6 ms·

I will miss the old Y Combinator

90 points by domino 16y ago

il 16y ago
You know what else makes great stories? Successful companies. I think it's disingenuous to lament a change in funding models that appears to be a huge net gain for founders. Considering many YC startups have been raising additional funding for a while now, I don't see much changing.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  But is it for sure a net gain? Is there no value in humble beginnings?
  - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
    Only for the people looking for a story to write about. Poor people don't like being poor.
    - barranger 16y ago
      No, but to say that their isn't something to be learned by being poor would be incorrect. I'm sure people will strongly disagree, but nothing replaces the perspective that being down to your last dollar gives you.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
        Whatever! I grew up in a poor country: I've been poor. Other than a profound desire to never be poor again, I don't know how that "perspective" has ever helped me.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
- Confusion 16y ago
  What do you know about Scoble that makes this 'disingenious'? I read nothing but an honest sentiment. Not everything has a deeper meaning or needs to be part of a grand consistent whole of thoughts, you know.
  - il 16y ago
    Maybe that's not the right word choice. But it's a journalist saying "I don't like this story because it changes the narrative/ starving founder myth we're trying to create" doesn't feel right.
wooster 16y ago
As one of those single founders you hear about struggling to make things work from within their apartment or the local coffee shops: that story is overrated. It's all about the business, and the $150k investment which was offered today is an exceptionally good deal.
patio11 16y ago
There's always the "before they were famous" angle (important as more YC companies come in at later stages of maturity than "two guys with a gleam in their eye"). I think AirBnB, for example, cornered the market on Obama-themed balanced breakfasts prior to being in YC. If that doesn't satisfy, particular journalists looking for scrappy upstarts can still find them - the Internet is a big place. I mean, Andrew Warner manages to find a new story every day, with fairly little overlap with other sources of news I follow.
geuis 16y ago
I know that the hardships of other people usually make the best stories. Hiker gets his arm caught under a rock and has to cut it off with a pen knife 3 days later to escape, makes for a gripping story. Moral is, sometimes being the person in the adventure isn't all its cracked up to be. When my cofounder and I applied for YC this past round, we had a lot of hopes in getting accepted (we didn't, unfortunately, but got the interview). Even though I knew all of the benefits of getting into YC in terms of the experience and the contacts, I still had a certain amount of trepidation in terms of finances. I was ready and willing (still am!) to dive into YC and not look back, but I was also looking at giving up a job that pays well (I make more money than anyone else in my large extended family), the health benefits, 401k, stock options, and 2 weeks of vacation each year. I live in San Francisco, and it isn't cheap. That $17k, split between 2 people, doesn't go far. I'm a single guy with limited expenses, and it still would have been tight. Having met Paul Graham and the YC crew a couple of times, interviewing with them, and meeting many other people at various YC-funded companies, I feel confident in saying that I highly doubt the spirit of YC is going to change. There is a certain character to all of the people I've met that's hard to define but is definitely there. That isn't going to disappear simply because an investor is trying something new. I suspect that there are driven people like me who are in slightly different situations (family, etc) where they don't feel like they can take the risk if they get accepted. This stops them from even feeling like applying. Now knowing that there's another guaranteed round of money to be accessed after a few months is going to let people on the edge make the decision to apply. Some will get accepted. It will let people feel like they can work as hard as possible on a dream and know they have a better chance of being ok longer. $150k + $17k at a startup of 2-3 people is enough to not only fund the company, but to also let the founders who need it to take a survivable income for the first year while they're getting off the ground. Its an extra safety blanket that lets those founders who need it to take the plunge and to fight a while longer to succeed. For the people that get accepted into YC where $17k was enough, those people now have some extra guaranteed resources to help their businesses grow. That's the money that lets a 2 person team hire a 3rd after 6 months to let them keep growing while one of the founders concentrates on angel or VC funding, instead of hitting a wall because there's too much to do and not enough humans to go around to do it. I'll grant Robert that YC may change a little, but it'll only be for the better.
elgenie 16y ago
"struggle and sacrifice makes for great stories", but not necessarily great companies. Tech journalists' ability to phone in the same story they've written 100 times before shouldn't even register on the radar of things to consider.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
danilocampos 16y ago
