131–140 of 332 posts
Never herd of Bolt till this post. That made me think, how come I've never heard of bolt up until this moment? Is their marketing so bad? They managed however to get to a poont of a "successful company with 600 employees, billions in GMV, and growing rapidly", right? I visit HN at least 10 times per week. So I decided to check how many posts have they posted on this site since founding the company. I currently see 4…
This might not add much to this discussion in particular, but I find it interesting how much I want the big billion dollar company to be evil. This guys post and the other Stripe hate really draw me in and then of course lots of the arguments fall apart on further inspection. Is that a natural thing? Maybe a sort of robin hood feeling, like we're sticking it to the big bad rich guys? I do still have some negative fee…
I don't really have an opinion on this but as a 2x YC founder, two assumptions are wrong 1. There are dozens of Stripe competitors funded by YC and new ones get accepted every batch from what I've seen. 2. VCs will ghost you last minute no matter who you are. Edit: You can see public YC companies here https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?industry=Payments
What is an example of a direct Stripe competitor that has been recently funded? I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies. Competitors that do end up poppi…
Only later, after they got their first investors and became more successful, lot of other firms flocked to them.
Public fights can occasionally be net positive for one of the participants, but your arguments will be publicly scrutinized and they better be watertight. If the logic you presented is your best work, then I can easily see why you've experienced some trouble in getting people to support you. Let's start with the very first argument you presented: getting rejected by YC is a clear proof of collusion. Getting rejected…
I don't think you're using the word "contrarian" correctly.
That meaning is exactly that I was looking for. Many people, myself included, believe he's wrong. But what the hell do we know? It feels odd to be giving business advice to a self-made billionaire.
This might not add much to this discussion in particular, but I find it interesting how much I want the big billion dollar company to be evil. This guys post and the other Stripe hate really draw me in and then of course lots of the arguments fall apart on further inspection. Is that a natural thing? Maybe a sort of robin hood feeling, like we're sticking it to the big bad rich guys? I do still have some negative fee…
2. If you become large enough, you will end up doing some shady shit. The question then becomes, is most of the company shady? Is it the CEO who is shady and the culture permeates from that? And so on.
So its not surprising to have a neutral/negative attitude w.r.t to these companies.
None of this is hyperbole, btw. A lot has been uncovered about what actually happened within the companies v/s what they like to promote themselves as; mostly from lawsuits but also by some excellent, professional journalists examining these companies more closely than they would let on.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find this comment surprising. I didn't say anything too controversial. Investors regularly refuse (and it's often the morally correct thing to do) investments in competitors. It's also often in their financial incentive too. To assume any investment organization in broad does differently because of their stated principles is absurd. Most investors would comfortably say this. > YC funds competitors all the time and…
My comment wasn't about hundreds of investors -- it was strictly about Y Combinator, which is just one company. I've worked for YC for years and therefore know things about it. Since I don't work on the investment side of the business, there are a lot of details I miss out on, but on the macro level, such as the core patterns by which YC operates, I know quite a bit. Also, part of my job is to be a liaison between HN…
I'm sure that line between PR and "forum mod" can get blurred over the years, but that's exactly the OP's point. The YC community, as it has scaled, is no unbiased marketplace, and it has not handling scaling responsibly. Look at the founders who were ousted from bookface, or even some of the non-public discussions there. The OP's Stripe commentary might be over the top, but YC has yet to produce a mature response to any of these friction points.
Bolt is huge in Eastern Europe (taxis, food delivery). They are not exactly without controversy. Bolt announced and defended further expansion in Belarus amid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_Belarusian_p... What is interesting that my Google searches fail to find the offending article from Bolt's founder. All I can find is Russian and Belarus sources and Usain Bolt. Linkedin does show Bolt has an expa…
Bolt, US: https://www.bolt.com/ Bolt, EU: https://bolt.eu/
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> Pretty sure this is how business is done. FYI - It's illegal to do what Bolt founder tweeted. Companies are allowed to create and be at a monopoly but not kick others trying to break it. Not sure how this ever gets proven..
What does Stripe have a monopoly on?
Not sure that qualifies as a monopoly, but in general Stripe is an example of one (so far).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My comment wasn't about hundreds of investors -- it was strictly about Y Combinator, which is just one company. I've worked for YC for years and therefore know things about it. Since I don't work on the investment side of the business, there are a lot of details I miss out on, but on the macro level, such as the core patterns by which YC operates, I know quite a bit. Also, part of my job is to be a liaison between HN…
But this poster is also a HN "moderator" and has a very biased perspective in this conversation. Moderators are in place to ensure fairness, to act as a referee and prevent spam. It's PR that does the sort of "correct inaccuracies and misperceptions where possible" stuff of effectively using outsized leverage to control the narrative. It's PR that tries to deny that beliefs that are deemed "incorrect." I'm sure that…
How could they produce the mature response you’re looking for when the accusations are full of holes. Lyft isn’t a YC company and didn’t use Stripe initially as he claims. The only “Proof” (his words) posted is incorrect: Stripe posted their blog post before he posted his.
He has produced no real evidence for his claims. The evidence he has tried to produce is trivial to check and works against his claims.
How should YC respond to this?