4 ms·

In the span of a just a few days we have YC-backed companies being publically outed for engaging in behavior which most of us consider pretty egregious and woul

In the span of a just a few days we have YC-backed companies being publically outed for engaging in behavior which most of us consider pretty egregious and would certainly warrant any rights as YC founders to be revoked. The tone of commenters (here and w.r.t the Homejoy) can be described as mild shock. This particular example is perhaps even worse than the Homejoy issue, as it seems the founders have taken to personally attacking an individual user for, as far as we can see, are pretty legitimate claims. But I think probably the least shocked people are the YC partners. If you are Paul G./YC, what do you do about this? By far the biggest question that YC must confront as it expands into research, bigger and bigger classes, new types of involvement through fellows, etc., is how to retain their ability to suss out, deal with, or prevent things like these. I think they are fully aware that they can't. If anyone hasn't figured it out already, YC is becoming the first 21st century university. In order to get there, they have to become significantly bigger, and just like the startups they fund, that's the metric that's on their radar. I don't think these events are a sign of YC's negligence. Instead, I think YC is slowly transitioning to a new era in the company. Paul G and the gang are incredibly brilliant. They knew the odds when they decided to continue this incredibly rapid growth of batches and outreach. They aren't surprised by these events; they are just moving to a stage where things like this are unfortunately the cost of doing business. If Paul G is cooking dinner for you and your few buddies over the summer every night, you aren't getting away with this. If you are now one of thousands of people fighting for (or trying to avoid) their attention, you certainly can. Go around to any top school, and you see the same. Out of your couple thousand bright-eyed, brilliant freshmen, there inevitably are a couple bad apples. But none of them would think that a solution to this is to shrink class sizes.

phpnode 11y ago
> If anyone hasn't figured it out already, YC is becoming the first 21st century university This is a ridiculous statement, it is nothing like a university.
- ChicagoBoy11 11y ago
  YC - Research - https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-research https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-research (clearly universities have nothing like this) Over 700 companies have gone on through YC, so they now have a few thousand alums and actively maintain an Alumni network -- really wish universities had something like this! The companies go through the program in cohorts for a set amount of time -- they call these "classes". Not sure if universities have anything of the sort. Sam Altman himself said that soon he "we will have to do something" with respect to housing. Again, nothing like I've seen any university do. My personal favorite, though, is the part where they get everyone to come to dinner together to exchange experiences and whatnot. If only Harvard figured out that they could use their beautiful dining hall for this sort of thing...
  - phpnode 11y ago
    The things you're describing here are common to many large organisations - is Google a university? Tellingly, you don't mention the primary reason universities exist - to educate, regardless of the profitability of the subject. This is exactly the opposite of YC's primary goal, which is to make money and avoid unprofitable investments.
forgottenpass 11y ago
If you are Paul G./YC, what do you do about this? Nothing unless it gets bad press. Why do you think they care about "egregious" behavior? Quote From: What We Look For In Founders - Paul Graham - October 2010 [...] Naughtiness Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination. [...]
- ChicagoBoy11 11y ago
  This is a fair point. It's just that in this particular instance, I feel that their actions crossed into the "evil" category -- they dig up PPI on one of their users and plaster it on the site, slandering her in the process. This is different than "creatively" interpreting some piece of regulation or something of the sort. I take your point, though.
- meowface 11y ago
  I don't think that's fair. I strongly doubt PG considers spamming, or (falsely) naming & shaming customers, as "naughtiness". That's something very different.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    "The culture of any organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is prepared to tolerate". By stating that rules breaking is desirable, but not stating clearly where the lines are, companies are not given clear enough guidance to avoid scumbag behaviour.
DrMJG_HN 11y ago
You seem to just put out generic statements that have nothing directly to do with the topic here or bare any facts. So i cannot really respond to you.

phpnode 11y ago

> If anyone hasn't figured it out already, YC is becoming the first 21st century university This is a ridiculous statement, it is nothing like a university.

ChicagoBoy11 11y ago
YC - Research - https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-research https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-research (clearly universities have nothing like this) Over 700 companies have gone on through YC, so they now have a few thousand alums and actively maintain an Alumni network -- really wish universities had something like this! The companies go through the program in cohorts for a set amount of time -- they call these "classes". Not sure if universities have anything of the sort. Sam Altman himself said that soon he "we will have to do something" with respect to housing. Again, nothing like I've seen any university do. My personal favorite, though, is the part where they get everyone to come to dinner together to exchange experiences and whatnot. If only Harvard figured out that they could use their beautiful dining hall for this sort of thing...
- phpnode 11y ago
  The things you're describing here are common to many large organisations - is Google a university? Tellingly, you don't mention the primary reason universities exist - to educate, regardless of the profitability of the subject. This is exactly the opposite of YC's primary goal, which is to make money and avoid unprofitable investments.

forgottenpass 11y ago

If you are Paul G./YC, what do you do about this? Nothing unless it gets bad press. Why do you think they care about "egregious" behavior? Quote From: What We Look For In Founders - Paul Graham - October 2010 [...] Naughtiness Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination. [...]

ChicagoBoy11 11y ago
This is a fair point. It's just that in this particular instance, I feel that their actions crossed into the "evil" category -- they dig up PPI on one of their users and plaster it on the site, slandering her in the process. This is different than "creatively" interpreting some piece of regulation or something of the sort. I take your point, though.
meowface 11y ago
I don't think that's fair. I strongly doubt PG considers spamming, or (falsely) naming & shaming customers, as "naughtiness". That's something very different.
- DanBC 11y ago
  "The culture of any organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is prepared to tolerate". By stating that rules breaking is desirable, but not stating clearly where the lines are, companies are not given clear enough guidance to avoid scumbag behaviour.

DrMJG_HN 11y ago

You seem to just put out generic statements that have nothing directly to do with the topic here or bare any facts. So i cannot really respond to you.