5 ms·

I was rejected the first time, got in the second time, but dropped out a week later to run a different company. We were profitable at 32 employees and got acqui

by blader 17y ago

I was rejected the first time, got in the second time, but dropped out a week later to run a different company. We were profitable at 32 employees and got acquired by Zynga last month.

mrtron 17y ago
That is serious business.
- freshfunk 17y ago
  More like treacherous business. (Sorry, I could not resist.)
pg 17y ago
It is probably not an accident that this is phrased in such an odd way, with the subjects of the sentences missing. It should read "we got in the second time, but I dropped out a week later." What happened is that Siqi and a cofounder started YC, then a week in Siqi bailed and left his cofounder in the lurch because a side project of his had unexpectedly taken off. We suggested making the side project be the focus of the startup they were doing, but Siqi didn't want to share it with his cofounder. His poor cofounder kept going and managed to recruit someone new, but the startup limped along without Siqi and didn't live much past demo day. It was probably the most treacherous thing one cofounder has done to another in YC so far. I would never have said anything publicly about the matter, but I can't stand to hear it described in this misleading way.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  That's pretty low. Has YC changed its contractual agreements with new YC companies to avoid such treachery in the future ?
  - pg 17y ago
    No; the biggest danger of people doing bad things to you is that it will make you paranoid, so we've made a conscious effort not to accumulate a lot of defensive cruft. E.g. to this day we don't ask startups to sign any kind of LOI at the the point when we agree to fund them.
    - gridspy 17y ago
      If only the security organisations of the world could share your attitude.
- freshfunk 17y ago
  That sucks. Oddly enough I actually know (well, actually met) Siqi back in the day when he was at Powerset. It's interesting to hear this kind of story. Go figure. :\
  - devinj 17y ago
    It wouldn't be wise, or kind, to judge based on hearsay, even pg's hearsay.
    - freshfunk 17y ago
      Yeah. Well I take it with a grain of salt I guess. Anyway, I saw Siqi's response and it seems pretty legit.
- ryanwaggoner 17y ago
  Umm, hold on a second. So I have a cofounder and a startup, but I also do little side projects here and there on my own, mostly for fun / learning. Am I to understand that if one of them blows up and I elect to leave and pursue that instead of my current startup, I've committed "treachery" against my cofounder? If my cofounder had something like that happen to him, I'd be incredibly happy for him (and a little jealous), but I wouldn't consider it treachery unless he tried to take his equity or it was competing with our startup or something. I know that it's popular to compare picking a cofounder to picking a spouse, but they're not the same thing, and if you start a company with someone who later decides to move on, that's just how it goes. Am I way off?
  - SwellJoe 17y ago
    As in everything: It depends. I don't know this story beyond what two people have just said. But, I know that if I commit to something, I expect my co-founder to also be committed to it (within the bounds of what we've agreed upon). Working on other projects now and then is fine and normal...it's what hackers do. But, if you've committed to build a business with someone, it's not really the idea that makes the business. It's the combined effort and execution of the team. So, splitting your time between building your "private business" and your "co-founded business", and then taking off when the private business has some bit of success, is probably not what an honest business person would do. If you don't believe in the co-founded business idea, anymore, you talk it over with your co-founder, and you try to fix the problem. But, shit happens. If you give up your equity in the co-founded