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How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

elbowgreasegames.substack.com

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Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#51

Post by YetAnotherNick »

mattmaroon wrote: post #35

“ Some say YC is now big enough that it has a self-fulfilling distortion effect where the best founders in the world know they should all apply to YC first before they talk to any other startup accelerators or investors.” That’s an interesting point but I have to imagine all the worst founders know it too so the filtering may not have gotten easier. I’d be curious to hear from them.

They majorly select a kind of founders as a first filter (good engineers from good companies, ivy league, ex founders etc.), and then they look into the ideas as a second filter, and the third and the least important is the process in which they just spend 15 minutes interviewing and maybe another 15 minutes looking into the application.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#52

Post by YetAnotherNick »

spacemarine1 wrote: post #44
dpoloncsak wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't games like CSGO, FIFA, and Overwatch almost exclusively run on gacha-profits?

I think it is possible to be successful in games without being predatory. Humble Bundle was a demonstration of that. I don’t believe that ultra-predatory mechanics are long-term sustainable. They usually yield a “ring of fire” effect that creates a growing ring of users for a while but really you’re burning out all your core users and will implode. This is how many describe the original Zynga model. Supercell (founde…

[flagged]

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#54

Post by zmmmmm »

conartist6 wrote: post #50
spacemarine1 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The industry has experienced slowed growth and is restructuring which is scary for many people right now. There have been continuous layoffs and studio closures. That sucks (though is not all caused by AI). But a few quick thoughts: Video games have always been about cutting edge technology. Because they are interactive, they are best positioned to leverage AI tech. (unlike static media) Prototyping tends to be the m…

1. "More leisure for everyone" is utter bollocks. We know it doesn't work like that. If it did we would all be doing nothing but leisure because of how much leisure we gained by switching to email. 2. Games are just code that's fun. How does this sounds as a process for making something fun: "Start by de-risking." Hmmm OK, yes, this tracks with my experience of private equity companies being the most innovative and s…

> "More leisure for everyone" is utter bollocks.

it's fascinating how this delusion persists.

More leisure will only occur if it becomes true that the marginal return of doing additional work falls almost to zero. So to say people will have more leisure time actually suggests more that they will lack opportunities to do things of value than it does that they will choose to have more leisure time. Which is depressing.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#56

Post by neilv »

Besides that, is YC building new trust?

One recent concern I have is (anecdotally) how poor a deal YC startups I've seen are offering for founding engineers.

Before YC started, early hires who helped make a startup successful could get rich on stock.

YC may have changed the investment scene for the better in some ways, such that founders are less likely to screwed by investors. But today, early hires are the ones who seem to be getting screwed.

In cases I've seen recently, even if the startup has a nice exit for founders and investors, employees would have been better off as a worker drone at a FAANG-like.

Do we need PG to write an essay (or the richest managing partners to make a video), about the value of incentivizing early hires?

Or, don't even talk about the value of it (since some aspiring founders are aggressively confident now, that they know how all the ducks are lined up), but talk about new criteria: YC looks for a respectable pool to incentivize early hires as positive signal, when determining who to fund.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#57

Post by psawaya »

conartist6 wrote: post #43
spacemarine1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI tech has the spotlight right now for sure amongst VC’s. But I believe AI is also a huge tailwind for video games. Namely, small, clever teams will be able to do big and entertaining things that were not possible before. (But yes there will also be tons of slop.)

It can't be a tailwind for a whole industry. It can only take from some and give to others.

I wouldn't say that for sure. Here's a take that says it'll create a lot of growth for the games industry: https://www.owenmahoney.ai/owen-mahoney-blog/size-matters

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#58

Post by moomoo11 »

neilv wrote: post #56

Besides that, is YC building new trust? One recent concern I have is (anecdotally) how poor a deal YC startups I've seen are offering for founding engineers. Before YC started, early hires who helped make a startup successful could get rich on stock. YC may have changed the investment scene for the better in some ways, such that founders are less likely to screwed by investors. But today, early hires are the ones who…

Because the truth is that recent batches are filled with nepo founders and companies that are not really at the caliber of those that carry these VC names from the past (like pre-2015). Lots of fraud-aligned people/companies too.

Now its just a way to sell these companies to those OGs.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#59

Post by [deleted] »

neilv wrote: post #56

Besides that, is YC building new trust? One recent concern I have is (anecdotally) how poor a deal YC startups I've seen are offering for founding engineers. Before YC started, early hires who helped make a startup successful could get rich on stock. YC may have changed the investment scene for the better in some ways, such that founders are less likely to screwed by investors. But today, early hires are the ones who…

[deleted]

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#60

Post by conartist6 »

psawaya wrote: post #57
conartist6 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can't be a tailwind for a whole industry. It can only take from some and give to others.

I wouldn't say that for sure. Here's a take that says it'll create a lot of growth for the games industry: https://www.owenmahoney.ai/owen-mahoney-blog/size-matters

It bases this entire chain of assumptions on "AI is really big and everyone agrees".

But I don't see the games industry as all that vulnerable to AI at all. Game engines already drive constantly-improving dev efficiency through improved abstractions.

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