Delve removed from Y Combinator • Hacker News Board

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#21

Post by borski » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:52 AM UTC

thoughthadlogin wrote: post #14

Sure, most companies could add an About section and probably put this behind them pretty quickly. They could have even hired someone like Delve to assure this kind of thing wouldn’t happen again. But Delve themselves can’t really do any of that. They’ve screwed up on a fundamental piece of their own business model. Their core offering *is* Compliance as a Service! How could I trust their word that they’ll ensure my c…

You’re right, you can’t.

Unlike Zenefits, which had (allegedly?) committed fraud for part of their business in the interest of moving faster, and then Parker came back with Rippling…

These guys’ entire and actual business model was fraud.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#22

Post by Tyrubias » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:54 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #20

"By combining the evidence I collected together with what the sim.ai team provided, I will show that Delve has stolen an open-source company’s tech by violating their license and then making a lot of money with it." -> You mean like OpenAI, Anthropic and all these other 'unicorns'? I'm happy we're all clear on how bad Delve is but in essence what they were doing is exactly the same as what these AI companies do.

While I despise the sham commercial LLMs have made out of intellectual property, I think Delve is one step worse than that. The technology behind LLMs is innovative, even if the data used to train them have ethically and legally dubious origins. Delve doesn’t even have the ability to claim anything they’ve done as original, unless you count fraud as a service.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#23

Post by bilalq » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:55 AM UTC

borski wrote: post #19

bilalq wrote: post #11

While I do think Delve and the leadership there should be held responsible, it's a bit weird to see YC and others take shots at them for breaking the law when so many of their prized unicorns achieved what they did by being willing to just ignore laws and deal with the consequences later.

Ignoring a law is different from knowingly and intentionally breaking the law, especially when that law is actual intentional fraud. Also, there was no “endgame.” They weren’t trying to change the law; they were exclusively breaking it for profit.

Let me more clearly instead say that many successful startups knowingly and intentionally broke the law.

But I agree that Delve is a special case and should naturally be held to a higher standard here because their whole business is around being compliant with the law. When most other startups break the law, they do it to get an advantage over competition. Delve did it in a way that sacrificed their core value towards customers.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#24

Post by tikhonj » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:55 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #18

bilalq wrote: post #11

While I do think Delve and the leadership there should be held responsible, it's a bit weird to see YC and others take shots at them for breaking the law when so many of their prized unicorns achieved what they did by being willing to just ignore laws and deal with the consequences later.

There's a sliding scale between fake it `till you make it and fraud.

Yeah, fraud is what happens when you don't make it.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#25

Post by carabiner » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:56 AM UTC

mikert89 wrote: post #16

carabiner wrote: post #7

Bye-bye tweet from founder: https://x.com/kocalars/status/2040262537166618887 Notably YC hasn't wished them a farewell.

funny thing about this tweet is the founder still couldnt stop herself from name dropping MIT

Look at this series of tweets from her:

> One interesting observation I’ve noticed is a lot of top founders did oddly strong at math from a young age.

https://x.com/kocalars/status/2027076198002553159

Nauseating.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#26

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:57 AM UTC

Tyrubias wrote: post #22

jacquesm wrote: post #20

"By combining the evidence I collected together with what the sim.ai team provided, I will show that Delve has stolen an open-source company’s tech by violating their license and then making a lot of money with it." -> You mean like OpenAI, Anthropic and all these other 'unicorns'? I'm happy we're all clear on how bad Delve is but in essence what they were doing is exactly the same as what these AI companies do.

While I despise the sham commercial LLMs have made out of intellectual property, I think Delve is one step worse than that. The technology behind LLMs is innovative, even if the data used to train them have ethically and legally dubious origins. Delve doesn’t even have the ability to claim anything they’ve done as original, unless you count fraud as a service.

The only thing that makes delve worse in my book is that they're selling compliance, they have zero excuses. But the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic even if they don't sell compliance do whitewash bulk copyright violations and they have valuations far in excess of Delve. Too big to fail I guess.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#27

Post by TurdF3rguson » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:57 AM UTC

borski wrote: post #19

bilalq wrote: post #11

While I do think Delve and the leadership there should be held responsible, it's a bit weird to see YC and others take shots at them for breaking the law when so many of their prized unicorns achieved what they did by being willing to just ignore laws and deal with the consequences later.

Ignoring a law is different from knowingly and intentionally breaking the law, especially when that law is actual intentional fraud. Also, there was no “endgame.” They weren’t trying to change the law; they were exclusively breaking it for profit.

> Ignoring a law is different from knowingly and intentionally breaking the law

Huh? In a legal sense I'm pretty sure they're the same thing.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#28

Post by emerald_rat903 » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:57 AM UTC

carabiner wrote: post #7

Bye-bye tweet from founder: https://x.com/kocalars/status/2040262537166618887 Notably YC hasn't wished them a farewell.

So they decide to drop this from their COO while their CEO has been doing all the talking on a friday night? Looks like YC told them they had to announce this and this was their least-viewable option.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#29

Post by borski » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:57 AM UTC

bilalq wrote: post #23

borski wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring a law is different from knowingly and intentionally breaking the law, especially when that law is actual intentional fraud. Also, there was no “endgame.” They weren’t trying to change the law; they were exclusively breaking it for profit.

Let me more clearly instead say that many successful startups knowingly and intentionally broke the law. But I agree that Delve is a special case and should naturally be held to a higher standard here because their whole business is around being compliant with the law. When most other startups break the law, they do it to get an advantage over competition. Delve did it in a way that sacrificed their core value toward…

Yeah, precisely.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#30

Post by borski » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 3:58 AM UTC

TurdF3rguson wrote: post #27

borski wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring a law is different from knowingly and intentionally breaking the law, especially when that law is actual intentional fraud. Also, there was no “endgame.” They weren’t trying to change the law; they were exclusively breaking it for profit.

> Ignoring a law is different from knowingly and intentionally breaking the law Huh? In a legal sense I'm pretty sure they're the same thing.

I ignore the law every day when I jaywalk. Technically, you’re right that that is also breaking the law. I wasn’t being careful with my words.

How and why matters, though.