[HN Gopher] Y Combinator's chief startup whisperer is demoting h...
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Y Combinator's chief startup whisperer is demoting himself
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 75 points
Date : 2024-03-16 13:24 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://archive.ph/2m3YN
| alsetmusic wrote:
| Meh... I don't know why I would care about this. Apologies for
| being dismissive, but if this wasn't HN, a subdomain of YC, I
| don't think this would be here. It's not tech or science or any
| of the other pursuits of knowledge that drive this site. This is
| better suited to the Financial Times.
| Phiwise_ wrote:
| HN has regularly featured startup news since the beginning, and
| Ycombinator is probably the most newsworthy player in the space
| on a significance-to-spammyness scale. I don't love this
| article but _something_ about the news should be here.
| hluska wrote:
| I'm sorry, but have you heard of Y Combinator?
| detourdog wrote:
| This may seem funny but at least some of this sites
| demographic only know of ycombinator from HN.
|
| My attitude is that anything on HN that I'm not interested I
| don't bother thinking about.
| macintux wrote:
| I'm only aware of YC from here, and I couldn't tell you
| more than 2 or 3 facts about it, and I suspect at least one
| of them is wrong.
| rfrey wrote:
| That's interesting. I wonder how the current population
| of HN splits between people who heard of HN because of YC
| (that describes me), and people who heard of YC because
| of HN.
| simonbarker87 wrote:
| I've had my account here since 2012 and I only know about
| YC because of HN. That also seemed to be in YC's golden
| years as well as far as I can tell. At this point YC is a
| bit of a nothing burger best I can tell so HN is, I would
| imagine, far and away the bigger brand.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| I'm the latter.
| Retr0id wrote:
| I'm in the latter camp. I'm largely uninterested in
| startup culture etc., but HN is one of the better sources
| of "interesting tech and associated discussion". Given
| that, I'm not sure why I clicked on this article...
| Icathian wrote:
| I'm definitely in the latter bucket, though I've been
| here a long time now. I found HN as technical subreddits
| started to no longer satisfy my curiosity about tech, and
| fell in love. I originally learned about the startup
| ecosystem from lurking around here.
| chasd00 wrote:
| I only know of YC because of HN. I know nothing about YC
| except it seems to be one of the many incubators where
| you pay them handsomely one way or the other in the hopes
| they can get you off the ground. I guess like the self
| help section of an old bookstore.
| kstrauser wrote:
| Even if this weren't somehow tech news - which it is - I get a
| lot of value out of reading things posted here. If YC, the org
| paying the bills so I can read this for free, wanted to talk
| about themselves on occasion, I wouldn't begrudge them. They
| definitely haven't abused it.
| tracerbulletx wrote:
| Business news especially start up news has always been here.
| I'd like to make a wider point that tech workers should embrace
| business and the understanding of how business works and make
| it a central part of their worldview, it is essentially the
| technology of civilization. Otherwise you abdicate leadership
| to the exact type of people that make a lot of other people
| rightly irritated or downright spiteful at the business side of
| tech in the first place. It doesn't actually have to be so bad.
| solardev wrote:
| It's a fair point, but I actually wish we had a hacker
| community like this without the business/startup side at all.
| It's just not that interesting to me.
|
| As for abdicating leadership, I don't know that simply
| following in their footsteps is going to make better
| organizations either. That's just "if you can't beat em, join
| em" thinking... but that's a separate discussion, I suppose.
| simonw wrote:
| "I actually wish we had a hacker community like this
| without the business/startup side at all"
|
| Sounds like you want https://lobste.rs
| solardev wrote:
| What's that? Is it invite-only (and why)...?
| lukan wrote:
| Invite only, yes. Probably because so it stays the way it
| is and they do not want to discuss all their style again
| and again and again.
| ghufran_syed wrote:
| as a hacker, couldn't you write a browser plug-in to filter
| out the subjects you don't want to see?
| solardev wrote:
| Well, I can just skip the topics I'm not interested in.
| It's just that there's a pretty clear bias here for
| startup-capitalist mentality (which is fine, just not
| really for me), and it's harder to find people discuss
| the things that challenge that status quo system
| (politics, socialism, tech coops, etc.).
|
| I think the moderators here do a great job, but at the
| end of the day it's still a service of YCombinator, and
| that draws a certain crowd. I prefer to gently step away
| from the financial side of that Venn diagram, personally,
| but there are also many people here who come here
| specifically FOR that, which I have no problem with.
|
| I just miss the old Slashdot, probably, with high-quality
| tech discussions but less of an emphasis on the business
| side of things and the startup hustle culture.
| swyx wrote:
| siebel's podcast youtube series with dalton caldwell of founder
| advice has been great recently, in case anyone hasnt been
| following
| Simon_ORourke wrote:
| It's awesome, like it lots too.
| neom wrote:
| Dalton & Michael - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-
| uHSnFig5Nd98Sc9I-k...
| ackbar03 wrote:
| my favorite out of their YC videos. I really like the way those
| two think through things.
| asim wrote:
| It's a gem. What I'm curious about is how these two ended up at
| YC as partners and not founding another company. I think I know
| the answer but always interested to know other people's
| journeys.
| romeros wrote:
| I think pg said it best in one of his tweets/essays ?? not
| sure. Essentially starting a startup is super hard. You can't
| just chill/half ass and still do well even if you had already
| succeeded before.
| light_triad wrote:
| As Michael has said in one of the shows getting to PMF is a
| miracle. If you're already set for life it's less risky to
| play the odds by investing in hundreds of startups rather
| than starting one. Also there's altruistic motives in giving
| back to the community etc.