Meta: I want to ask something right now that will sound very flip but I mean it with no malice and with full earnestness. Seriously – I'm asking because I want an answer. Cool? Cool. How has Mr. Scoble convinced so many people to listen to him? In over six years of following the Valley and tech in general with interest, I have heard Mr. Scoble's name so many times – but never associated with anything of substance. I've never read of any dramatic achievements, nor have I been pointed to any essays of any deep insight or poignancy. While he frequently comes up in conversation he does not seem to... do anything. Like a Paris Hilton. From what I can tell, he worked for Microsoft, then wrote a book in which he appeared on the cover naked (Hiltonesque!)... and then convinced a bunch of people to follow him on Twitter and other social media flavors of the moment. Then Rackspace bought him an enormous tripod. I hasten to reiterate that I have no specific ill-will toward Mr. Scoble, but I am... mystified and hope for some insight. Is this a case of wildly successful self-promotion? Is the success of the self-promotion, itself, the measure of success from which he derives attention and note? Do people latch onto him in the hopes of learning similar powers of promotion?
- wheels 16y ago
  Here's the right visual: http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5843/178783.jpg http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5843/178783.jpg Scoble is the ultra-fan. I wouldn't really call him a rabid self-promoter (though those are certainly around) -- he just oozes an almost naive excitement about the technology world and seems to try to be in all corners of it at once. I think that sort of excitement, almost like the tech world is one big family of sorts, is, in its own way, contagious.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - klein_waffle 16y ago
    I think this picture says everything you need to know about Scoble. http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/07/scoble-iphone.jpg http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/07/scoble-ipho... If the tech world is a big family, Scoble is the youngest kid whose incessant bids for attention have the older ones rolling their eyes.
pclark 16y ago
This deal won't change that. YC knows scrappy companies win, and especially well capitalised scrappy companies.
robryan 16y ago
My takeaway from previous ycombinator groups is that anyone onto anything half decent by the end has had no trouble getting a financing round. Personally if it was me I don't think it would really change the way I went about things, would still work out of a house and go it cheap, just might be able to get an early hire in to push things along even faster without having to worry about how much equity I was sacrificing to do it at such an early stage.
6ren 16y ago
A great advantage startups have over established companies is they get excited over small wins. And beginnings are small. The Innovator's Dilemma even suggests established companies spin-out small startups to work on emerging technologies/markets, for this reason.
dotBen 16y ago
No longer will we hear stories like we heard from Airbnb’s founders of surviving off of cereal or “ramen.” 'ramen profitable' and it's derivatives should be taken as a cutesy fluffy marketing term and nothing more (like most startups were never actually started in a garage). No one should be living literally off Ramen noodles and cereal. It's incredibly bad for your health and a total lack of investment in your body and your brain. I'm not saying YC's small funding encourages this, but nevertheless we should not be encouraging the promotion of this concept.
- brc 16y ago
  Hey that sort of diet got me through university and freed up funds for that other important calorie source : beer. You can actually live on that type of diet for a little while when you're young and eager. There are far worse things for you to do.
  - pnathan 16y ago
    I ate ramen a lot for one semester for so in undergraduate. My mind and body felt horrible in short order; I never got any sort of nutrition, and I basically haven't had any since. That was like 6 years ago. If you need to buy cheap food for a while, ramen is not the answer. Finding ingredients at the grocery store and cooking them up yourself is the answer. I suspect that if you really want ramen, you can make it cheaper yourself. And more healthily (). () Except for the salt levels.
    - freshbag 16y ago
      Agreed. If you want to have a well performing body, put performance fuel into it. In other words, good food. Good food is, unfortunately, highly debatable. Organic or non-organic - I'd still have to suggest that starting with any fruits and vegetables, for example, would be a huge step up in the diet! As a med student, I have to agree - cooking yourself ends up teaching people more about the food they eat than almost any prepared/prepacked food. And yes, ramen is also possible to make from a bag of flour, salt, baking soda, and water. No palm fat, no other stuff. Just takes a bit of skill in putting together the soup...
mgkimsal 16y ago
I'm seeing the word 'loan' in there along with 'investment' - the two aren't really compatible terms. Who's on the hook for the loan? From the TC page: "If you’re not an investor, here’s what it means. Yuri and SV Angel just offered to loan each company $150,000. That loan will convert if/when the company raises a proper angel or venture capital round at the same valuation that’s set in that round. Most convertible debt has a valuation ceiling and also gets a discount on conversion. This debt doesn’t. It’s the most entrepreneur friendly investment that I can think of, short of just handing people money as a gift." So, they're not just handing money over ('investing') - it's a loan, which would seem to require payback. If the company flops (some do) who is on the hook? YC itself? The original founders?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  It's a convertible note as far as I understand it.
- lrm242 16y ago
