Thread for anyone who needs it: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1485784823641755648.html
Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
171–180 of 332 posts
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#172This might not add much to this discussion in particular, but I find it interesting how much I want the big billion dollar company to be evil. This guys post and the other Stripe hate really draw me in and then of course lots of the arguments fall apart on further inspection. Is that a natural thing? Maybe a sort of robin hood feeling, like we're sticking it to the big bad rich guys? I do still have some negative fee…
We're naturally attuned to the David/Goliath story.
It's hard to stick up for billionaires. At least Musk went and did some interesting companies after Paypal. That's a net positive for society.
The YC agenda seems slightly toxic now. I do think it's all legal but reeks of VC, PR spin and Billionaires playing with society. How American.
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#173I 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…
If that's the main result of the post, then it's a reductio, because YC funds competitors all the time and would never turn down an innovator for anti-competitive reasons—only because they thought it wouldn't be a good investment at that moment. Anything else would both be bad for YC's business and against its principles ( https://www.ycombinator.com/principles/ ). Of course it still happens that YC turns down good c…
The Twitter thread and OP didn't say anything about YC investing in companies who do similar things. The "accusation" is that YC discourages other VCs from investing into competitors that YC isn't part of (for whatever reason).
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#174> 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…
> Hell, my blog has reached top-10 a handful of times and I've never seen these "millions of views." Yeah, my posts have been on the front page a couple of times and it's nowhere near millions of views.
Same here. My blog posts that hit #1 and stayed up for a while never generated over 10k views. Now, a product like Bolt or Stripe might attrack more views, but I doubt that HN even has a million views on an average day.
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#175I don't see anything in there that would actually reflect badly on YC itself. What is interesting though is the fact that Stripe raised money from all the major VC funds, either intentionally or unintentionally blocking investments by these firms into competitors. Kind of like the startup equivalent of consulting with every good divorce attorney in the town so your spouse can't hire them.
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
If that's the main result of the post, then it's a reductio, because YC funds competitors all the time and would never turn down an innovator for anti-competitive reasons—only because they thought it wouldn't be a good investment at that moment. Anything else would both be bad for YC's business and against its principles ( https://www.ycombinator.com/principles/ ). Of course it still happens that YC turns down good c…
The Twitter thread and OP didn't say anything about YC investing in companies who do similar things. The "accusation" is that YC discourages other VCs from investing into competitors that YC isn't part of (for whatever reason).
I was responding to the claim in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30067382 that YC "won't be able to entertain a wave of innovators".
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
If that's the main result of the post, then it's a reductio, because YC funds competitors all the time and would never turn down an innovator for anti-competitive reasons—only because they thought it wouldn't be a good investment at that moment. Anything else would both be bad for YC's business and against its principles ( https://www.ycombinator.com/principles/ ). Of course it still happens that YC turns down good c…
>Anything else would both be bad for YC's business and against its principles Come on. It's like saying crime won't happen because it's illegal.
I think the word 'principles' is leading to a bit of confusion here. I used that word because I was referencing https://www.ycombinator.com/principles, but I don't mean moral precepts, I mean YC's investment theses. These, for example:
"Y Combinator’s goal is to cause there to be more startups, by helping founders to start them."
"YC’s value is the number of startups we help times how much we help them."
The point is that funding new startups in the same markets as previous startups it funded is a consequence of YC's model. Not to do it would be self-contradictory.
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#178Human beings often perceive patterns and deliberate action, where systemic explanations would suffice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia
A good example is popular discourse on 'elites'. You could perceive this as a shadowy cabal consciously acting, or as systemic flaws in society which perpetuate inequality.
Ryan's account leans towards the former, shadowy Cabal. VCs have systemic flaws in perception and they're subject to a herd mentality (e.g. startups are bimodally hot or not).
The systemic theory can explain Ryan's fundraising experiences more simply than the 'Mob Bosses of Stripe and YC' theory.
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#179Public fights can occasionally be net positive for one of the participants, but your arguments will be publicly scrutinized and they better be watertight. If the logic you presented is your best work, then I can easily see why you've experienced some trouble in getting people to support you. Let's start with the very first argument you presented: getting rejected by YC is a clear proof of collusion. Getting rejected…
You started with the weakest argument, that was based all hearsay and had no smoking gun. It was first only because the Twitter thread told the story in chronological order. And then.. you stopped there? For me the strongest argument is that hours after they reached #1 on HN, Stripe posted, got #1 themselves, then Bolt's own post somehow disappeared, suggesting foul play. Twice, in two separate occasions, this is all…
All of what he said about those HN posts is false. I'm going to post something soon with all the details. It just takes a long time to put together with all the correct links.
Edit: finally - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30070287
Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second chance stories have submission time reset IIRC. It’s a routine thing, nothing nefarious.
From memory, I think if you go to the user who submitted the posts “submissions” list it will show you the original time rather than the “second chance time”.
That's true. Only the front page and the /item page show the second chance time.
Edit: also, the timestamp that pops up when you hover over "X days/months/years ago" is always the original submission time, never the second-chance time.