5 ms·

Essay comes off as a poorly written rant. However, there is a sliver of truth there; PG would benefit from a little more humility. So would the whole program,

Essay comes off as a poorly written rant. However, there is a sliver of truth there; PG would benefit from a little more humility. So would the whole program, actually. It sometimes has a very "clubby" feel to it - you're either in, or you're not. Even though this isn't a big issue now, it might benefit them to address it before YC gets a reputation of arrogance. This is especially important, given YC essentially bashes a thousand egos a year. Even if 1% of those guys start blogs like this, that's bad news.

pg 19y ago
Can you give me an example of something YC does that seems clubby, and that we could do differently to cure that?
- paul 19y ago
  The problem is that success makes other people feel bad, and so even neutral statements get interpreted in the worst possible way, and of course it also attracts haters (such as this 'livinginfirstlife' guy), who will repaint everything to look bad. This was certainly the experience at Google. I don't think that there is necessarily a solution, though it helps to avoid things that could be misinterpreted, even though that also means avoiding some aspects of the truth unfortunately.
  - nostrademons 19y ago
    "The problem is that success makes other people feel bad" It's more that success attracts attention, some fraction of attention will always be negative, and the haters tend to scream louder than the likers. I'm still a loyal GMail user, I still visit Reddit frequently, and (despite some quibbles and a rejection) I generally think YCombinator's done a lot of good for the startup community. But you don't hear from folks like me often: we're happy, the software does what we want it to, so we have little reason to speak up. Folks with a gripe, however, are willing to put countless hours into venting their spleen. That was one of the reasons I left FictionAlley (a non-profit Harry Potter fanfiction archive). 99% of users were very appreciative of what we did. However, 1% were not, and the 1% took up about 80% of our time and attention. When you're not being paid for your work (FA was all-volunteer), 80% is far too much time to spend on people with massive entitlement complexes. (There's perhaps a lesson for prospective founders here: build anything worth visiting, and people will hate you for it. Not a lot, and not nearly as many as it seems, but you better be prepared for it and willing to put it in perspective.) The latest fad in business now seems to be "fire your customers" - get rid of the 1% that soaks up 80% of your attention, so you can better serve the 99% that actually appreciate what you do. I dunno if that's applicable to YC; probably not, since they "fire" 95% of their customers simply through lack of resources and the haters come from the people who're not doing business with them anyways. Ironic, that is...
  - jaf656s 19y ago
    I think it is also important to note that, on the internet, it is easy to misinterpret intention. The same sentence can have almost opposite meaning, depending on the context you read it and the mood you are in when you do. It is especially difficult if you read sound bytes, which are usually taken out of context in the first place.
- brett 19y ago
  I think you'll have a hard time curbing this sentiment because it's a time constraint issue. At some point you have to be exclusionary and focus on a smaller group. There is a necessary and clear delineation between who is part of YC and who is not. Naturally, people who are not part of the group are liable to feel left out. In terms of your treatment of the rest of us however, it strikes me as a real stretch to complain. News.yc is a huge step in terms of general community outreach and so far every time I've contacted someone from YC or a YC startup they've definitely been receptive. So, while I understand Sam's point, I doubt anything can or should be done about it.
- menloparkbum 19y ago
  I didn't realize you had a five-minute rule. The exploding termsheet is back in style for the worst valley B and C-list VC dinks. edit: I'm not saying YC are dinks, but that practice in the valley is very popular amongst the investors you want to avoid.
  - pg 19y ago
    It's more like a two week rule. We give groups we invite to interviews all the deal terms two weeks in advance. So when we tell them we want to fund them, we expect them to have already made up their minds if they want to accept.
- nostrademons 19y ago
  Avoid public statements about how great YC is, how much it improves the average outcome for a startup (unless you can back it up with hard numbers), and how people would be stupid not to accept it. People who would be interested in YC already know that. People who wouldn't be aren't going to change their minds because you say so. I think YC's already doing as much as they realistically can to be inclusive, given their business model. News.YC, the Startup School, and Founders at Work were great steps forwards in that regard. But you're fundamentally limited by time and attention, so there will always be people left out. No need to make them feel even worse about not getting into YC.
