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Y Combinator's Message to Founders

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Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#201

Post by sulam »

karaterobot wrote: post #137
sirius87 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has witnessed such a deep layoff and was left in the 30%, I began job hunting and moved on soon after. When I eventually quit, senior management then explained how I was part of their grand comeback plans and offered a salary bump, and in my mind, all I could think of was how they were trying to balance a cost equation. People far more talented than me had landed pink slips, presumably because of how "…

I was in the same boat, and this is right on. The founders assumed everyone who got spared was going to be so happy they stayed with the ship until it went down. In reality, we experienced a combination of survivor's guilt for our unemployed friends, burnout at the increased workload, and anger at the founders for making choices that led to that situation. The remaining people on my team just used the reprieve to fin…

As someone who has had to execute large layoffs before — hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to identify bad decisions after the fact. I’d have loved a crystal ball that could have told me half our customers were going to go out of business, the remainder would almost all cancel their projects, and we wouldn’t be able to close a new deal for at least the next six months. It was a really bad year, and I laid myself off at the end of it. It took me two years to get over it.

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#202

Post by nradov »

jimhi wrote: post #108
ditonal wrote: post #102

This “default alive” advice is repeatedly shared. One thing it obviously does not address is the human element of who you cut and whether they will be “default alive” unemployed in a recession. A huge amount of YC advice in general positions founders as protagonists and employees as NPCs then are shocked people pick Google over their startup offer. Funny thing is I’ve seen this exact advice destroy a company. In Marc…

> If you even think about doing 70% layoffs you clearly over hired and are not making good leadership decisions leading up to the layoff. 100% agree with this part. Going default alive was not the cause of whatever this company was dying. At best, it would slow or kill your growth, not your company. It sounds like it was mismanaged and prioritized something else over fixing their product. It is not bad for a company…

More employees means faster (or at least higher throughout) product development if and only if the organization has competent managers who know how to design an effective organizational structure, set clear priorities, hire the right people, and implement good processes. Unfortunately, competent management is rare in early-stage startups led by founders who lack management experience in larger organizations. (Yes I am aware that there are also many incompetent managers in larger organizations.)

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#203

Post by heyitsguay »

MaxHoppersGhost wrote: post #135
gen220 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a trend of global economic inflation, caused by supply issues in energy (oil, gas in all forms) related to the war in Ukraine, supply issues more broadly related to a hangover from COVID's supply/demand shocks. Interest rates are rising, to appease inflation. As the interest rate goes up, allocators of capital have less appetite for risky allocations. This makes access to capital for VC firms becomes more com…

Energy prices being high are only a small part of it. Unfettered stimulus, even when we didn’t need it (eg rent payment moratoriums and stimmy checks while at full employment), is what’s driving it.

Then why is inflation so high globally, not just in the US?

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#204

Post by sgrinich »

jollybean wrote: post #88
eqmvii wrote: post #48

Hard to believe there isn't a storm coming at this point.

It will be harder for startups than other companies. The 'storm' will be focused heavily on capital and so all that liquidity will tighten up. Big waves up, big waves down. Healthcare won't miss a beat.

Would you add more detail as to your comment on healthcare? Are you saying that this downturn will not affect healthcare investments? Curious as I am a digital health founder looking to raise our pre-seed soon

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#205

Post by hakuseki »

jimhi wrote: post #108
ditonal wrote: post #102

This “default alive” advice is repeatedly shared. One thing it obviously does not address is the human element of who you cut and whether they will be “default alive” unemployed in a recession. A huge amount of YC advice in general positions founders as protagonists and employees as NPCs then are shocked people pick Google over their startup offer. Funny thing is I’ve seen this exact advice destroy a company. In Marc…

> If you even think about doing 70% layoffs you clearly over hired and are not making good leadership decisions leading up to the layoff. 100% agree with this part. Going default alive was not the cause of whatever this company was dying. At best, it would slow or kill your growth, not your company. It sounds like it was mismanaged and prioritized something else over fixing their product. It is not bad for a company…

> More employees also does not mean faster product development, every developer knows this is often the complete opposite.

Maybe teams are more productive when their membership is stable. Either adding or removing developers mid-project could disrupt development.

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#206

Post by scarface74 »

abirch wrote: post #196
ramraj07 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting laid off is not a good feeling, but if I can rank order who I should reserve my sympathy, especially during an economic downturn, a laid off tech worker in a startup is the one I’d sympathize with the last. It has never been hard even during downturns to find work in tech. At least comparatively.

Were you around for the dot coms? I know of CS PhDs that were applying to Circuit City.

Most companies don’t need “PhDs”. They are usually less in demand than BS degrees even in good times and get paid less. Yes, I was around, had been working for four years abs had no trouble finding jobs at none tech, profitable companies.

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#207

Post by fastball »

ska wrote: post #179
timr wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but the intrinsic bias of...well, pretty much everyone...is to overhire, so that's what you need to fight. I don't think I've met anyone who was suffering from under-hiring, unless it was a situation forced upon them by lack of resources. People feel important and "arrived" when they lead a big organization, and also, it can feel like you're doing the right thing, because it alleviates some stress. Even…

> I don't think I've met anyone who was suffering from under-hiring, I've definitely run into this a handful of times, mostly due to runway concerns and "keeping options open".

What were the clear symptoms of under-hiring?

Re: Y Combinator's Message to Founders

#210

Post by vmception »

missedthecue wrote: post #173
scarface74 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stock market is not the economy. If you are working for a money losing VC backed company and the VCs aren’t willing to keep throwing money at you, that’s because the VCs know startup funding is a Ponzi Scheme and they will be left holding the bag instead of being able to pawn their investment off onto the retail market.

The stock market is not the economy but GDP in the US printed negative the other week. If it does the same next quarter, we're in a recession.

Think of it like a bad metric thats better than other metrics
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