  It's a convertible note, so it is a loan. I'm 100% positive that there are no personal guarantees and it is essentially entirely unsecured. Convertible notes are very common early investment tools when it is very hard to place an accurate valuation on the company. It significantly reduces the amount of paperwork involved and it allows the person providing the note a guaranteed seat at the A round table. Like most loans, it typically carries interest which accrues as part of the principal and adds to the conversion.
- jfarmer 16y ago
  A convertible note is a loan, just one that you never expect to pay back.
jacquesm 16y ago
So go and re-create it, we'll see how well you do. Backseat drivers don't get to vote.
spinchange 16y ago
Those who can't ship, blog.
- josefresco 16y ago
  Those who can't blog, comment.
  - spinchange 16y ago
    Turnabout is fair play, but roughly how many words do you think this story and silly meta-analysis deserve? I could throw-up a few paragraphs on my wordpress, but I'd rather work on some code. What do you think?
edawerd 16y ago
As a founder during the "old YCombinator", back when we had to move to Boston (YC s08), I can tell Scoble with absolute certainty that while the fear of running out of money was always on our minds, it wasn't the motivating force for us working our asses off. It was something greater than that: An innate entrepreneurial desire to build a company doing something meaningful. Indeed, even after the economy crashed right after we graduated and money ran out, we doubled down with our own personal savings to continue fighting. Yuri's funding isn't gong to change a thing for YC founders, except arm them with more ammo to build something great
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
I loved those Dickens stories too! Children working in factories! Fishermen dying for lack of a doctor! Ha Ha!
BrandonM 16y ago
Is this guy fucking serious? No longer will we hear stories like we heard from Airbnb’s founders of surviving off of cereal or "ramen." That bums me out, because struggle and sacrifice makes for great stories. I'm sorry that you're bummed out at less human suffering. These are people with friends and families and hopes and dreams and feelings, and you're treating them like characters in a movie. These are people working their asses off to make the world a little bit better and hopefully make money doing it. Mr. Consumer here is upset that their lives are a little better? And his only reason is that the stories he hears aren't as nice? This is disgusting. Fuck you, get some perspective.
- biot 16y ago
  Speaking of perspective, I wouldn't call living off of cereal or ramen human suffering. These are people who could probably do one hour of consulting and, with the money they make, buy more food than someone in the third world sees in a month. It's human suffering much in the same way that choosing to flagellate yourself with a cat o' nine tails is.
  - BrandonM 16y ago
    Eating a healthy diet is unquestionably better than eating a cereal-and-ramen diet. Being able to afford a better diet does lessen human suffering, even if that person isn't a starving child in Sudan. Being bummed out that someone's life is better, simply because it doesn't make for a good story, is shitty. If Mr. Scoble wants a story of struggle and sacrifice, he can kindly live it himself.
    - biot 16y ago
      I understand the point you're making. I was addressing your use of "human suffering". Staying at the Hilton is unquestionably better than staying at a Motel 6, but calling a night at the Motel 6 "human suffering" would be ridiculous and such use cheapens the term.
      - BrandonM 16y ago
adrianwaj 16y ago
Why are people assuming the 150k is from this batch onward?
rmason 16y ago
Just getting accepted in YCombinator means you're part of an elite group. Even among these select startups there are those whose original idea doesn't work. How many fail because they ran out of money trying to execute a pivot? All this added capital is going to do is increase the success rate. I respect you Scoble but you're wrong.
gallerytungsten 16y ago
I somehow suspect Scoble has never been poor. There's nothing glamorous about it.
ericmsimons 16y ago
Living more comfortably while doing a startup is a great thing though. Better food = better brainpower. It may not sound as good on paper but the end result will be the same if not better.
erik_landerholm 16y ago
I was in YCS09 (CarWoo!). The 150k would not of changed anything we did when it came to being frugal. We would of still lived in our office (not in an apartment that was our office, but in our office that was our apartment). We would of still rented a total crap hole in not the greatest part of town. It might of helped WePay not have a neighbor who got macheted because we all wouldn't of had to live in the slums. It might of helped us not live next to other tenets that were growing weed and getting raided by the cops. The day we moved out the cops raided them. We had armed police officers in our hallway. These 'stories', while hilarious are not conducive to a good working environment. I'm older then most entrepreneurs YC funds. Tommy is also older then most. A bit more money up front would of been very helpful and wouldn't of changed our drive or decision making one bit, except to make us not worry about raising money until later. And that would of been a good thing. Raising money stole a fifth to a quarter of our time during YC. We always knew we would need more money. Right out of YC we raised another 200k. It was very stressful because if that didn't work out we were up the proverbial creek. Having that 150k up front would of helped ease a lot of sleepless nights...listening to our neighbors scream and yell as they tried to hang a sodium light, but I digress.

