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Does YC not provide any kind of guidance or coaching around customer support and PR to founders during the program? Seems like that should be a really important
by tylerlh 11y ago
Does YC not provide any kind of guidance or coaching around customer support and PR to founders during the program? Seems like that should be a really important topic, given how situations like this impact not only the reputation of the startup, but also YC itself.
- austenallred 11y agoYC isn't going to run your company for you. This isn't a YC problem.
- tylerlh 11y agoThe entire premise of participating in YC is to learn from other founders about how to build a successful startup. You're saying that YC doesn't have any reason to try and help founders do better at running their companies?
- austenallred 11y agoIt's up to the founders to reach out and try to figure out how to solve the problem. If they don't do that YC isn't going to perform an audit or hold a bunch of seminars or something. TBH most of this is basic competence. YC can't ensure that all of the companies are competent in all aspects.
- pkaye 11y agoWill it will become a YC problem with all the bad PR.
- makomk 11y agoRemember, pg has defended a YC company's sleazy tactics for bundling unwanted software in installers (including disguising the choice to install them as an ordinary EULA acceptance scheme, which he whitewashed as confirming that they wanted to install the software) and even that didn't do them any real damage.
- Mithaldu 11y agoWhich company, which software?
- minimaxir 11y agoInstallMonetizer. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5092711 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5092711
- livecodingwtf 11y agoI expect pg to defend profitable sociopathic behavior; but this destroys value. If he's not providing any coaching, it's probably because he already wrote the entire team down to zero and thus doesn't want to invest 14 seconds in a text message telling them to 'fix this ASAP'
- MCRed 11y agoHe also defended AirBnBs founders when they were publicly blaming-the-victim: customer whose house had been trashed by meth heads after renting it out on AirBnB. Eventually the company seemed to hire a crisis consultant and started acting better. But in the early days the founders were being extremely douchy and PG wrote an article that I was astounded to receive, defending the douchiness. That was the point that I started to think YC isn't better than the average level of Silicon Valley. BTW, many YC companies engage in fake traction tactics sometimes ones that cross the line into dishonesty-- for example AirBnBs "we'll spam people listing their places on craigslist while pretending to be someone else" marketing scheme.
- orless 11y agoA YC startup annoyed, failed to follow an account deletion request of, lied to, wrongfully accused of spamming, and doxxed a female user. Well, if it's not a YC problem, it should very well become one.
- prawn 11y agoIf I'm YC and I have invested in a company, I'm going to step in and give a bit of coaching in a situation like this. Especially when the solution is completely obvious and the core action required (deleting the account, sending a quick apology) would be minimal.
- austenallred 11y agoWe're assuming they won't. It's a Sunday afternoon.
- n72 11y ago"but I can tell things like when people are BSing, how tough they are, if they get along, and surprisingly often, considering I only have 10 minutes to observe them, whether they're good people or not." - Jessica Livingston So, yet another win for Jessica's infallible intuition! Maybe these guys can get together with the Homejoy team and create something really special.
- brchsiao 11y agoThe unfairness of this makes me rather sad. A handful of YC companies make mistakes out of >800. Why the need for a snide remark toward Jessica?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- evolve2k 11y agoI would think it is just a good use of YC resources towards protecting capital investment to remind founders not to invite public ridicule when none needs to have occurred.