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It's interesting to see the tone change from Paul Graham and Sam Altman in the last couple of months, its almost like somebody finally bought them a calculator.
by kra34 11y ago
It's interesting to see the tone change from Paul Graham and Sam Altman in the last couple of months, its almost like somebody finally bought them a calculator.
- dang 11y agoDoesn't seem that way to me. pg has been saying much the same things for years—e.g. this essay is obviously a continuation of http://paulgraham.com/pinch.html http://paulgraham.com/pinch.html, and that one continued from others I'm too lazy to look up. Sam has been saying the same thing about hiring for years. Trevor's calculator that the essay links to is old as well.
- kra34 11y agohttp://blog.samaltman.com/ http://blog.samaltman.com/ I'd say three of his last four posts are more negative than he has been historically. I've also observed an increasing number of articles about properly calculating financials, unit economics, and hiring "killer sales teams." I don't know that it means anything, but there does seem to more of that kind of chatter - and not from the buzzfeed "Bubble!!!!!!" kind of sources that its been pouring from for years.
- puredemo 11y agoWhich seems like BS, since WhatsApp obviously didn't need strong financials to be acquired for an amazing amount.
- CPLX 11y agoPerhaps they are having to dispense this advice more often in their day to day mentoring. I could see how the growth and success of YC could breed magical thinking among its participants.
- visakanv 11y agoThat's my thinking too. Startups have become more "sexy" since The Social Network and such. So YC is probably seeing a lot more naive/opportunistic gold-rush type folks than before.
- debacle 11y agoI think it's a more wide-spanning change. Investors are realizing that you can easily kill a promising company by giving it too much money.