90 points by domino 16y ago

il 16y ago

You know what else makes great stories? Successful companies. I think it's disingenuous to lament a change in funding models that appears to be a huge net gain for founders. Considering many YC startups have been raising additional funding for a while now, I don't see much changing.

sliverstorm 16y ago
But is it for sure a net gain? Is there no value in humble beginnings?
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
  Only for the people looking for a story to write about. Poor people don't like being poor.
  - barranger 16y ago
    No, but to say that their isn't something to be learned by being poor would be incorrect. I'm sure people will strongly disagree, but nothing replaces the perspective that being down to your last dollar gives you.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
      Whatever! I grew up in a poor country: I've been poor. Other than a profound desire to never be poor again, I don't know how that "perspective" has ever helped me.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
Confusion 16y ago
What do you know about Scoble that makes this 'disingenious'? I read nothing but an honest sentiment. Not everything has a deeper meaning or needs to be part of a grand consistent whole of thoughts, you know.
- il 16y ago
  Maybe that's not the right word choice. But it's a journalist saying "I don't like this story because it changes the narrative/ starving founder myth we're trying to create" doesn't feel right.

wooster 16y ago

As one of those single founders you hear about struggling to make things work from within their apartment or the local coffee shops: that story is overrated. It's all about the business, and the $150k investment which was offered today is an exceptionally good deal.

patio11 16y ago

There's always the "before they were famous" angle (important as more YC companies come in at later stages of maturity than "two guys with a gleam in their eye"). I think AirBnB, for example, cornered the market on Obama-themed balanced breakfasts prior to being in YC. If that doesn't satisfy, particular journalists looking for scrappy upstarts can still find them - the Internet is a big place. I mean, Andrew Warner manages to find a new story every day, with fairly little overlap with other sources of news I follow.

