Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective • Hacker News Board

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

#391

Post by cameronbrown » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

awillen wrote: post #336

cameronbrown wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correlation is not causation, HN should know this. The problem is down to injustices from long ago, and a lack of ability to build generational wealth stemming from that historical racism. It doesn't mean that race is the defining factor.

You literally just pointed out the causation that is the lack of ability to build generational wealth stemming from historical racism.

The effects of racism from 100 years ago isn't necessarily considered racism today, since the socioeconomic component is the key factor hurting these communities today, not race.

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

#392

Post by golemiprague » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:44 PM UTC

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #304

blub wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That assumption holds for most of the population in European countries, even the poorest ones. In fact it's common for young people to live with their parents a long time. One has to be either dirt poor or very unlucky not to he able to move back with relatives. This sound like an excuse.

The median wealth of African American households in the U.S. is $35k, vs. $150k for white households. Yes - most people might be able to move back in with relatives, but among those people who can't, minorities are almost certainly going to be overrepresented, which was OP's point.

What it got to do with household income? there are whole countries where the average income is lower than that and people stay with their parents. If you lived with your parents before why wouldn't you be able to live again after some financial disaster? If anything it is the opposite, as an adult you can contribute to the household income.

Tired of those black people excuses, the reason they are not represented is not because they can't go back to their parents, it is the same reason they are not also regularly represented in tech companies as employees, because they never bothered to learn anything technical. Unlike slightly less black Indians with lower median household wealth to start with and much less chances to hook with someone in Tinder in the US, which is the real pure racism nobody talks about.

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

#393

Post by _curious_ » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:46 PM UTC

jamespollack wrote: post #385

_curious_ wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"otherwise they are a founder and should be rewarded accordingly with equity." Of course - as they were. My point was on cash money comp. Never said they worked for free hence their title of technical cofounder which implies equity. "...and actually be effective at it is extremely rare. What you'll usually find is someone at the beginning of their career that doesn't really understand what they are getting into." The…

you're a dishonest liar. to quote you: "That individual worked FOR FREE for 3 years 25 hrs/week before collecting any money." so... yeah. you did say they worked for free. you're a creep with all your talk about 'rare breeds'

allow me to clarify that by for free i meant cash/salary out of pocket

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

#394

Post by sharemywin » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

josho wrote: post #306

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…

Thank you for sharing this. I've been slowing down turning my idea into a startup because it isn't much more than a CRUD app for a specific market. My interest has been diminishing because in my day job I work with growth companies that are built upon revolutionary technology, leading me to falsely conclude that a CRUD app isn't good enough anymore. I needed the reminder that the technology isn't what's important, ra…

Get feedback from people that will use it.

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

#395

Post by TACIXAT » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #290

opportune wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just looked at the winter class and I agree a lot of them look like duds. It definitely dilutes the brand if your startup is one of ~150 and almost all the others are just X for Y From your description, wanting to be the SME, early engineer, substantial equity - maybe you would be better off as a founder?

You guys need to understand that people have been saying things like "a lot of them look like duds" and "almost all the others are just X for Y" literally, and continuously, since YC got started.

I do not think they are duds, quite the opposite, they look like profitable ideas. Just incredibly boring to work on. In the first two pages of workatastartup it is 90% web. There were two data science roles and one embedded role. I think the domain of profitable ideas is a lot larger than what Typescript/React can represent.

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

#396

Post by opportune » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #290

opportune wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just looked at the winter class and I agree a lot of them look like duds. It definitely dilutes the brand if your startup is one of ~150 and almost all the others are just X for Y From your description, wanting to be the SME, early engineer, substantial equity - maybe you would be better off as a founder?

You guys need to understand that people have been saying things like "a lot of them look like duds" and "almost all the others are just X for Y" literally, and continuously, since YC got started.

I believe you, but that’s how many of these startups are described even at ycombinator.com/companies when I filtered by W20

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

#397

Post by tdrp » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 10:07 PM UTC

kevstev wrote: post #388

Are there really many cases of founders who went all-in and lost, ending up homeless or otherwise destitute? Asking honestly- I know a small population of founders, and they have all failed, but generally have bounced back quite well. They at least got to a point where they launched and at least tried to find their market fit, and even getting to that point is an incredibly valuable experience. None have massive hous…

I think most tech founders are more than capable of getting a decent paying engineering corporate job if they choose to do so.

The problem (at least for me, who started off in FAANG initially) is that the longer you're in the start-up world, the more you hate the idea of going back to a corporate job.

So in my previous start-up I went all-in, racked up tens of thousands in CC debt and would have sold every single one of my possessions before letting it happen. When I missed my first rent payment, I ended up reluctantly selling the company and only accepted the offer on the condition that my transition period would be one month or less (i.e. I don't actually have to work for the acquirer).

Throughout that time, my previous coworkers/managers from the companies I originally worked for kept trying to convince me to come back.

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

#398

Post by TACIXAT » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 10:16 PM UTC

BrandonM wrote: post #305

TACIXAT wrote: post #215

Is anyone else unimpressed with the ideas being funded? I look at Work at a Startup and it is just new web frontends on existing industries. I'm sure that makes money but holy hell is it boring. Some are working on cool things, but the founder who has a PhD in that topic will be doing the interesting work and they are hiring for infra or interface. One company was a great match for my skill set but the equity was so…

I could see a proven engineer #1 with a track record of startup success maybe landing in the 5–10% range (but getting an under market salary), but otherwise I don't see how a number like that is possible. YC takes 7%, and if the first few hires each get 5–10%, that only leaves ~70% for the founders and subsequent hires. If there are 2 founders, they would end up with 25–30% each, and if there are 3, only 15–20%? The…

Yea, I agree on all those points and that is what the company pushed back with. They compared the requested stake with what YC got (and it was 3 founders). I was (and still am) at the point where the salary was less important and if I was going to play that game it would be for a big win.

I am not chasing starting or being part of an early stage company so hard now though. After being miserable in my last role (Google) I stepped back and looked at the problems that keep me engaged (R&D). Found a company in that space and am very happy with what I do now (DARPA contracts!). If I ever have a side project that lands then I'd pursue it, but I'm not hunting for ideas like I used to. Just trying to find that happy life groove.

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

#399

Post by TACIXAT » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 10:17 PM UTC

mumbisChungo wrote: post #216

TACIXAT wrote: post #215

Is anyone else unimpressed with the ideas being funded? I look at Work at a Startup and it is just new web frontends on existing industries. I'm sure that makes money but holy hell is it boring. Some are working on cool things, but the founder who has a PhD in that topic will be doing the interesting work and they are hiring for infra or interface. One company was a great match for my skill set but the equity was so…

>Is anyone else unimpressed with the ideas being funded? look at Work at a Startup and it is just new web frontends on existing industries. If there's money basically just lying all over the ground, why wouldn't you pick it up?

Same reason I don't work at Google anymore. Picking up money off the ground all day is incredibly dull.

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

#400

Post by Thorentis » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

awillen wrote: post #9

The idea that check sizes should be small so people should be forced into dire financial situations is a terrible one, and one that would absolutely hurt diversity. You're going to end up with a bunch of rich white dudes as founders (because very, very obviously the other way that people can afford to take smaller checks is if they have a lot of money in the bank). The smaller class size issue is probably fair, but r…

> You're going to end up with a bunch of rich white dudes as founders

Is there any reason you included "white"? Are black people not able to be rich, or are white people more interested in tech, or are black people discriminated against by YC, or... what?