startup, apologize for flaking, etc. then I guess you've done the best you can. I wouldn't expect the co-founder to ever be willing to do business with you again, but it's probably not what I would call "treacherous", either. I think the story of Evan Williams and Blogger (and Odeo/Twitter, for that matter, maybe even moreso) would sound kind of similar when told by different involved parties, and we don't consider Evan treacherous. Then again, we are talking about one week later. He had to know that he had other irons in the fire and probably wouldn't be involved in the company much longer. So, yeah, this actually does sound kinda nasty.
    - freshfunk 17y ago
      Good point. Maybe what happened was that he didn't know whether they'd get in YC or not so was OK with being part of the application. Then they found out they got in and he realized he had to make a decision between the two projects and it took him one week to make that decision.
- whyme 17y ago
  > I would never have said anything publicly about the matter. And you shouldn't have, it's unprofessional from someone holding your position. > I can't stand to hear it described in this misleading way How is it misleading? He didn't say we in reference to his YC history. He omitted any concept of more than one person, thus the assumption should be that he was speaking about himself. Which is fine.
  - baguasquirrel 17y ago
    Why is it unprofessional?
    - whyme 17y ago
      For the same reason he claimed he would normally never make this statement public to begin with.
- blader 17y ago
  Wow, this really stings coming from someone I respect so much. This is what happens when you leave without an explanation from YC I suppose. Paul, I agree I should have said "we got in the second time, but I dropped out a week later". I apologize for not being clear but I don't accept that there was anything wrong with what I said. To be clear, the side project of mine which took off was co-owned 50% by my another founder who was not involved in YC and didn't want to join, so it wasn't mine to simply share with my YC team. There were 3 cofounders who went to the YC interview - there were 2 cofounders remaining after I left. I was transparent with both of my cofounders and we remain friends to this day - they had zero involvement in the side project from beginning to end. I specifically asked each of them if they felt I was behaving unethically - they responded that they don't believe so and would have done the same in my shoes.
  - p6 17y ago
    I think whats going on is pg is pissed someone ditched YC and made out better - "HOW DARE you leave YC and go on and make millions- while the rest of my flock struggles on ramen noodles and my outworn cliches!!!"
  - blader1 17y ago
    I created another account just so I could get around my noprocrast settings. Out of the 2 cofounders in YC, one I later hired to run network operations at my company and the other I am very close friends with and regularly have beers. We left on good terms. Why don't you ask the two of them what they think of me? You're the reason why I'm an entrepreneur today and I respect you immensely. To hear you describe what I did as treachery is hurtful but worse it's just factually wrong. It was an incredibly difficult ethical decision for me at the time, but I truly believe that I behaved in a transparent and above the board way. I take responsibility for not talking to you before or after I left - I didn't realize you felt this way about it and I'm happy to have the chance to bring this out into the open.
    - freshfunk 17y ago
      Seems like everything was fair and transparent among them. Reputation saved.
- p6 17y ago
  All the dude gave was a brief description of his experience in response to what the original poster asked for. Calm down pg, you are not a god.
- vii 17y ago
  Siqi hadn't agreed to share his entire life with his YC cofounders and pretending otherwise is very childish. The fact that PG is being upvoted for this simply because he is PG is damaging to reasonable debate.

