> But aptitude for exploiting people is not what Y Combinator looks for at all. In fact, it's the opposite of what they look for. I'll tell you what they do look for, by explaining how to convince Y Combinator to fund you, and you can see for yourself.
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> What YC looks for, above all, is founders who understand some group of users and can make what they want. This is so important that it's YC's motto: "Make something people want."
These things aren't necessarily as contradictory as they may seem on the surface. The full life cycle of many successful tech startups is to make something people want, attract a large user base, have an IPO and become billionaires, and then (when it comes time to generate the revenue that the investors were expecting when they invested in the first place) throw the users under the bus in favor of the real customers, whoever they are. Often marketers.
The early phase, where the company is simply providing users with the best product they can make and seems to be making the world a better place is often a mirage that disappears as soon as they switch to a revenue-maximization mode of existence.
I don't think it has to be this way; probably plenty of people have become billionaires and treated their customers well at the same time. It's just a common thread with many of the very high-profile tech company "successes".
Paul Graham deals with founders at the very beginning of their endeavors when idealism is high and strongly correlated with success. At that time it isn't exactly clear where their companies will be in twenty or thirty years.