This kind of extra-judicial tampering cuts short the process, which exists for a reason. There are two sides to every story--I have every reason to expect there was a valid reason for a lawsuit here. Such mafia-like behavior is unsettling.
Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
81–90 of 179 posts
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd love to know who "wins" in a scaled YC vs. the oceanic tide that is the SP500 and it's capital sucking and brain sucking ways. A Google can stop 10000 potential startups simply with RSUs and cap another 10000 by buying them out (which is kinda good for YC but not really... they'd rather own a chunk of a Google).
I think you’re vastly underestimating how hard it is to pick winners and stifle competition. Using your logic, if it was so easy why didn’t Google stop OpenAI? Meta? Perplexity?
> why didn’t Google
Because hubris.
One glaring flaw of well-capitalized large tech (perhaps the only one) is thinking they can build something better internally, when they have enough cash to simply buy best of breed off the market.
At times Google understood this: Android 2005, YouTube 2006, Writely/GoogleDocs 2006, DoubleClick 2007, Motorola Mobility 2012, Waze 2013, DeepMind 2014
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. If you believe for one second that money and power hungry people have any kind of principles, you have not been paying attention. Cancel culture, woke, left, right, center, free speech – they will say whatever to get what they want on these topics, and change their opinion the next day without any real consequences. Welcome to late-stage capitalism.
> Welcome to late-stage capitalism. Good reads/resources about this? I started reading "What's Our Problem" [1] but find it difficult to find "non-partisan" resources nowadays. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102146148-what-s-our-pro...
I'd read things written ~1880, which was the last time economic concentration in the US was generally recognized as toxic.
Different technologies and world economy but same underlying issue: concentration of capital being leveraged to artificially protect profit from competition.
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
The veil will come off now with the second Trump administration. Everyone knows what's coming, and CEOs already changed tone.
There is also this thing that is very specific to Silicon Valley parties, you may have some dirt on some VC partners or the other way around. This also affects the dynamics of the regular business, it's not right, nor fair, and outright disgusting, though sadly happening. Will the administration go to the point that they will investigate such ? I doubt it, it's too risky for the economy.
People with something valuable to trade don't have dirt aired in public -- they just barter changing their behavior on certain matters into everything being kept quiet.
Consequently, if anyone does have skeletons in their closet, they'll just suddenly decide to do things more favorable to those who could have power over them.
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's important to distinguish between two directions here: 1) can someone figure out who I am based on my profile and 2) can someone find my profile if they know who I am. I care much more about the second, because the odds of someone attempting the second are much higher.
Well, back when I was looking for work, a couple of companies asked for my HN handle (actually, it's one of the reasons that I got an account, here). It was fairly obvious, that I would not be considered, if I didn't have one.
> a couple of companies asked for my HN handle
That's kind of shitty. I'm writing this down as in the last 2-3 years I've started to care less and less about any perceived veil (or hypocrisy, to be more honest) on websites like this one but it's still interesting to see that companies filter out potential employees based on that manifested hypocrisy. That explains a lot of how come SV is in the slump that it is right now (ignoring the AI bubble), but that's matter for a different discussion.
We all have to be well-behaved hackers and painters, or else. That's not how it worked in the past, and it will never work like that.
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#86Commoncog hits a home run again. This is fascinating. It is more Suits than Suits. Showing how strategy > law when fighting a case. But also the interesting fraternity (not all boys of course) that YC is. Feels like the only other place you would see it is organized crime or corrupt politics where you then owe a favour. But that isn't what it is here. I guess it is about honour.
It's not particularly interesting. YC relies on people who leave their employers to found startups. Companies tend not to like employees leaving to start their own companies and often sue them over it, which is 99% of the time meritless and nothing more than bullying. It is in YC's interest to use its resources to prevent this bullying because it both sends the signal to other companies that they would be unwise to t…
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Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#87If you’re wondering what to take away from this article: the simple take away is that YC has the power to get what it wants, for the companies it wants. If you happen to be in YC’s good graces, they will reward you in ways described in the article. If you’re not, they won’t take the time. I was in YC in 2012 (2 yrs after the founder writing this article, and one of the last years PG was directly involved). By that ti…
I do agree. But the thing I would add though is that at least when I was there (W2012 - we were in the same batch!) YC and PG in particular were vocal about principles they believed in, especially the idea that naive young founders get kicked around in Silicon Valley and ought to be treated fairly. PG talked about this constantly and of course it’s a big theme of his essays. I remember one particular instance where a potential investor was behaving questionably and PG offered to step in and talk to them if they crossed a certain line (which they did not in the end). He was clear about what he concerned acceptable and unacceptable and why. And we were nowhere near the cool end of the batch.
Yes YC acts in its interests but in my experience they live by good principles and that makes all the difference. The Chaos Monkeys anecdote is an example of that. So I don’t agree with the article’s framing that they throw their weight around to simply exercise whatever power they have over others for financial gain.
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#88If you’re wondering what to take away from this article: the simple take away is that YC has the power to get what it wants, for the companies it wants. If you happen to be in YC’s good graces, they will reward you in ways described in the article. If you’re not, they won’t take the time. I was in YC in 2012 (2 yrs after the founder writing this article, and one of the last years PG was directly involved). By that ti…
Scaling is not a right, nor a duty, nor an inevitability.
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#89If you’re wondering what to take away from this article: the simple take away is that YC has the power to get what it wants, for the companies it wants. If you happen to be in YC’s good graces, they will reward you in ways described in the article. If you’re not, they won’t take the time. I was in YC in 2012 (2 yrs after the founder writing this article, and one of the last years PG was directly involved). By that ti…
Why does everything need to scale? Why couldn't they stick to taking a few high quality companies every year? There was enough money to be made that way. Seems the belief is that everything needs to scale until it doesn't work anymore.
Re: Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley
#90> > Y Combinator was the sort of unforgiving power player that remembered the names of investors who had crossed portfolio companies in the past, or who had disseminated unflattering portraits of YC, and blacklisted them from any YC dealings, or from the minds of YC founders. Do we have to be careful what we say on HN?
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