Full disclosure, I'm a YC alum whose last start-up was acquired by Google, who applied to this batch and didn't get an interview. YC is not the stamp of quality it once was, to be sure, though it still works as social proof, because investors (especially VCs) want to invest in companies other investors like (or failing that, companies they imagine other investors would like). YC would say that they aren't trying to b…
> … yield a big company … I assume that this sort of says it all. Everyone wants “big.” The article talks about brand curation, really. That seems to be a lost art, these days. I worked for a corporation that had one of the most powerful brands in the world (but has taken some real hits). I watched them dilute that brand, and make lots of money, but really get clobbered. They are now regrouping, and, I hope, re-estab…
Maybe this is the normal lifecycle of a successful organization, unless one decides to grow more slowly? Infinite growth is what ruins most things. Scaling is hard.
YC seemed to attract genuine founders, back when starting something up was not so trendy. As it became fashionable, and YC began to be seen as the Harvard of startups, it has still attracted some great founders but also some less genuine ones. All successful organizations experience this issue.
A key element here is that neither PG nor Jessica Livingston seem to be actively filtering out people. I doubt anyone from batches curated by them would have posted on Twitter bragging about quitting a $270k job to work on a re-licensed fork.
It was sad to read about this whole affair and, frankly, I think discussion on HN has become less interesting, reflecting a similar trend. Front pages were full of technical discussion back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Content of that kind is less frequent these days.