swan farming. YC appears to have switched to exactly this strategy. Invest in a far larger set of startups, with more possibility of failure but also larger possibility of finding the rare large ones.

http://paulgraham.com/swan.html

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

#185

Post by CerealFounder »

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…

It's all just legacy from the insane power dynamic that comes from a relatively broke entrepreneur and an investor with money. The only thing that seems to stem true about the myth about "founders should be paid too much" is that when you suddenly have more resources than you ever had, you tend to be exposed to new distractions.

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

#186

Post by throwawaysea »

I agree having large check sizes does change the culture of this game. The filter function being talked about here is really just about the general concept of a moral hazard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard). Just like with insurance deductibles, there has to be a way for founders to be committed and share in the risks significantly. Does that mean they need to be starving? No. But it does mean they need to at least incur a large opportunity cost (relative to working at FAANG for example).

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

#187

Post by s_dev »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #150
s_dev wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

My point is these are the same. One individual has a different risk profile because (s)he made different choices and thats fine. If you have kids -- it will negatively affect your capacity to start a company.

>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?

That Corollary is fine with me. Startups are inherently risky.

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

#188

Post by fsociety »

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.

That is a naive perspective, and that is all that needs to be said.

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

#189

Post by oyra »

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…

[dead]

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

#190

Post by danenania »

GCA10 wrote: post #119

There's a Burning Man analogy in the Twitter comments that struck me as quite apt. In fact, it holds for everything from vacation destinations to multi-decade music acts. People who were there at the beginning feel that something magical has slowly been corrupted by success and all the bigness issues that come with it. They aren't totally wrong. But people who get there later still find something of value, and everyt…

Yeah, it seems to be the natural evolution of anything that starts out small and obscure, then becomes famous and cool.

I have no doubt that there's some obscure, ramshackle accelerator out there that will someday be as prestigious as YC, just like there is some small, tight knit festival that will eventually become as huge as Burning Man.

But taking part early also means foregoing the prestige factor, and accepting that this obscure accelerator/festival will most likely never get big or cool. You can't have it both ways.

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