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Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

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Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#361

Post by hpcjoe »

Alex3917 wrote: post #346
hpcjoe wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As one who bootstrapped, took that risk, and lost ... everything ... I've been talking passively about this for a while. I speak with startups who have a product that is poorly differentiated, me-too like, that think they are going to take over the world. The reality, the vicious Darwinian reality, is that you and your team have to bust your collective rear-ends. And get lucky. Really, I hate to deflate many many bub…

But if you're bootstrapping you can just make money doing consulting for a few months each year. Between having a job or having a VC-backed company, bootstrapping seems like arguably the lowest risk option of the three.

I should also point out that this is a common misconception for hardware/solution companies. Very hard to make enough money to fund R&D with consulting. I did that for the first 4 years of the company.

Put bluntly, that model, the consulting bit, is not for the faint of heart. It is just as hard, as in you absolutely have to hustle hard this whole time, to get business. Leaving you with precious little time to develop your ideas.

I've lived it. I don't recommend it, without a partner with a strong income. My wife was a stay-at-home mom for part of this time, and worked at a school as a teacher. Not sufficient income to live off of for 1 person in a house with a mortgage. Nevermind a family.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#362

Post by czbond »

TomMarius wrote: post #38
czbond wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not YC’s job to support the company. That is the founders job. I’d suggest money supporting the company at seed diverts from a focus on monetary fit asap. $25k is enough to scrap by for enough months which should be the initial goal

The problem is there are many brilliant people that can't just scrap by - with a mortgage and family. But I respect the VC's right to choose the kind of people they sponsor.

Yep - that's life. It's called 'the choices we make close doors'. Responsibilities we take on, have repercussions. Founders with such obligations can work at home after their job like every other person starting a small business that is not tech. That way they have infinite runaway, and personal life stress, but not 'monetary stress'.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#363

Post by doorstar »

mdoms wrote: post #329
chrisco255 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, most parents would take their kids back in the event of financial disaster. That's not even rare. Many folks live with their parents until late 20s / early 30s these days.

Do you think your perspective is coloured by your own experiences?

Whose isn't?

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#364

Post by steffandroid »

kkolanm wrote: post #236
awillen wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them will be white - basic statistics bear that out. Since my point was that it's incredibly detrimental to diversity, it's obviously relevant to it. If you want to make an argument for something, go nuts, but don't come tell me what defines my own argument. Also, stuff like this is problematic for diversity - you're pretending that race is somehow irrelevant in discussions of socioeconomic status, when in fa…

A wealthy black person can easily start their own business. They may have some advantages and disadvantages vs a wealthy white person but nothing can stop them doing it. They have money. A wealthy Black person is a “have” not a “have not.” A poor white person cannot use their whiteness to pay the bills. Ask millions of white people why they work shitty jobs if you think being white solves economic problems. They can’…

> A wealthy black person can easily start their own business.

Certainly, but black people are disproportionately less wealthy than white people, so are far less likely to be in that position.

> A poor white person cannot use their whiteness to pay the bills.

This is also true, but they will not face the structural racial discrimination that a black person of their socio-economic standing would.

The trouble with reducing issues of inequality to class alone is that it obscures the systemic biases that make it easier for white dudes to become rich in the first place.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#365

Post by _curious_ »

dencodev wrote: post #343
_curious_ wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, it's not even about the money. My last company had a technical cofounder who by all means was highly sought after and managed a team of 15-20 other developers in their primary dev consulting company meaning not only did they rock technically but also had biz acumen. That individual worked FOR FREE for 3 years 25 hrs/week before collecting any money. Don't ever think you have to pay a developer some market sal…

The only instance in which I would work for free for three years would be if the business was started by a household name for HN regulars and they had a very good track record of successful ventures. Anything less is ridiculous.

Sounds like you have a high standard, as you should!

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#366

Post by divbzero »

graeme wrote: post #184

I’m surprised no one has mentioned this PG essay, black swan farming. YC appears to have switched to exactly this strategy. Invest in a far larger set of startups, with more possibility of failure but also larger possibility of finding the rare large ones. http://paulgraham.com/swan.html

This is an excellent essay that speaks to the financial calculus of startup investing.

In addition, I think YC partners also have a non-financial desire (e.g. first footnote in that same essay) to encourage entrepreneurship more broadly. Hence the larger YC batches and experiments like YC Fellowship [1] and online Startup School [2].

[1]: https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-fellowship/

[2]: https://blog.ycombinator.com/onlineclass/

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#367

Post by _curious_ »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #151
_curious_ wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You need the best PR firm you can get to return your calls." Saying someone "needs" something (ie paid PR) in order to succeed could also be deemed terrible advice.

This has been one of the critical differences between the startups I've worked at that have found successful exits and those that floundered. A good PR firm can you get a national audience for pennies compared to paying for ads.

I believe it, though there is plenty of opportunity for earned media - its not PR firm, ads, or nothing...

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#368

Post by seizethecheese »

mgrouchy wrote: post #340
seizethecheese wrote: post #244

Recent YC founder here. I disagree with the premise that boring ideas are inherently bad. Stripe is a B2B company that adds an API on top of existing infrastructure. Airbnb is a basic CRUD app. I also disagree that YC is not funding interesting ideas. Our batch had quite a few. Someone was making a rapid cargo ship. Someone else was making a fully distributed cell network. The only real copycat ideas were the ones du…

2 Questions totally unrelated to your comment, but related to bottomless: 1) Do you ship to Canada? 2) How much weight can that scale hold? I have a grinder with a built in (sealed) hopper where I store my beans. I assume from the setup, the grinder would have to sit on it for ease of use.

We don't ship to Canada.

The scale can be zeroed out with anything up to 2kg. If your grinder is reasonably lightweight, this would work fine. Most people keep the coffee on the scale, then dump some into the grinder every few days.

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#369

Post by seizethecheese »

paulgb wrote: post #256
seizethecheese wrote: post #244

Recent YC founder here. I disagree with the premise that boring ideas are inherently bad. Stripe is a B2B company that adds an API on top of existing infrastructure. Airbnb is a basic CRUD app. I also disagree that YC is not funding interesting ideas. Our batch had quite a few. Someone was making a rapid cargo ship. Someone else was making a fully distributed cell network. The only real copycat ideas were the ones du…

> We are bottomless.com My Bottomless scale has been an essential part of my transition to WFH, cheers!

Happy to hear it, Paul!

Re: Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective

#370

Post by seizethecheese »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #323
seizethecheese wrote: post #244

Recent YC founder here. I disagree with the premise that boring ideas are inherently bad. Stripe is a B2B company that adds an API on top of existing infrastructure. Airbnb is a basic CRUD app. I also disagree that YC is not funding interesting ideas. Our batch had quite a few. Someone was making a rapid cargo ship. Someone else was making a fully distributed cell network. The only real copycat ideas were the ones du…

> I’d even venture to say that there appeared to be a negative correlation between interestingness and outcome in our batch. It’s possible YC should fund more boring companies, not fewer. Obviously the interesting companies are being funded as a loss leader to maintain YC's image against the fact that startups are now mainstream and the fundamentals of the economy are unavoidably entrepreneurial.

Or, they just are more enjoyable for everyone involved, including the partners.
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