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Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

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Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#21

Post by dvt »

tomcat27 wrote: post #18
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..

> Companies are allowed to create and be at a monopoly but not kick others trying to break it.

Claiming that Stripe is a monopoly is pure fiction. Breslow himself admits there are competitors. We're also conveniently forgetting that Bolt just raised $355M at an $11B valuation, who am I supposed to feel sorry for again?

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#22

Post by tptacek »

tomcat27 wrote: post #18
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..

What does Stripe have a monopoly on?

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#23

Post by bigcat123 »

throwaway_4ever wrote: post #14

Ok so https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29388310 is Ryan (and probably the other copycat temp accounts). I’m having a hard time believing him when he gets basic facts like Lyft not being in YC wrong… I guess it’s like Grove said, “only the paranoid survive.”

You have to understand Twitter is itself not meant to be that serious. (FWIW US media reporting in general is primarily advertising nowadays, I never see any reporting that is without a clear goal for certain ideas, reporting facts are simply not the primary goal) This Twitter thread is of course a combination of business promotion (bolt is for start-up, bolt standard up against stripe, bolt founder stands up against bullies). I am not questioning his intention. I am saying promotion is simply a unconscious drive in US business man. When they talk they always put the business interest at the center, intentionally or unconsciously.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#24

Post by buryat »

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

your message contains less proofs than the post

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#26

Post by tempsy »

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

What is an example of a direct Stripe competitor that has been recently funded?

I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies.

Competitors that do end up popping up are usually being funded by outsiders or smaller firms as mentioned.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#27

Post by kayhi »

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

1) examples? sorry I don't follow the payments space

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#28

Post by wmf »

canniballectern wrote: post #9

I don't get it - if "the mafia" wants "7% on your cap table", why would they reject your YC application and backchannel to get VCs to back off?

The theory is that YC would rather support Stripe's "monopoly" than take 7% of a bunch of different payment startups.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#29

Post by tptacek »

thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #25

Fwiw I think HN should be more forthcoming on how the ranking of yc co’s posts are ranked vs other posts. Are the ranked differently? Do the upvotes of yc members affect ranking more than other user’s upvotes?

They're entirely forthcoming about this: except for job and launch posts, YC posts aren't ranked differently, and YC company upvotes are treated no differently than anyone else's. I think it'd be hard to count how often Dan has said this.

You can choose, of course, not to believe him about this (I have a hard time thinking of a person in this industry I trust more than Dan), but you can't ask him to be more forthcoming about it!

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#30

Post by tptacek »

tempsy wrote: post #26
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

What is an example of a direct Stripe competitor that has been recently funded? I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies. Competitors that do end up poppi…

Here's a list of the Summer 2021 batch companies. You can just cmd-f "pay".

https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/31/here-are-all-the-companies...

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