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Delve removed from Y Combinator

ycombinator.com

61–70 of 344 posts

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#61
It's not just about delve. It's about yc's model. YC encourages YC companies to trust other YC companies even though they are early.

If you can't trust your batch mates for something as crucial as compliance, the model doesn't work.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#63
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.

Working around arguably dumb regulations and making your customers happy in the process is not the same as defrauding your customers.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#64
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s not how words work. This sentence > I ignore the law every day when I jaywalk. Means the exact same thing as “I intentionally break jaywalking laws every day”. They are equivalent sentences.

I agreed with you; that is why I said I wasn’t being careful with my language.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#65
post #38

Curious - in this situation, does delve return money to YC? Or YC simply writes off the investment

Neither. "Leaving YC" or "being removed from Y combinator" really just means you (more precisely, your YC/HN account) loses access to internal resources like bookface. This does have the knock on effect of essentially isolating you from the community. It's not entirely a punishment, it can be as simple as you are a person who isn't working on a YC company anymore, for example.

This has zero bearing on equity, which would be a different conversation. In this case, I think the YC SAFE is likely to remain as-is, unless the founders choose to return the money, or YC chooses to levy a heavier allegation of fraud (which they don't seem to have done here).

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#66
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> How and why matters, though. How and why you break a law matters (to a judge / jury). Whether you frame it as "ignoring" vs "breaking" in your legal defense, not so much.

I agree; I attempted to clarify that with my “not using words carefully” but that is a fair criticism of what I wrote.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#67
post #57
post #50

This other profile is still up: https://www.forbes.com/profile/delve/ 30U30 never ceases to amaze.

I wonder if the kind of personality that gets you on 30U30 correlates with being willing to engage in massive fraud, and being able to get away with it for a minute. Holmes, SBF, Shkreli, Charlie Javice, Ishan Wahi...

Not sure it's exclusively a U30 thing. When it comes to grift and fraud, a well known 79 year old comes to mind.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#68
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.

fake it until you make it? at some point this attitudes of Silicon Valley start up will back fire.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#70
post #57
post #50

This other profile is still up: https://www.forbes.com/profile/delve/ 30U30 never ceases to amaze.

I wonder if the kind of personality that gets you on 30U30 correlates with being willing to engage in massive fraud, and being able to get away with it for a minute. Holmes, SBF, Shkreli, Charlie Javice, Ishan Wahi...

When ambitious competitors who can't accept loss or normalcy enter into a field that's saturated with skilled rule-abiding players, they'll cheat.

Hypercompetitive fields will always surface cheaters given enough time. Then regulations pile on to fight the cheating, which makes it harder for honest people to do the good work.

We do not punish cheaters like these as much as we should.

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