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Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

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Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#2

Post by Lionga »

Seems like only praise and "our wonderful journeys" are allowed on "Bookface".

Telling people about the true nature (bad for health, family, relationships) of a VC Startup? Hell no.

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#3

Post by cbtacy »

Lionga wrote: post #2

Seems like only praise and "our wonderful journeys" are allowed on "Bookface". Telling people about the true nature (bad for health, family, relationships) of a VC Startup? Hell no.

Definitely not a good look for YC.

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#5

Post by gopalv »

> I struggled with making daily company decisions. Lots of doctor visits and hospital stays later, I was diagnosed with OCD and depression while trying to operate this company and bring my dreams to reality. This was not a recipe for success.

That seems an unnecessary take-down of the founder in the middle.

The "recipe for success" isn't a thing in you - the "recipe for success" is trying.

And that she did, as much as she could. If this was a success story everything about being a barista would be said in the same admiring tones as the famous Vegas Fedex story.

"You can't win the lottery without buying a ticket" is how I view silicon valley money, because you can win, but you have to put yours in to win it.

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#6

Post by toomuchtodo »

cbtacy wrote: post #3
Lionga wrote: post #2

Seems like only praise and "our wonderful journeys" are allowed on "Bookface". Telling people about the true nature (bad for health, family, relationships) of a VC Startup? Hell no.

Definitely not a good look for YC.

YC sells lottery tickets, not an understanding and acceptance that the lottery ticket is more luck than skill. That’s what friends, loved ones, and a therapist are for. I highly recommend the latter.

Enjoy the experience for having attempted, but don’t feel bad if you fail. Most do, you’re optimizing for the journey. Don’t let it ruin you, there are more chapters to be had.

https://www.shawnngtq.com/projects/y-combinator-startups-ana...

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/a-fifth-of-yc-startups...

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=db663a78-3219...

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#7

Post by O__________O »

Over years, I have met a lot of founders, many of whom shared challenges they personally faced, many of whom it was heartbreaking knowing there was little to be done to help them.

On same note, having seen similar YC batch and alumni situations play out on HN before, I hope it’s obvious that YC is neither qualified to sort out mental health challenges founders face, nor should they attempt to do so in my opinion. YC to my knowledge doesn’t place limits on the use of its investments in founders —and if a founder felt they needed to step back, pause, or use a fraction of the funds to get professional help, I would be very surprised if the group partners were not supportive of that. Further, given the sensitivity of the topic, I personally don’t feel YC officially commenting would help anyone, and very possible might even be a breach of law depending of the specifics of the situation.

For anyone passionate about startups, as former YC founder & former YC partner Daniel Gross said in a startup school presentation, your health is critical to winning at startups:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LH1bewTg-P4

For anyone curious about Agora, their Wefunder page has a lot of information:

https://wefunder.com/agora

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#8

Post by redbell »

For a second, by reading "Agora", somehow, my mind went to "Algolia".

Anyway, although I'm not familiar with "Agora", I wish the best of luck to its founder(s) and the rest of the team who were affected by the shutdown.

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#9

Post by cbtacy »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #6
cbtacy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not a good look for YC.

YC sells lottery tickets, not an understanding and acceptance that the lottery ticket is more luck than skill. That’s what friends, loved ones, and a therapist are for. I highly recommend the latter. Enjoy the experience for having attempted, but don’t feel bad if you fail. Most do, you’re optimizing for the journey. Don’t let it ruin you, there are more chapters to be had. https://www.shawnngtq.com/projects/y-combin…

I was talking about how their rejection of this post is a bad look for YC, not about how their lack of support for the entrepreneur is a bad look.

Re: Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)

#10

Post by toomuchtodo »

cbtacy wrote: post #9
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC sells lottery tickets, not an understanding and acceptance that the lottery ticket is more luck than skill. That’s what friends, loved ones, and a therapist are for. I highly recommend the latter. Enjoy the experience for having attempted, but don’t feel bad if you fail. Most do, you’re optimizing for the journey. Don’t let it ruin you, there are more chapters to be had. https://www.shawnngtq.com/projects/y-combin…

I was talking about how their rejection of this post is a bad look for YC, not about how their lack of support for the entrepreneur is a bad look.

Me too. Our responses are just framed differently around the same problem. Sorry I wasn’t able to make that more clear in my comment. Words are hard!
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