3 ms·
It's because you can only fool your customers/clients for so long before they realize your product is garbage. If you have poor quality you need to have a lot o
by omouse 10y ago
It's because you can only fool your customers/clients for so long before they realize your product is garbage. If you have poor quality you need to have a lot of support staff to deal with the calls/emails or you need to have deep pockets to offer discounts and refunds repeatedly.
It's so fucked to read about VC-funded startups and read Paul Graham's earlier essays because he pretty much summed up a startup as "move as fast as possible to build a product that your customers want" and emphasized quality. Somewhere along the line, getting VC funds somehow has dwarfed that goal.
- tim333 10y agoHe was of course not a huge fan of VCs >Back in 1997, one of our competitors raised $20 million in a single round of VC funding. This was at the time more than the valuation of our entire company. Was I worried? Not at all: I was delighted. It was like watching a car you're chasing turn down a street that you know has no outlet... etc (http://www.paulgraham.com/venturecapital.html http://www.paulgraham.com/venturecapital.html)
- beaconstudios 10y agoand yet YC is the center of the universe for SV VC-funded tech startups.
- at-fates-hands 10y agoWhat do you think changed? Did PG change his view on things, or did the industry change? A LOT can happen over 15+ years, and considering how fast SV and the tech industry moves, that's almost an eternity.
- beaconstudios 10y agoI couldn't say for sure. The cynic in me wants to point to the amount of money in software VC, but I think PG is more principled than that. Perhaps it's related to the fact that YC provides a lot more in terms of advice and guidance than cash, and then passes startups on to seed/series-A investors.