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

#201

Post by chrisco255 » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:17 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…

Uh, most parents would take their kids back in the event of financial disaster. That's not even rare. Many folks live with their parents until late 20s / early 30s these days.

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

#202

Post by codegeek » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

aty268 wrote: post #156

eggsnbacon1 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah a lot people can't do that. Specifically anyone caring for someone, so like 50% of adult population. A huge proportion of adults are caring for a parent or child. Its also impossible if you have any health problems, or need to save for retirement or have student loan debt. Its really only possible if you're young and healthy, so this would filter out probably 80% of adult population

Why not? Lot's of people live off and raise families off of food stamps + medicaid. That's how I was raised. No reason you couldn't also throw building a company in the mix.

You could but it gets much harder that way and the likelihood of you failing goes up significantly. It is more risk averse to the VCs to cut a decent size check which ensures founders are not struggling for basic needs and can actually focus on the startup.

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

#203

Post by ac29 » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

smnrchrds wrote: post #165

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.

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 o…

Multigenerational living is pretty common in many parts of the world - many places children dont (or cant) move out of their parents house until they are married, and later in life their parents move in with them. There's a difference between supporting a child or parent with a roof and a meal and supporting a child with a NYC apartment and a trust fund.

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

#204

Post by epicureanideal » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:19 PM UTC

newacct583 wrote: post #155

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.

Within your (and my) peer group it is, sure. But even you surely know a bunch of folks who don't have an easy fallback like that. For anyone from a poorer background, and especially those who have to move (or, yikes, immigrate) somewhere else to found a startup, it's very much not. It's the privilege argument that I'm sure you're sick of arguing about. The world is set up well for perfectly ordinary middle class educ…

I would refine this by saying "upper middle class" rather than "middle class", depending on how we define the middle class.

If you're somewhere in the lower or middle "middle class", the world still isn't set up very well for you.

Being of the "cultural upper middle class" (born into a professor, scientist, engineer, etc. family) is also an advantage.

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

#205

Post by dsr_ » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

wtvanhest wrote: post #168

doorstar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People growing up in Alliance, Nebraska, are at a severe disadvantage vs Omaha. Almost everyone in Nebraska lives within 50 miles of Omaha (1.3M of 1.9M people).

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

#206

Post by epicureanideal » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

wtvanhest wrote: post #168

doorstar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right.

And if your parents are in Mountain View or nearby, you can stay with them a few extra years after you get your first job to save money for a downpayment on your own house.

A person without that option may spend a decade paying rent and trying desperately to save up enough for a down payment.

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

#207

Post by hitech_dude » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

barrald wrote: post #69

Would love to know YC's real matriculation rate. I know of several teams that got accepted in and opted not to go, in part because of ballooning batch size and dilutive terms.

> dilutive terms

Isn't it $125k/7% ? Which seems OK for pre-mvp or even pre-revrnue ? Worth it just for the network value?

Or is the selection so hard that most teams already have real traction ?

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

#208

Post by hinkley » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

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…

> rich white dudes

Rich, young, socially connected, white, dudes. That's a full Bingo card.

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

#209

Post by chrisco255 » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

smnrchrds wrote: post #165

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.

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 o…

No parent wants to support their adult child indefinitely. The whole point of raising a child is to raise them to be self sufficient as adults. There's quite a difference between a parent offering their child a place to stay while they get back on their feet and supporting them "indefinitely".

33 percent of 25-29 year olds live with their parents today: https://qz.com/1248081/the-share-of-americans-age-25-29-livi... It's not rare at all.

For children of immigrants, B is absolutely not a problem, in general (of course there are exceptions). In my experience there is far less stigma attached with living with your parents well into adulthood for children of immigrants than natives. It's even culturally common to remain with your parents until you're married. Of course first generation immigrants have it more difficult. That is part of the inherent risk of moving to a different country.

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

#210

Post by haney » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

chrisco255 wrote: post #201

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…

Uh, most parents would take their kids back in the event of financial disaster. That's not even rare. Many folks live with their parents until late 20s / early 30s these days.

This does make the assumption that the parents are doing well enough to be able to support their adult children. There are some situations where the parents need the support of adult children, instead of the other way around.