geuis 16y ago

I know that the hardships of other people usually make the best stories. Hiker gets his arm caught under a rock and has to cut it off with a pen knife 3 days later to escape, makes for a gripping story. Moral is, sometimes being the person in the adventure isn't all its cracked up to be. When my cofounder and I applied for YC this past round, we had a lot of hopes in getting accepted (we didn't, unfortunately, but got the interview). Even though I knew all of the benefits of getting into YC in terms of the experience and the contacts, I still had a certain amount of trepidation in terms of finances. I was ready and willing (still am!) to dive into YC and not look back, but I was also looking at giving up a job that pays well (I make more money than anyone else in my large extended family), the health benefits, 401k, stock options, and 2 weeks of vacation each year. I live in San Francisco, and it isn't cheap. That $17k, split between 2 people, doesn't go far. I'm a single guy with limited expenses, and it still would have been tight. Having met Paul Graham and the YC crew a couple of times, interviewing with them, and meeting many other people at various YC-funded companies, I feel confident in saying that I highly doubt the spirit of YC is going to change. There is a certain character to all of the people I've met that's hard to define but is definitely there. That isn't going to disappear simply because an investor is trying something new. I suspect that there are driven people like me who are in slightly different situations (family, etc) where they don't feel like they can take the risk if they get accepted. This stops them from even feeling like applying. Now knowing that there's another guaranteed round of money to be accessed after a few months is going to let people on the edge make the decision to apply. Some will get accepted. It will let people feel like they can work as hard as possible on a dream and know they have a better chance of being ok longer. $150k + $17k at a startup of 2-3 people is enough to not only fund the company, but to also let the founders who need it to take a survivable income for the first year while they're getting off the ground. Its an extra safety blanket that lets those founders who need it to take the plunge and to fight a while longer to succeed. For the people that get accepted into YC where $17k was enough, those people now have some extra guaranteed resources to help their businesses grow. That's the money that lets a 2 person team hire a 3rd after 6 months to let them keep growing while one of the founders concentrates on angel or VC funding, instead of hitting a wall because there's too much to do and not enough humans to go around to do it. I'll grant Robert that YC may change a little, but it'll only be for the better.

elgenie 16y ago

"struggle and sacrifice makes for great stories", but not necessarily great companies. Tech journalists' ability to phone in the same story they've written 100 times before shouldn't even register on the radar of things to consider.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

danilocampos 16y ago

Meta: I want to ask something right now that will sound very flip but I mean it with no malice and with full earnestness. Seriously – I'm asking because I want an answer. Cool? Cool. How has Mr. Scoble convinced so many people to listen to him? In over six years of following the Valley and tech in general with interest, I have heard Mr. Scoble's name so many times – but never associated with anything of substance. I've never read of any dramatic achievements, nor have I been pointed to any essays of any deep insight or poignancy. While he frequently comes up in conversation he does not seem to... do anything. Like a Paris Hilton. From what I can tell, he worked for Microsoft, then wrote a book in which he appeared on the cover naked (Hiltonesque!)... and then convinced a bunch of people to follow him on Twitter and other social media flavors of the moment. Then Rackspace bought him an enormous tripod. I hasten to reiterate that I have no specific ill-will toward Mr. Scoble, but I am... mystified and hope for some insight. Is this a case of wildly successful self-promotion? Is the success of the self-promotion, itself, the measure of success from which he derives attention and note? Do people latch onto him in the hopes of learning similar powers of promotion?

wheels 16y ago
Here's the right visual: http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5843/178783.jpg http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5843/178783.jpg Scoble is the ultra-fan. I wouldn't really call him a rabid self-promoter (though those are certainly around) -- he just oozes an almost naive excitement about the technology world and seems to try to be in all corners of it at once. I think that sort of excitement, almost like the tech world is one big family of sorts, is, in its own way, contagious.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- klein_waffle 16y ago
  I think this picture says everything you need to know about Scoble. http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/07/scoble-iphone.jpg http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/07/scoble-ipho... If the tech world is a big family, Scoble is the youngest kid whose incessant bids for attention have the older ones rolling their eyes.

pclark 16y ago

This deal won't change that. YC knows scrappy companies win, and especially well capitalised scrappy companies.

robryan 16y ago

My takeaway from previous ycombinator groups is that anyone onto anything half decent by the end has had no trouble getting a financing round. Personally if it was me I don't think it would really change the way I went about things, would still work out of a house and go it cheap, just might be able to get an early hire in to push things along even faster without having to worry about how much equity I was sacrificing to do it at such an early stage.

