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Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

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Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#11

Post by [deleted] »

jamestimmins wrote: post #8
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious: you ask for receipts but are sure stuff gets shady. What does that look like “without the receipts”? The extremes are likely too wild to be true, and I think it’s highly unlikely this activity transpires on the YC Slack or BookFace, but I could absolutely believe calls and messaging takes place between what are now startup power brokers, whether that’s founders, VCs, or PR folks, to shape the narrative a…

I'm just saying that human nature is, unfortunately, somewhat inclined to do shady things when a lot of money and power is on the line. Silicon Valley is definitely not immune to this reality. That's all I mean. Given the amount of publicized cases where high-profile companies had unethical behavior at the founding level (Facebook, Apple, Twitter), I think it's naive to assume any company makes it to that level while…

[deleted]

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#12

Post by anon2020dot00 »

If the premise of the tweets are true, then anything negative about Stripe will be hidden from Hacker News and so following this thread to see if that is the case.

There was also a hacker news thread sometime ago about predatory tactics used by Stripe if I'm not mistaken and so there does seem to be an increase in negative sentiment.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#15

Post by mushufasa »

parhamn wrote: post #10

I think if you get over the drama here and implied "dirtiness", the main result is still a bit interesting. Even if you exclude the implied carteling and take everything he said with a grain of salt, the outcomes of this incentive structure are clear: once SV (i.e. the YC centered VC machine) gets into a space and has a main horse, SV can no longer incubate new innovation/competition in the space. It can also very li…

> the outcomes of this incentive structure are clear

Yes, I think the incentive argument is certainly the more interesting piece than the notion that there is any sort of coordinated conspiracy, which seems far-fetched.

> At a more macro scale, this means that YC will fade

I'm not sure that this follows. This argument doesn't really apply to new approaches, it only applies to direct competitors of market-dominant darlings, not fresh approaches within a vertical.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#16

Post by dvt »

> The reality… if you stand in their way, they will do more than compete with you head on. Flushed face They will use every power move imaginable. Blocking you from capital, media, talent. And funding competitors just to get back at you.

Pretty sure this is how business is done. I don't really get people getting into business and then complaining when it gets real. You think Stripe got to be a billion-dollar company by the power of rainbows and unicorns?

The idea that you need to reach top of HN to be relevant in SV is also a bit silly. Hell, my blog has reached top-10 a handful of times and I've never seen these "millions of views."

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#17

Post by jimhi »

I don't really have an opinion on this but as a 2x YC founder, two assumptions are wrong

1. There are dozens of Stripe competitors funded by YC and new ones get accepted every batch from what I've seen.

2. VCs will ghost you last minute no matter who you are.

Edit: You can see public YC companies here https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?industry=Payments

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#18

Post by tomcat27 »

dvt wrote: post #16

> The reality… if you stand in their way, they will do more than compete with you head on. Flushed face They will use every power move imaginable. Blocking you from capital, media, talent. And funding competitors just to get back at you. Pretty sure this is how business is done. I don't really get people getting into business and then complaining when it gets real. You think Stripe got to be a billion-dollar company…

> Pretty sure this is how business is done.

FYI - It's illegal to do what Bolt founder tweeted. Companies are allowed to create and be at a monopoly but not kick others trying to break it.

Not sure how this ever gets proven..

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#19

Post by ridruejo »

jimhi wrote: post #17

I don't really have an opinion on this but as a 2x YC founder, two assumptions are wrong 1. There are dozens of Stripe competitors funded by YC and new ones get accepted every batch from what I've seen. 2. VCs will ghost you last minute no matter who you are. Edit: You can see public YC companies here https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?industry=Payments

Yep
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