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| What is PMF ?
| phantompeace wrote:
| Product Market Fit
| prasoonds wrote:
| Product Market Fit. Basically, can you find through
| iteration something that people really want and are
| willing to pay for
| fuzzy_biscuit wrote:
| Product Market Fit
| 7e wrote:
| Everyone at YC knows exploiting naive founders is more
| profitable and less risky than doing a startup. The chumps
| are the founders, not the investors.
| echelon wrote:
| Almost every major tech company took capital.
|
| Almost every major company _period_ took capital.
|
| Money is energy and time. You can do it without these, but
| the gradient is steeper.
| robocat wrote:
| > major
|
| Selection bias. The median return for a founder is about
| $0.
|
| If you want to be a billion+ market cap company, sure,
| use capital to get there. But chances are that the
| startup will fail. VC investing is diversified - a
| founder is not.
| seizethecheese wrote:
| Exploiting by giving half a million dollars and taking no
| control? Right.
| robocat wrote:
| YC tag teams to VCs who definitely game the system.
|
| YC sells a good founder friendly story and it seems
| believable and YC is a repeat player so they care about
| their reputation: however the financial incentives of YC
| are not well aligned with founders (for example YC gets
| preferential shares, and founders get common stock).
|
| The best writing on this is:
|
| https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/02/18/relationships-
| and-...
|
| https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/05/01/startups-
| shouldnt-...
|
| https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/03/03/standard-term-
| shee...
|
| The issues of control only really matter for the few
| unicorn winner companies. YC can afford to be very
| founder friendly to loser companies or to founders before
| the company becomes a clear winner. Founders of winning
| companies are not going to publicly complain if YC is
| less than fair.
| TimPC wrote:
| If you have a great team going to YC helps lower your
| downside. The most successful companies in your cohort are
| likely to acquihire you when they need to grow quickly.
| 7e wrote:
| Everyone at YC knows exploiting naive founders is more
| profitable and less risky than doing a startup. The key is to
| perpetuate a mythical cult around the startup and convince
| huge swaths of kids to give you equity for almost nothing.
| The chumps are the founders, not the investors.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| Effort and result are not synonyms. YC investors take a big
| risk - a lot of these startups will have well intentioned
| and hard working founders and they will fail anyway. VCs
| provide a valid service. They make money (if they are good
| guessers and are also lucky) and founders make money (if
| they work hard and smart and are also lucky). Everyone
| wins.
| simonw wrote:
| "The key is to perpetuate a mythical cult around the
| startup and convince huge swaths of kids to give you equity
| for almost nothing"
|
| I found that amusing seeing as the second most recent video
| in their series, "Should Your Startup Bootstrap or Raise
| Venture Capital?", spends most of its time making a strong
| case for why VC isn't right for the vast majority of
| founders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D81y-kh11oI
| fakedang wrote:
| Tbf that video came pretty late (post the ZIRP era).
| Before that, YC was one of the strongest proponents for
| raising VC because that's ingrained in their business
| model. I've heard that YC before would be quite
| disappointed at founders choosing not to raise money,
| because that meant a lower upside for them via the SAFE
| model.
|
| Not to mention, most YC exits are usually via
| acquisitions, and often between YC companies.
| intelVISA wrote:
| Bootstrapping > VC
| patrickhogan1 wrote:
| Their chemistry is perfect. As funny as the Silicon Valley
| show. With practical advice. They keep it real. Building a
| company is hard.
| swyx wrote:
| > As funny as the Silicon Valley show
|
| hey now. jury is out until I see them derive middle out from
| first principles
| bengale wrote:
| Those are really great videos.
| dancemethis wrote:
| ...A what?
| neom wrote:
| https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whisperer
| JCM9 wrote:
| I find the "demoting" term amusing / inaccurate. He's in a career
| position to do basically whatever he wants and is doing just
| that. That seems like the ultimate role / achievement that's far
| higher than any position on an org chart. Like a startup founder
| that realizes being CEO isn't all it's cracked up to be and they
| just want to go back to building, which is what they truly enjoy
| in life. Congrats and more power to you.
| ldjkfkdsjnv wrote:
| This guy probably made atleast 100 million. Can we just call it
| retiring
| clpmsf wrote:
| It's truly hard to believe that Michael Seibel wasn't appointed
| as CEO, and equally hard to believe that Garry Tan was.
| Exuma wrote:
| Is that photo the Y Combinator office? That looks super quiant
| and nice to work in...
| mandeepj wrote:
| > navigates political pushback
|
| can someone please share some context around that? Thanks.
| grensley wrote:
| This is how it should be to be honest, and in tech everything
| gets compressed because of how fast it moves.
|
| - Energy of the young -- doers
|
| - Leadership of the middle aged -- management
|
| - Wisdom of the elderly -- advisors
|
| It feels like so often we put the elderly in this executive
| roles, when really they should have a seat at the table, but not
| be the preeminent decision makers.
| joshxyz wrote:
| i just fucking love this guy.
|
| the Dalton & Michael series at their youtube, i learn a lot!!
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