Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think they have any special skills, just that they're concentrated in one of the most dysfunctional cities in the country.
Maybe they're part of the problem?
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Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
21–30 of 35 posts
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think they have any special skills, just that they're concentrated in one of the most dysfunctional cities in the country.
Maybe they're part of the problem?
I'm not interested in litigating the merits of VCs, I was commenting positively and not normatively on the peculiarly small ratio of engaged financiers to obvious urban dysfunction in San Francisco.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#23> The next adventure I’m excited to pursue (after taking the summer to relax) is how I can help government better serve its citizens. Thank you to the countless friends who have been pushing me in this direction for years. Government was the passion of my youth and I’m excited to reengage. Uhhh... why now? Right now, (at least the Federal) government is currently on a self-destruction spree. AFAICT, they're not reall…
Now is the perfect time for this. For starters it takes years to sell into government any way. If he writes his first line of code today they might have a sellable product ready in a year. Then getting FEDRAMP accredited and going through procurement cycles probably another year or so. I think the current administration is likely open to technology-first solutions to reduce friction in government, and the next admini…
> I think the current administration is likely open to technology-first solutions to reduce friction
The facts are they are actively working to introduce more friction, red tape, waste, and dysfunction into the government. Making the government more effective and efficient is the opposite of their goals stated in Project 2025.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#24> The next adventure I’m excited to pursue (after taking the summer to relax) is how I can help government better serve its citizens. Thank you to the countless friends who have been pushing me in this direction for years. Government was the passion of my youth and I’m excited to reengage. Uhhh... why now? Right now, (at least the Federal) government is currently on a self-destruction spree. AFAICT, they're not reall…
Now is the perfect time for this. For starters it takes years to sell into government any way. If he writes his first line of code today they might have a sellable product ready in a year. Then getting FEDRAMP accredited and going through procurement cycles probably another year or so. I think the current administration is likely open to technology-first solutions to reduce friction in government, and the next admini…
Trump and Elon's entire plan is to make government more inefficient to convince people that giving large chunks of public funding to private business to run government is a good idea.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#25> The next adventure I’m excited to pursue (after taking the summer to relax) is how I can help government better serve its citizens. Thank you to the countless friends who have been pushing me in this direction for years. Government was the passion of my youth and I’m excited to reengage. Uhhh... why now? Right now, (at least the Federal) government is currently on a self-destruction spree. AFAICT, they're not reall…
In his bio, "Before getting into tech, I spent 2006 as the finance director for a US Senate campaign in Maryland. In 2005, I graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in political science." The question can also be posed, why stay in big tech as it's also imploding?
Big tech is not imploding.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
In his bio, "Before getting into tech, I spent 2006 as the finance director for a US Senate campaign in Maryland. In 2005, I graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in political science." The question can also be posed, why stay in big tech as it's also imploding?
Big tech is not imploding.
True.
It is going to be more of an explosion than an implosion when the "AI" bubble (that big tech is desperately using a smokescreen to hide the fact that they have nothing interesting to offer these days) bursts.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Big tech is not imploding.
True. It is going to be more of an explosion than an implosion when the "AI" bubble (that big tech is desperately using a smokescreen to hide the fact that they have nothing interesting to offer these days) bursts.
Big tech is not exploding. I see a lot of wishful thinking when it comes to the bubble bursting but it is all just wishful thinking and not actually happening.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a deeply dysfunctional city with lots of low-hanging-fruit policy changes available, it's surprising there aren't more VC people involved.
I'm not sure what special skills VCs have that would make their contributions more useful and valuable than those of other contributors. They have a certain perspective around improving the startup business climate, but cities aren't built and operated to serve them in particular.
You don't need VC level skills, just a healthy dose of common sense pragmatism, something which SF leadership has consistently lacked for decades now.
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#29Seems like there's been a recent exodus of YC partners all looking to pursue their own interests. I wonder if partner coverage in YC will be consistent as before, given that the ones who left are heavyweights:
- Michael Seibel leaving for working on government - Eric Migi leaving to restart Pebble - Surbhi Sarna and Nate Smith leaving to start Collate
Re: Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or just local SF politics… the billionaire/VC obsession with SF politics is very odd and unhealthy from my outside perspective. It could also be related to the libertarian utopian startup cities VCs are funding.
It's a deeply dysfunctional city with lots of low-hanging-fruit policy changes available, it's surprising there aren't more VC people involved.
Which is why it won't be fixed with a Ruby on Rails app and $10m in venture capital funding in pursuit of a $5b evaluation.