Earlier quoted context omitted.
And yet here they are investing in something that is so obviously a scam that possibly even my grandmother would notice. It reminds me of the "but you fuck ONE goat" story: one misstep like this surely can and should have more impact than all the good steps.
> "investing in something that is so obviously a scam" None of us has any idea what was presented in the application form and interviews, but given YC prizes its reputation above anything else, we can reasonably presume it wasn't obviously a scam.
Most of these companies are obviously a scam in one way or another. It just depends on your definition of what a scam is. Is it a scam to insert a middle-man to profit off a transaction that already occurs, or is it a brilliant hack? Is it a scam to use huge amounts of veture funding to undercut prices in an existing market to grab market share and claim "disruption?" These are called business models, but some of us call them scams. They seem particularly scammy when they never ultimately turn a profit and begin to look suspiciously pyramid shaped.