6ren 16y ago

A great advantage startups have over established companies is they get excited over small wins. And beginnings are small. The Innovator's Dilemma even suggests established companies spin-out small startups to work on emerging technologies/markets, for this reason.

dotBen 16y ago

No longer will we hear stories like we heard from Airbnb’s founders of surviving off of cereal or “ramen.” 'ramen profitable' and it's derivatives should be taken as a cutesy fluffy marketing term and nothing more (like most startups were never actually started in a garage). No one should be living literally off Ramen noodles and cereal. It's incredibly bad for your health and a total lack of investment in your body and your brain. I'm not saying YC's small funding encourages this, but nevertheless we should not be encouraging the promotion of this concept.

brc 16y ago
Hey that sort of diet got me through university and freed up funds for that other important calorie source : beer. You can actually live on that type of diet for a little while when you're young and eager. There are far worse things for you to do.
- pnathan 16y ago
  I ate ramen a lot for one semester for so in undergraduate. My mind and body felt horrible in short order; I never got any sort of nutrition, and I basically haven't had any since. That was like 6 years ago. If you need to buy cheap food for a while, ramen is not the answer. Finding ingredients at the grocery store and cooking them up yourself is the answer. I suspect that if you really want ramen, you can make it cheaper yourself. And more healthily (). () Except for the salt levels.
  - freshbag 16y ago
    Agreed. If you want to have a well performing body, put performance fuel into it. In other words, good food. Good food is, unfortunately, highly debatable. Organic or non-organic - I'd still have to suggest that starting with any fruits and vegetables, for example, would be a huge step up in the diet! As a med student, I have to agree - cooking yourself ends up teaching people more about the food they eat than almost any prepared/prepacked food. And yes, ramen is also possible to make from a bag of flour, salt, baking soda, and water. No palm fat, no other stuff. Just takes a bit of skill in putting together the soup...

mgkimsal 16y ago

I'm seeing the word 'loan' in there along with 'investment' - the two aren't really compatible terms. Who's on the hook for the loan? From the TC page: "If you’re not an investor, here’s what it means. Yuri and SV Angel just offered to loan each company $150,000. That loan will convert if/when the company raises a proper angel or venture capital round at the same valuation that’s set in that round. Most convertible debt has a valuation ceiling and also gets a discount on conversion. This debt doesn’t. It’s the most entrepreneur friendly investment that I can think of, short of just handing people money as a gift." So, they're not just handing money over ('investing') - it's a loan, which would seem to require payback. If the company flops (some do) who is on the hook? YC itself? The original founders?

jacquesm 16y ago
It's a convertible note as far as I understand it.
lrm242 16y ago
It's a convertible note, so it is a loan. I'm 100% positive that there are no personal guarantees and it is essentially entirely unsecured. Convertible notes are very common early investment tools when it is very hard to place an accurate valuation on the company. It significantly reduces the amount of paperwork involved and it allows the person providing the note a guaranteed seat at the A round table. Like most loans, it typically carries interest which accrues as part of the principal and adds to the conversion.
jfarmer 16y ago
A convertible note is a loan, just one that you never expect to pay back.

jacquesm 16y ago

So go and re-create it, we'll see how well you do. Backseat drivers don't get to vote.

spinchange 16y ago

Those who can't ship, blog.

josefresco 16y ago
Those who can't blog, comment.
- spinchange 16y ago
  Turnabout is fair play, but roughly how many words do you think this story and silly meta-analysis deserve? I could throw-up a few paragraphs on my wordpress, but I'd rather work on some code. What do you think?