by blader 17y ago

I was rejected the first time, got in the second time, but dropped out a week later to run a different company. We were profitable at 32 employees and got acquired by Zynga last month.

mrtron 17y ago

That is serious business.

freshfunk 17y ago
More like treacherous business. (Sorry, I could not resist.)

pg 17y ago

It is probably not an accident that this is phrased in such an odd way, with the subjects of the sentences missing. It should read "we got in the second time, but I dropped out a week later." What happened is that Siqi and a cofounder started YC, then a week in Siqi bailed and left his cofounder in the lurch because a side project of his had unexpectedly taken off. We suggested making the side project be the focus of the startup they were doing, but Siqi didn't want to share it with his cofounder. His poor cofounder kept going and managed to recruit someone new, but the startup limped along without Siqi and didn't live much past demo day. It was probably the most treacherous thing one cofounder has done to another in YC so far. I would never have said anything publicly about the matter, but I can't stand to hear it described in this misleading way.

jacquesm 17y ago
That's pretty low. Has YC changed its contractual agreements with new YC companies to avoid such treachery in the future ?
- pg 17y ago
  No; the biggest danger of people doing bad things to you is that it will make you paranoid, so we've made a conscious effort not to accumulate a lot of defensive cruft. E.g. to this day we don't ask startups to sign any kind of LOI at the the point when we agree to fund them.
  - gridspy 17y ago
    If only the security organisations of the world could share your attitude.
freshfunk 17y ago
That sucks. Oddly enough I actually know (well, actually met) Siqi back in the day when he was at Powerset. It's interesting to hear this kind of story. Go figure. :\
- devinj 17y ago
  It wouldn't be wise, or kind, to judge based on hearsay, even pg's hearsay.
  - freshfunk 17y ago
    Yeah. Well I take it with a grain of salt I guess. Anyway, I saw Siqi's response and it seems pretty legit.
ryanwaggoner 17y ago
Umm, hold on a second. So I have a cofounder and a startup, but I also do little side projects here and there on my own, mostly for fun / learning. Am I to understand that if one of them blows up and I elect to leave and pursue that instead of my current startup, I've committed "treachery" against my cofounder? If my cofounder had something like that happen to him, I'd be incredibly happy for him (and a little jealous), but I wouldn't consider it treachery unless he tried to take his equity or it was competing with our startup or something. I know that it's popular to compare picking a cofounder to picking a spouse, but they're not the same thing, and if you start a company with someone who later decides to move on, that's just how it goes. Am I way off?
- SwellJoe 17y ago
  As in everything: It depends. I don't know this story beyond what two people have just said. But, I know that if I commit to something, I expect my co-founder to also be committed to it (within the bounds of what we've agreed upon). Working on other projects now and then is fine and normal...it's what hackers do. But, if you've committed to build a business with someone, it's not really the idea that makes the business. It's the combined effort and execution of the team. So, splitting your time between building your "private business" and your "co-founded business", and then taking off when the private business has some bit of success, is probably not what an honest business person would do. If you don't believe in the co-founded business idea, anymore, you talk it over with your co-founder, and you try to fix the problem. But, shit happens. If you give up your equity in the co-founded startup, apologize for flaking, etc. then I guess you've done the best you can. I wouldn't expect the co-founder to ever be willing to do business with you again, but it's probably not what I would call "treacherous", either. I think the story of Evan Williams and Blogger (and Odeo/Twitter, for that matter, maybe even moreso) would sound kind of similar when told by different involved parties, and we don't consider Evan treacherous. Then again, we are talking about one week later. He had to know that he had other irons in the fire and probably wouldn't be involved in the company much longer. So, yeah, this actually does sound kinda nasty.
  - freshfunk 17y ago
    Good point. Maybe what happened was that he didn't know whether they'd get in YC or not so was OK with being part of the application. Then they found out they got in and he realized he had to make a decision between the two projects and it took him one week to make that decision.
whyme 17y ago
> I would never have said anything publicly about the matter. And you shouldn't have, it's unprofessional from someone holding your position. > I can't stand to hear it described in this misleading way How is it misleading? He didn't say we in reference to his YC history. He omitted any concept of more than one person, thus the assumption should be that he was speaking about himself. Which is fine.
- baguasquirrel 17y ago
  Why is it unprofessional?
  - whyme 17y ago
    For the same reason he claimed he would normally never make this statement public to begin with.
blader 17y ago
Wow, this really stings coming from someone I respect so much. This is what happens when you leave without an explanation from YC I suppose. Paul, I agree I should have said "we got in the second time, but I dropped out a week later". I apologize for not being clear but I don't accept that there was anything wrong with what I said. To be clear, the side project of mine which took off was co-owned 50% by my another founder who was not involved in YC and didn't want to join, so it wasn't mine to simply share with my YC team. There were 3 cofounders who went to the YC interview - there were 2 cofounders remaining after I left. I was transparent with both of my cofounders and we remain friends to this day - they had zero involvement in the side project from beginning to end. I specifically asked each of them if they felt I was behaving unethically - they responded that they don't believe so and would have done the same in my shoes.
- p6 17y ago
  I think whats going on is pg is pissed someone ditched YC and made out better - "HOW DARE you leave YC and go on and make millions- while the rest of my flock struggles on ramen noodles and my outworn cliches!!!"
- blader1 17y ago
  I created another account just so I could get around my noprocrast settings. Out of the 2 cofounders in YC, one I later hired to run network operations at my company and the other I am very close friends with and regularly have beers. We left on good terms. Why don't you ask the two of them what they think of me? You're the reason why I'm an entrepreneur today and I respect you immensely. To hear you describe what I did as treachery is hurtful but worse it's just factually wrong. It was an incredibly difficult ethical decision for me at the time, but I truly believe that I behaved in a transparent and above the board way. I take responsibility for not talking to you before or after I left - I didn't realize you felt this way about it and I'm happy to have the chance to bring this out into the open.
  - freshfunk 17y ago
    Seems like everything was fair and transparent among them. Reputation saved.
p6 17y ago
All the dude gave was a brief description of his experience in response to what the original poster asked for. Calm down pg, you are not a god.
vii 17y ago
Siqi hadn't agreed to share his entire life with his YC cofounders and pretending otherwise is very childish. The fact that PG is being upvoted for this simply because he is PG is damaging to reasonable debate.