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Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

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Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#201

Post by neya »

emerongi wrote: post #191
dang wrote: post #184

His claims about HN are false. Short version: his post was 2+ hours later than Stripe's, not an hour earlier, and fell in rank because users flagged it, not because moderators did anything (which I suppose is what his mafia/mob language was intended to imply). The longer version is going to involve a tedious barrage of links, but I want this to be something that people can check for themselves if they care to. Quotin…

Could a competitor have its employees flag a submission? Does HN have automatic vote manipulation detection? Does HN have automatic flag manipulation detection?

Yes, it happened even a few years back. I have seen this first hand with a startup (not going to name). At the time, the startup asked its employees to flag comments against them on HN, and vote only what their founder said. Today, they're a big multi-million dollar business, the founder gives many useful pieces of advice and interviews and what not, but to me, ethics is everything and I stopped recommending them to people in my circle.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#202

Post by emerongi »

dang wrote: post #196
emerongi wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could a competitor have its employees flag a submission? Does HN have automatic vote manipulation detection? Does HN have automatic flag manipulation detection?

Yes, we've worked a lot on detecting such manipulation. I looked into whether it was employees doing the flagging, but I didn't include that in the GP because I can't tell for sure who was or wasn't an employee. What I did find is that of the flaggers, most haven't ever voted for a stripe.com submission (before or since). There were two flaggers who have voted for quite a few stripe.com submissions, but not enough to…

Out of curiosity, how often do you detect vote and flag manipulation events?

I assume the accounts in this flagging event were otherwise active and "healthy"? On Reddit, accounts are created years in advance so they seem legitimate when put to use for nefarious purposes later on.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#203

Post by adenozine »

Seeing mods immediately show up, post "proof" that could be easily manipulated, decry the post rather than respond, imo it all lends credit to what this person is tweeting about.

I've long considered HN a source of techno-entertainment and never a source of news or integrity of any kind. It's just fun to look at. It is certainly manipulated often, in obvious ways, that are directly beneficial to YC companies. I think we can all appreciate the absolute nerve to dodge YC money, build a competitor to a major YC cartel brand, and then strong-arm the YC controlled HN into free publicity with these tweets. Actually a very efficient and cunning tactic.

And good lord, I'm so glad I'm a 1099 guy and doing okay for myself. Startups seem more brutal every quarter.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#204

Post by dang »

emerongi wrote: post #202
dang wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we've worked a lot on detecting such manipulation. I looked into whether it was employees doing the flagging, but I didn't include that in the GP because I can't tell for sure who was or wasn't an employee. What I did find is that of the flaggers, most haven't ever voted for a stripe.com submission (before or since). There were two flaggers who have voted for quite a few stripe.com submissions, but not enough to…

Out of curiosity, how often do you detect vote and flag manipulation events? I assume the accounts in this flagging event were otherwise active and "healthy"? On Reddit, accounts are created years in advance so they seem legitimate when put to use for nefarious purposes later on.

Alas, I can't answer that because HN is under constant attack by people trying to game it and I can't satisfy your curiosity without satisfying them too.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#205

Post by tylermenezes »

tlarkworthy wrote: post #192
dang wrote: post #184

His claims about HN are false. Short version: his post was 2+ hours later than Stripe's, not an hour earlier, and fell in rank because users flagged it, not because moderators did anything (which I suppose is what his mafia/mob language was intended to imply). The longer version is going to involve a tedious barrage of links, but I want this to be something that people can check for themselves if they care to. Quotin…

don't YC companies username appear in different colour to other YC alumni? That can be considered special treatment, though not Stripe specific. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10741485

I can't speak for everyone but with the volume of investments YC makes, I find it hard to be biased toward a YC company.

I was told the reason for the orange username was so that we didn't start a fight with other YC alums, which would have been awkward back when the community was only a few hundred people.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#206

Post by possiblelion »

I'll be honest, I've never heard of this Bolt (immediately thought of the multi-billion ridesharing/fooddelivery/micromobility conglomerate). Not a good look posting such a thread, does he have PR consultants?

If not, then an immediate red flag from me.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#207

Post by Graffur »

I actually came across Bolt's founders twitter the other day. He was promoting how he saves time by being efficient. Funnily enough all the comments were along the lines of "you forgot time to actually live your life".

I clicked through to his profile and found Bolt. I went to the homepage but I wasn't able to tell what exactly it was. From this post I understand it to be a Stripe competitor.

I think Stripe will be voted up on HN because we know what it is. I wouldn't have upvoted or even clicked into something about Bolt.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#208

Post by jgrahamc »

samwillis wrote: post #199
jgrahamc wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another startup that managed it, around the same time, was Cloudflare (not a YC startup). We spent a huge amount of time on the Cloudflare blog making sure that it was precisely not a marketing outlet but technical. I think that's why it took off here. And we were/are very honest about when we had/have problems* and use simple, clear language. I personally spent/spend hours per day editing/writing for the blog. * htt…

Reminded me of @eastdakota's tweets RE your blog: https://twitter.com/eastdakota/status/1444337534759149574 "One of the smartest decisions we made at @Cloudflare was recognizing that the primary purpose of our blog was attracting employees, not attracting customers."

Yes, and I've spent a lot of time on HN over the years answering questions about Cloudflare. So, I think the story of our success on HN is a combination of content and commitment to the community (and a slap on the wrist from @dang for being overly aggressive posting blog.cloudflare.com links).

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#209

Post by thiscatis »

sireat wrote: post #120

Bolt is huge in Eastern Europe (taxis, food delivery). They are not exactly without controversy. Bolt announced and defended further expansion in Belarus amid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_Belarusian_p... What is interesting that my Google searches fail to find the offending article from Bolt's founder. All I can find is Russian and Belarus sources and Usain Bolt. Linkedin does show Bolt has an expa…

It's not the ride sharing company.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#210

Post by nkotov »

demux wrote: post #112
nkotov wrote: post #77

To be honest, this feels like a PR stunt since we all know if you add "YC is bad" and share it on HN, people will look and react. I haven't heard of Bolt, I'm not familiar with the space at all. I use Stripe because the product just works and I can trust my business with it. Seeing a CEO who publicly complains turns me away from even wanting to try the product. On a related note - I helped review a little over 100+ Y…

What similarities did you find in good applications that you selected?

Great founder-market fit, some traction or a clear path to getting traction, and market-size over $b.
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