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Comment by pghatedphones

6 months ago

Isn't YC supposed to offer guidance and sage advice, not just be a cash machine for naive young developers?

4 comments

pghatedphones

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thiht  6 months ago

They're also supposed to do their due diligence before investing.

  • ignoramous  6 months ago

    Paul Graham once wrote that startups are pretty hard to game unlike academia for top grades or a big company for promotions.

    In a twist of fate, YC itself seems to be gamed like those broken companies.

      So this is the third counterintuitive thing to remember about startups: starting a startup is where gaming the system stops working. Gaming the system may continue to work if you go to work for a big company. Depending on how broken the company is, you can succeed by sucking up to the right people, giving the impression of productivity, and so on.

    https://www.paulgraham.com/before.html / https://archive.vn/UKky8

    • jltsiren  6 months ago

      When you institutionalize an ad hoc process, you turn it into a system that can be gamed. YC did that for startups, and it was already pretty obvious in 2014 when Paul Graham wrote that essay. Every other government was claiming to support startups and that their corner of the world would become the next Silicon Valley.

wordofx  6 months ago

No. YC just throws money at the wall and sees what sticks. They fund some trash, and trash people.