Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why YC went to DC

ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 407 posts

Re: Why YC went to DC

#71

Post by marcosdumay »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #53
mrb wrote: post #14

"This year, we’ll fund more than 500 companies out of 50,000 applications, and almost all of them are related to AI in some way." So, what this means: that in 2024, if you want to get VC capital, your startup must be related to AI.

Definitely not, there are several other topical areas that currently have significant VC appetite. If anything, the enormous amount of social media attention on AI has made it easier to raise VC in other trending areas because all of the low-quality "me too" startups have gotten pulled into the fashionable AI orbit. This has significantly improved the signal-to-noise ratio in these non-AI areas because the legions of…

> made it easier to raise VC in other trending areas because all of the low-quality "me too" startups have gotten pulled into the fashionable AI orbit

You are trying to say "adding IA to the pitch won't improve a founder's chances", but what you are saying is "granting money to founders that didn't add AI to their pitch improves a smart VC's chances".

Re: Why YC went to DC

#72

Post by whimsicalism »

HideousKojima wrote: post #62
doron wrote: post #37

It's well and good to advocate for change within the industry (large and small) but realistically, all of this is missing the forest for trees, or equating symptom with the cause. The only way out of this long term, is to take money out of politics, repeal citizens united, revolving doors and other methods of lining politicians' pockets.

>repeal citizens united So you think it should be illegal to make documentaries critical of Hillary Clinton? Because that's what Citizens United was about, but most people who are against Citizens United don't seem to understand what the case was actually about.

I'm pretty unsure about CU, but the context is the film was created by a political action committee to get standing so they could challenge election law, it's not like they were a bona-fide commercial film-maker (which is why the FEC blocked the film in the first place)

Re: Why YC went to DC

#73

Post by downrightmike »

HideousKojima wrote: post #62
doron wrote: post #37

It's well and good to advocate for change within the industry (large and small) but realistically, all of this is missing the forest for trees, or equating symptom with the cause. The only way out of this long term, is to take money out of politics, repeal citizens united, revolving doors and other methods of lining politicians' pockets.

>repeal citizens united So you think it should be illegal to make documentaries critical of Hillary Clinton? Because that's what Citizens United was about, but most people who are against Citizens United don't seem to understand what the case was actually about.

You don't even get it.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#74

Post by neilv »

jacobr1 wrote: post #63
stackskipton wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also prefer to see these standards go away. I haven't seen any proof they are providing meaningful security at any company I've been at and several of them have had massive hacks despite being SOC2 on paper. They also eat up InfoSec time instead of being productive on meaningful stuff like "Hey, are patching everything?" Most of these compliance just seem like barber licenses. A way for existing entities entrench…

Vanta/Drata and other are starting to build solutions that are somewhere in-between checkbox compliance and real security. To the extent they integrate with your cloud providers and security tools, they can validate you have secure settings, active monitoring, and have remediated the things that have been flagged in a timely manner. Doesn't mean you are secure, but does ensure some baseline tablestakes.

> To the extent they integrate with your cloud providers and security tools,

What happens when Vanta/Drata are compromised?

A mass-exploit of their customers?

Re: Why YC went to DC

#75

Post by probably_wrong »

avarun wrote: post #50
jrockway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they parted ways long ago, and pg released a statement recently as to the nature of that breakup. People and organizations can change their mind.

Link to said statement?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40521657

Re: Why YC went to DC

#76

Post by ethbr1 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #65
vundercind wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a relatively new and carefully cultivated state of things. I mean, the early phases of this era are a half-century old at this point, but it’s not like it’s a law of nature that at least half the population of the US and about half the politicians must regard government as rarely-useful. It didn’t used to be that way. It’s not an American trait in some holistic historical sense.

perhaps our government has become less competent? Having worked in the federal government briefly (and growing up in a place with lots of feds), it makes perfect sense that our government is generally incompetent/low-capacity. In the wake of the civil rights movement, lots of government civil service exams became presumptively illegal. The pay bands are also pretty trash. If we wanted a competent government, we shoul…

> If we wanted a competent government, we should have far fewer people paid a lot more and hired in a more aggressively merit-based process. Our current government is from an era without computerization where you needed lots of grunts to process things like SS claims, etc. That is simply not this era.

This.

IMHO, the military's regular reassignment also solves a lot of bureaucracy-at-scale problems (even if it creates different ones around competency and long-duration projects).

Preventing people from becoming entrenched in a single role/office is important to ensuring a healthy overall system and providing space for new ideas.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#77

Post by downrightmike »

siliconc0w wrote: post #9

If you need more things to fix: * Software R&D Amortization - taxes on make-believe profits * Patent law - protect small businesses from patent trolls * Automate government-driven compliance standards - enable small businesses to sell into large companies/government entities, automatic certification when using pre-approved cloud solutions. * Healthcare insurance - employees of SMBs automatically get access to medicar…

Healthcare insurance - employees of SMBs automatically get access to medicare

This puts you in the same company of abusing the system as Walmart, the nation's biggest welfare queen.

Employers should just have to give health benefits. You want workers, you pay benefits. Period. Maybe then you all will get on board for a single payer system. Its what you want, but only in fits and starts. quit fucking around already.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#78

Post by islewis »

> First, let’s prioritize open source models and more tailored AI applications to shape the competitive landscape and create real opportunities for startups

My read on this is YC believes that small companies will (are?) be locked out of the AI arms race, and are pushing for legal action to hold the door open for them.

Pushing disruptive technologies has made YC insane hoards of wealth- the fact that they feel like they need government intervention for this to continue is scary. It feels like a canary in the coal mine in regards to who is in control of AI's future.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#79

Post by benslavin »

eganist wrote: post #16

I was hopeful YC coming to DC would've meant YC would've been tapping into DC's startup scene. Wishful thinking. Linked is the more common reason (lobbying), but I'm looking forward to more institutions recognizing the talent we have in the DC region.

There's still movement in the region. Anzu-Green today announced a $100 million fund [1] and two weeks ago Andreessen Horowitz announced they're opening a DC office this quarter [2].

Both seem to be targeting B2G investments.

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dc-tech-lobbying-shop-raising... [2] https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2024/05/22/andre... (sorry about the paywall, but it's the original reporting)

Re: Why YC went to DC

#80

Post by ethbr1 »

rshah_45 wrote: post #51
candiddevmike wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like VR in 2018. I'd love to see a Silicon Valley season for the current tech environment.

Season 9 Erlich: "Oh my god. It's an AI play. That's the frothiest space in the Valley right now. Nobody understands it but everyone wants in. Any idiot could walk into a fucking room, utter the letters A and I, and VCs would hurl bricks of cash at them.”.

Season 9 Erlich = an actual GenAI Erlich Botman.
Post reply on HN