edawerd 16y ago

As a founder during the "old YCombinator", back when we had to move to Boston (YC s08), I can tell Scoble with absolute certainty that while the fear of running out of money was always on our minds, it wasn't the motivating force for us working our asses off. It was something greater than that: An innate entrepreneurial desire to build a company doing something meaningful. Indeed, even after the economy crashed right after we graduated and money ran out, we doubled down with our own personal savings to continue fighting. Yuri's funding isn't gong to change a thing for YC founders, except arm them with more ammo to build something great

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

I loved those Dickens stories too! Children working in factories! Fishermen dying for lack of a doctor! Ha Ha!

BrandonM 16y ago

Is this guy fucking serious? No longer will we hear stories like we heard from Airbnb’s founders of surviving off of cereal or "ramen." That bums me out, because struggle and sacrifice makes for great stories. I'm sorry that you're bummed out at less human suffering. These are people with friends and families and hopes and dreams and feelings, and you're treating them like characters in a movie. These are people working their asses off to make the world a little bit better and hopefully make money doing it. Mr. Consumer here is upset that their lives are a little better? And his only reason is that the stories he hears aren't as nice? This is disgusting. Fuck you, get some perspective.

biot 16y ago
Speaking of perspective, I wouldn't call living off of cereal or ramen human suffering. These are people who could probably do one hour of consulting and, with the money they make, buy more food than someone in the third world sees in a month. It's human suffering much in the same way that choosing to flagellate yourself with a cat o' nine tails is.
- BrandonM 16y ago
  Eating a healthy diet is unquestionably better than eating a cereal-and-ramen diet. Being able to afford a better diet does lessen human suffering, even if that person isn't a starving child in Sudan. Being bummed out that someone's life is better, simply because it doesn't make for a good story, is shitty. If Mr. Scoble wants a story of struggle and sacrifice, he can kindly live it himself.
  - biot 16y ago
    I understand the point you're making. I was addressing your use of "human suffering". Staying at the Hilton is unquestionably better than staying at a Motel 6, but calling a night at the Motel 6 "human suffering" would be ridiculous and such use cheapens the term.
    - BrandonM 16y ago

adrianwaj 16y ago

Why are people assuming the 150k is from this batch onward?

rmason 16y ago

Just getting accepted in YCombinator means you're part of an elite group. Even among these select startups there are those whose original idea doesn't work. How many fail because they ran out of money trying to execute a pivot? All this added capital is going to do is increase the success rate. I respect you Scoble but you're wrong.

gallerytungsten 16y ago

I somehow suspect Scoble has never been poor. There's nothing glamorous about it.

ericmsimons 16y ago

Living more comfortably while doing a startup is a great thing though. Better food = better brainpower. It may not sound as good on paper but the end result will be the same if not better.

erik_landerholm 16y ago

I was in YCS09 (CarWoo!). The 150k would not of changed anything we did when it came to being frugal. We would of still lived in our office (not in an apartment that was our office, but in our office that was our apartment). We would of still rented a total crap hole in not the greatest part of town. It might of helped WePay not have a neighbor who got macheted because we all wouldn't of had to live in the slums. It might of helped us not live next to other tenets that were growing weed and getting raided by the cops. The day we moved out the cops raided them. We had armed police officers in our hallway. These 'stories', while hilarious are not conducive to a good working environment. I'm older then most entrepreneurs YC funds. Tommy is also older then most. A bit more money up front would of been very helpful and wouldn't of changed our drive or decision making one bit, except to make us not worry about raising money until later. And that would of been a good thing. Raising money stole a fifth to a quarter of our time during YC. We always knew we would need more money. Right out of YC we raised another 200k. It was very stressful because if that didn't work out we were up the proverbial creek. Having that 150k up front would of helped ease a lot of sleepless nights...listening to our neighbors scream and yell as they tried to hang a sodium light, but I digress.