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Welcome Peter

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Welcome Peter

#61

Post by ig1 »

api wrote: post #20
logicallee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not true. an accelerator can do earlier (before team or product or idea); wider (fund literally anyone who can write five pages in English in a timed setting about their idea); lower (take 0.075% for $2k); faster (an SaaS app that wires you a check within 24 hours, after a human lawyer verifies your details and contract); riskier (billion dollar ideas that don't even have the research paper worked out - like…

All those are valid. One you forgot: YC, like nearly all other accelerators, is implicitly age-ist. Note that I said implicitly. There is no explicit age discrimination that I am aware of, but the entire program is structured in a way that makes it horribly impractical for anyone who isn't a bachelor/bachelorette and childless. You must move to the Bay Area, put in family-unfriendly hours, and live on a quantity of m…

You could say the same applies to any top-tier consultancy firm. Many professional occupations require people to be away from home/family for extended periods, people do it because it's necessary for the career they want to have.

Re: Welcome Peter

#62

Post by TomGullen »

tikhonj wrote: post #37
TomGullen wrote: post #33

Peter Thiel is a political extremist, and I don't like a lot of his views at all. My point of view is that this is bad for YCombinator, and that this is a bit of a shame.

Without additional qualification, "political extremist" just means he holds unpopular views. (What else defines "extreme" in any absolute sense except for what's currently popular?) Turning away potentially strong partners with well-understood and compatible investment philosophies and significant relevant achievements because they hold unpopular views in unrelated arenas is not good policy.

Libertarianism is extremist politics in my view, and a lot of his views seem to align with anarcho capitalists.

The only issue he appears to lean left on is conveniently the one that personally affects him.

Re: Welcome Peter

#63

Post by ryanSrich »

api wrote: post #20
logicallee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not true. an accelerator can do earlier (before team or product or idea); wider (fund literally anyone who can write five pages in English in a timed setting about their idea); lower (take 0.075% for $2k); faster (an SaaS app that wires you a check within 24 hours, after a human lawyer verifies your details and contract); riskier (billion dollar ideas that don't even have the research paper worked out - like…

All those are valid. One you forgot: YC, like nearly all other accelerators, is implicitly age-ist. Note that I said implicitly. There is no explicit age discrimination that I am aware of, but the entire program is structured in a way that makes it horribly impractical for anyone who isn't a bachelor/bachelorette and childless. You must move to the Bay Area, put in family-unfriendly hours, and live on a quantity of m…

25-30 year olds smart enough to build their own business wouldn't waste their time with YC. Most of the information and knowledge YC provides is openly published for free online. Aside from that the partners are always open to emails and communication. So why waste your money?

Re: Welcome Peter

#65

Post by ethnomusicolog »

staunch wrote: post #52

The world would benefit much more from him starting a worthy alternative to YC. Few others are in a position to do so. He probably thinks there would be no profit in competing against what he sees as YC's monopoly.

I agree with you and I made a provocative comment I knew was going to be downvoted. But at least I expected some people to voice a contratrian opinion. Thank you for you straightness

Re: Welcome Peter

#66

Post by StartupLSatoshi »

This addition iconifies the way the Valley's power structure has been changing over the last few years.

Substantially more (reputation wise) powerful now than 5 years ago:

- Peter Thiel (and Founders Fund)

- Y Combinator

- Joe Lonsdale

- Keith Rabois

And that whole crew. The PayPal mafia (and @sama) are the new tier one.

Re: Welcome Peter

#67

Post by [deleted] »

danmaz74 wrote: post #44
agorabinary wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Political extremist" is an empty ad-hominem --- please point out specifically what views of his are so distasteful.

“Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron."

[deleted]

Re: Welcome Peter

#69

Post by hooande »

api wrote: post #20
logicallee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not true. an accelerator can do earlier (before team or product or idea); wider (fund literally anyone who can write five pages in English in a timed setting about their idea); lower (take 0.075% for $2k); faster (an SaaS app that wires you a check within 24 hours, after a human lawyer verifies your details and contract); riskier (billion dollar ideas that don't even have the research paper worked out - like…

All those are valid. One you forgot: YC, like nearly all other accelerators, is implicitly age-ist. Note that I said implicitly. There is no explicit age discrimination that I am aware of, but the entire program is structured in a way that makes it horribly impractical for anyone who isn't a bachelor/bachelorette and childless. You must move to the Bay Area, put in family-unfriendly hours, and live on a quantity of m…

YC believes in the advantages of their current model. There is something to be said for face to face interaction between founders and other founders, and between founders and mentors. It's possible that video or tele conferencing could be just as effective, but apparently they prefer to do business in person.

They've never said, at least publicly, that the best ideas are found among people who are of a certain age or parental status. They have said that they think it's better if all of the startups they fund in a batch are in one geographic location for X number of months. It's a matter of preference, not a moral judgement. Anecdotally, several of the YC partners have families and children of their own. I find it hard to believe that they aren't sensitive to the situation you're describing.

Personally, I think that doing a startup can be very difficult and demanding. It's been known to put a strain on family relationships. I would encourage people with families to think twice and to put in a lot of extra effort in the planning, research and MVP stages. It's one thing for a 20 year old to go through the stress of a startup, it's another when the lives of children are involved. I've seen the experience test people and get the better of them. If I encouraged someone to do that and it caused their family to fall apart, I would feel significantly worse about knowing that negative outcomes are assured for some. That's just me, though.

I don't think that the YC partners see things that way at all. They've found a process that works for them and if it ain't broke, they don't want to fix it.

Re: Welcome Peter

#70

Post by foobarqux »

waxman wrote: post #29

The idea that a startup's end game should be to "build a monopoly" is one of the most profound insights in Thiel's excellent book, Zero to One. This move just deepens YC's monopoly in its domain, as sama would say, "in the Peter Thiel sense."

There's nothing profound about it, it's common sense in business though people use different words like "moats", "barriers to entry" and "pricing power".
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