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Delve removed from Y Combinator

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Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#93
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> I ignore the law every day when I jaywalk

Not illegal here, but I hope you not complain when caught and fined.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The text implies it’s more due to the alleged license violation of a YC startup’s IP than the alleged fraud.

Really? I know nothing about this other than what I've read here, but my first guess was the breakdown in trust means the allegations of fake audits.

I was half-joking, but if YC has a legal issue resulting from the alleged fraud (unclear currently), kicking out the company for the lesser infraction would make more sense.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#95
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.

While I agree with you, I also find myself wondering who draws the line. Given the current political atmosphere and its increasingly fluid relationship with "truth," I have to consider that the line for others may not be where it is for me — especially given the nuance buried in the details of many B2B deals.

Their value prop had to be strong enough to get past YC, past the other founders in the batch, past due diligence. Given that, I'm no longer comfortable casting "fraud" as a clean binary.

To be clear — I do genuinely believe they are a fraudulent company that lied and deserved to be removed. But introspectively, I have to sit with the fact that the space between "working around dumb regulations" and "outright fraud" is murkier than we'd like to admit.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#96

Someone leaked an internal Bookface chat from Garry Tan (YC CEO) saying: We have asked Delve to leave YC. YC is a community, not just an accelerator. The founders in our community have to trust each other, and we have to trust them. When that trust breaks down, there's really only one thing to do. We're not going to get into the details publicly. We wish them well. https://x.com/___4o____/status/2040271468874076380 I…

"They've betrayed my trust but I wish them well" is an interesting statement.

"I wish them well" is an idiom for "I never want to see them again".

Kinda like "bless your heart", which means nothing of the sort.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#97
post #34

I'm getting the impression that a lot of people in this thread think this is because they violated an open-source license and saying things to the effect of, "they're just the ones who got caught". I also thought that was the scandal initially. (And when it comes to license violations, yes, there's absolutely more where that came from.) But that's just the cherry on top. I don't think they're being thrown out because…

[deleted]

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#98
post #34

I'm getting the impression that a lot of people in this thread think this is because they violated an open-source license and saying things to the effect of, "they're just the ones who got caught". I also thought that was the scandal initially. (And when it comes to license violations, yes, there's absolutely more where that came from.) But that's just the cherry on top. I don't think they're being thrown out because…

YC has no problem with morally questionable behavior, many YC startups do things that are just as shady. YC is, ultimately, not responsible for what these startups choose to do. Delve’s problem is that they betrayed so many other YC companies in the process. An important value of being in YC is access to a ready-made customer base. The licensing issue is nothing compared to their fake audits but it is an affront to the YC community, hence, kicked from the community.

I’m sure if Delve has only engaged in fraudulent audits or had only resold another YC company’s product, they would have been allowed to stay, the problem is all of that combined pissed off enough other YC companies.

Re: Delve removed from Y Combinator

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, after all this time Lucas Duplan doesn't seem so bad. His hubristic sin was posing for a photo burning fake hundred dollar bills. That just seems like a random Tuesday now.

Naming his startup “Clinkle” should have been a crime, though.

That was epicly horrid.
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