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Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#31

Post by randomacct3847 »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #7

Perfectly encapsulated in this tweet: 18: Go to Harvard or Stanford for CS. 22: Work at FAANG companies. 25: Quit and raise millions for your startup. 26: Sell your company to a FAANG company/IPO 28: Join a VC firm, invest in people like you, and make predictions on Twitter all day. https://twitter.com/TheLexTimes/status/1105131411411886081

I think this has become outdated. From my experience FAANGs are largely filled with people who are risk-adverse, which is why it makes sense to me that the next gen of startups will come from alumni of successful unicorns given the risk-seeking attitude you had to have in the first place to join one of those cos earlier on.

I mean how many ex—Amazon founders do you see? Probably not at all in proportion to the number of alumni relative to all VC funded cos.

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#32

Post by belligeront »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21
closeparen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disrupting and extracting value from NIMBYs would definitely be on my personal “request for startups” list.

NIMBYs seems to be the new slur for "exerting property and voting rights". That's democracy and capitalism. There's a reason it's not in their backyard. It's their backyard.

'Exerting property rights' = preventing others from building on their property.

'Exerting voting rights' = zone newcomers, poor people, and apartment dwellers out of existence so they can't vote in our local elections.

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#33

Post by parthdesai »

closeparen wrote: post #15
matchbok wrote: post #3

Ah yes, "innovation" in skirting regulations as AirBnb does. Harming local communities and extracting wealth in the name of "tech disruption".

Disrupting and extracting value from NIMBYs would definitely be on my personal “request for startups” list.

TIL world only consists of SF, and not cities like Toronto, NYC, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, etc....

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#34

Post by [deleted] »

luckydata wrote: post #9
rco8786 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its easy to be cynical. It’s harder to recognize that any significant societal change is going to come with some identifiable downside and that those downsides aren’t automatically a reason to not make the change.

What kind of benefit does society get from Airbnb that's so necessary to disrupt the lives of people living in a city and raising rents on folks that can't afford it?

[deleted]

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#35

Post by georgewfraser »

> The start-up world projects a meritocratic image, but in reality, it is a small, tightknit club where success typically hinges on whom you know.

This is...so not true. My co-founder and I had hardly any network in SV. We applied to YC through the website, raised seed money after demo day. We ran on seed + revenue up to about 60 employees and we recently did a series A.

If you don’t have a network, don’t be dissuaded. Silicon Valley is the least credentialist, most open community I’ve ever been a part of.

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

belligeront wrote: post #32
toomuchtodo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NIMBYs seems to be the new slur for "exerting property and voting rights". That's democracy and capitalism. There's a reason it's not in their backyard. It's their backyard.

'Exerting property rights' = preventing others from building on their property. 'Exerting voting rights' = zone newcomers, poor people, and apartment dwellers out of existence so they can't vote in our local elections.

Yes, those rights. If you’re a newcomer, buy where the community aligns with your development and density desires. Otherwise, go elsewhere. Don’t expect the community to change for you because you think your ideas are “better”.

This isn’t meant to sound combative, these are just facts.

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#37

Post by adamnemecek »

jameslevy wrote: post #14
JoeSmithson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand this is off topic but does Netflix ever actually acquire startups? They are a very different company to Facebook, Apple, Amazon or Google, I feel like they are bundled in mainly to make a cooler acronym.

Or just a less offensive acronym.

How is it offensive?

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#38

Post by mrep »

baxtr wrote: post #20
sharkweek wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t get why Microsoft isn’t one of the letters. I get that it needs to be easy to say but still.

How about FAMANG?

French media uses GAFAM and their wiki on it is hilarious [0].

[0]: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAFAM

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#39

Post by adamnemecek »

pdog wrote: post #29
Judgmentality wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can do whatever they want, but if they're truly "highly capable" maybe they should try something a little more challenging than following the herd? I hold no ill will against all of these people getting rich this way. Let's just not pretend like they're innovators, though.

I still don't get it. Are the CS programs at Stanford and Harvard not challenging enough? Are Google and Facebook not demanding places to work?

They aren’t compared with your own startup.

Re: Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave

#40

Post by dmitriy_ko »

luckydata wrote: post #9
rco8786 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its easy to be cynical. It’s harder to recognize that any significant societal change is going to come with some identifiable downside and that those downsides aren’t automatically a reason to not make the change.

What kind of benefit does society get from Airbnb that's so necessary to disrupt the lives of people living in a city and raising rents on folks that can't afford it?

"AirBnb increasing rents" is theory popularized by hotel industry and never been confirmed with hard data. AirBnb allows anyone to profit from demand for lodging, as opposed to few large hotel chains taking all profit. For many AirBnb hosts it's their livelihood. E.g. do you see benefit in anyone being able to start a restaurant or do you think only large restaurant chains should be able to do it? Also AirBnb increases tourist traffic benefiting other businesses.
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