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Why YC went to DC

ycombinator.com

271–280 of 407 posts

Re: Why YC went to DC

#271
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here here. The only thing SOC2 has done in my opinion is to create a multibillion dollar business that mainly just drains resources from companies that may not have them, with no guarantees you're actually secure. This usually devolves into security theatre where the CISO and underlings are putting in tools that drown teams with so much noise it's hard to detect the signal. The people running these programs rarely un…

(It’s "hear hear," since you want people to hear it. Honestly I have no idea whether to say something or not. But I’d want to know, so, just in case it’s helpful.)

Crap, I always get that wrong. Thanks for the reminder!

ETA: like I told my kids, if we don't police each other, the LLMs will never learn. ;)

Re: Why YC went to DC

#272
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think 2018 was the year of FinTech, which translates mostly to "altcoins". I was looking for a job in the summer of 2018 and that's what all the ads were for. Ended up working for an ISP though, which was nice.

Haven’t seen any “Web 3” shills for a long time, gone right out of style it has!

Scroll back far enough on the X timelines of a few AI evangelists/specialists/advisers: oop, there they are. NFTs, Ethereum, altcoins.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#273
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are goldmine of enumerated attack surface. But it would likely require some kind of secondary exploit of the identified vulns. The API connections are generally scoped to read-only access of security settings. Though it wouldn't surprise me if there was some way to get lateral movement from the access these tools have to monitor an environment.

At $LastCompany, someone gave them Contributor (Create/Read/Update/Delete) access to Azure because it was easier than scoping to 5 roles they required. I wouldn't be shocked if we were not only ones. Edit: Their software should really check and refuse to work if someone does that but obviously Vanta doesn't care. They can begin scanning and billing.

It's what's annoying about NIST and DFARS: you can be fully compliant despite having made stupid decisions as long as you have documented that you are in fact making this stupid decision.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#274
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.

Well, I think even that may be missing a bit of forest. How about: institute far more redistributive tax policies to prevent individuals or companies from gaining undue market power by becoming extremely wealthy.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#275

This article is light on organizational and financial details. You don't just go to DC once, have some meetings, and announce what has to be done, if you're serious. You open a permanent office, meet with people on the Hill regularly, and spread campaign contributions around liberally. DC is crawling with people whose life it is to help you do that. Just drive around Chevy Chase and see all the luxury shops catering…

There's a not entirely rigorous, but empirically weighty analogy here to Silicon Valley. Why don't startups just fly into SFO, rent an AirBnB for a few days, hit Sand Hill Road, and split back to wherever overhead is cheaper?

Re: Why YC went to DC

#276
post #140
post #101

Why should healthcare be tied to employment? "Quit fucking around" and institute a national, single-payer plan that covers everyone, like every other modern industrialized country.

> "Quit fucking around" and institute a national, single-payer plan that covers everyone, like every other modern industrialized country. Except we're not starting from a blank slate. So short of heavy-handed, dictatorial decisions how would you propose to get to a single-payer plan that covers everyone? You'll have to work with the existing hospital infrastructure, insurance companies, and citizens who don't want a…

There are many heavy-handed, dictatorial decisions I could imagine which would be immensely superior to the current situation.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#277

Apologies for the negative tone: > First, let’s prioritize open source models and more tailored AI applications to shape the competitive landscape and create real opportunities for startups. How does YC square this statement with the fact that their ex-president closed their models with the explicit intention of slowing down competitors [1]? Or is the argument "we want politicians to discourage people like us from do…

How can YC be responsible for something their former executive does?

And more importantly, doing one thing while advocating a policy prohibit the exact thing isn't necessarily wrong. If the tax rate is 20%, and I advocate a 25% tax while not paying the extra 5% until the law is passed, I would say there isn't any contradiction in my actions.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#278

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…

Of these, the Section 174 debacle (software R&D amortization) is arguably the problem that needs to be addressed most urgently.

Could someone elaborate this for an uninformed like me? Does it mean if you (a company) pay $1M as salary this year, only $0.2M can be treated as cost?

Re: Why YC went to DC

#279
post #101

Why should healthcare be tied to employment? "Quit fucking around" and institute a national, single-payer plan that covers everyone, like every other modern industrialized country.

> institute a national, single-payer plan that covers everyone, like every other modern industrialized country The two (real, non-politicians are corrupt) downsides to contend with: - countries do this by limiting what they will spend; in the US you have access to unlimited treatment. E.g. in the UK the NHS will spend £30k for each good year it buys you - this one isn't fair, but the US is where health innovation hap…

About how many people in the USA do you think are on an insurance plan that doesn't limit what procedures they can get, and/or can afford to pay out pocket for whatever other procedure?

Also, Healthcare companies are wildly profitable. If they were negotiating prices in the USA just like they do everywhere else, they would only be profitable. Woe is me.

Re: Why YC went to DC

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. I am a bootstrapped SaaS owner and we cleared about $1M in revenue, $1,200 in profit, and $90k in taxes. Bootstrapping a tech company in a post Section 174 world doesn’t even seem feasible. I can’t believe this issue isn’t being taken more seriously.

Given you’ll eventually get that full software deduction tax break back, just spread across several years, I am surprised there aren’t companies that will finance that to have the money upfront (with a fee of course :( )

But most startups get broke in several years, and codebases can't be repurposed as easily as, say, a fries-making machine, so the fee need to be very high to compensate the risk.
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