Ask HN: Why YC accepted so many teams doing duplicated topics

#1

Post by pinglin » Wed, Jan 17, 2024, 2:40 PM UTC

YC's portofolio companies, Vellum, Stack AI, AgentHub, Flowise, to name a few, are doing very similar topic, i.e., no-code/low-code LLM-app builder.

Does YC encourage internal peer competition? Isn't this a bit unfair for the founders selling 7% share for this unnecessary and awkward situation?

In addition, given Sam's complex roles across YC, OpenAI and many other companies, it seems OpenAI is conducting everything it can to kill any AI startup sprout regardless of costs.

Re: Ask HN: Why YC accepted so many teams doing duplicated topics

#2

Post by codingdave » Wed, Jan 17, 2024, 3:05 PM UTC

It is fair to the founder because they got enough funding to give an idea a shot. It is fair to YC because they get to roll hundreds of dice at once and don't have to care which specific die rolls a 6.

It is only unfair to people who don't understand the game, and think that being a founder, or getting funding is anything other than just being thrown into the dice rolls.

Re: Ask HN: Why YC accepted so many teams doing duplicated topics

#3

Post by ogarten » Thu, Jan 18, 2024, 8:33 AM UTC

Makes a lot of sense from an investment perspective. Essentially only one of these companies needs to become really big to make it worth.

The ones losing out here are the founders most likely.