  - gms 19y ago
    And then people will complain about how YC is so secretive. Frankly, there's no pleasing some people. If people didn't care for YC-specific statements, what are they doing reading this site?
  - Sam_Odio 19y ago
    I think nostrademons got it spot-on: Avoid public statements about how great YC is It is true, YC offers a great value. In my opinion, YC increases the expected return of a startup by 2-10x. But let others sing YC's praises - it will sound a lot better than if it's coming from the principals. For example, this: "Angels and VCs who don't go to this are missing some of the best innovations," says Ron Conway, the Valley's most celebrated angel investor. Sounds a lot better than this: When Graham calls the winners, the founders have only five minutes to accept. "If people turn us down," he says, "as far as we're concerned they've failed an IQ test." Here's some other suggestions: 1: Like nostrademons already said, data that seems objective is good. Here's a test to find out if YC really does increase the expected return of startups by 2-10x: compare the stats (values if they're available, or maybe just alexa web traffic) of top 2n applicants from previous funding rounds (where n is the number funded in that round). I bet 90% of the most successful ones were YC funded. If readers object to your sample selection, then use the entire population of applicants. My guess is that the majority of successful ones will still be those that were YC funded. 2: As an introvert (which I expect many of us are), I have had to come up with rules for social interaction. One is to ALWAYS credit others for my success. Nobody likes to hear "I'm so successful because of ME, and If you don't think so, you have a low IQ" In YC's situation, you might consider spending more time stressing that YC's success is a function of the teams YC invests in, and even the support of the community that surrounds YC. Focus on how those around YC have played a part and its success. 2. News.YC, the Startup School, and Founders at Work were great steps forwards in that regard These projects are very inclusive, and YC is being very generous by running them. Spend more time stressing these projects, instead of events that might appear more "clubby." For example, instead of talking about the attendees of founder dinners, talk about the fantastic speakers you got at the last startup school, and then mention that it's an event hosted for free by YC. Maybe the founder's program was the focus of the article - and the writer wasn't interested in Startup School. In that case, when you talk about the founder dinners - stress that you cook them yourself. That's the kind of stuff people like to hear about.
- davidw 19y ago
  Random, semi serious ideas, from someone who doesn't really notice or care if YC is "clubby": - Sell YC.news t-shirts, or give some sort of 'make something people want' shirts that goes out to 1) random people on the news site, 2) top karma of the month, something like that... - Open source the mechanical portions of YC. You obviously can't replicate your experience and time for the world to share in, but are there bits and pieces that could be spun out and made into templates to help those who aren't lucky enough to be able to apply/win a spot. Specifically, I'm thinking creation of the company itself, but perhaps there are other things. Just some random thoughts...
- mattjaynes 19y ago
  I hate to see these kinds of discussions happening now that YC is taking off in the press. YC puts out a lot of free content and value into the community already. Unfortunately YC does not scale well. And why should it? It was created at the pleasure of the former Viaweb team and JL. From my limited perspective, the following is what I see as something that may help counter the feeling of exclusion. In the community of PG followers there seems to be a desire to 'belong' somehow more officially, if nothing more than to make conversations easier. News.YC I think helps quite a bit, but when guys in this niche community have to describe themselves it often comes out like this: "I really like to read Paul Graham's articles and talk with other guys that like to read his articles." "I applied for YC and was rejected, but still like to associate with the other YC rejects." Both of those general statements just sound pretty lame when you try to tell your girlfriend (imaginary or real ;) about this little club of startup guys you're involved in. Despite it being totally arbitrary other than to just make conversations easier and reduce exclusionary feelings, it might be useful if there were a more defined way to refer to this yc-affiliated-but-not-officially-part-of-community-of -like-minded-startup-guys. Then those in the community could refer to their involvement in terms that doesn't sound like a fan club and isn't focused on a failed YC application. Ideas?
  - brlewis 19y ago
    I just tell my wife that there's a lot of good knowledge and experience here to exploit, enough that it's well worth letting my own knowledge and wisdom be exploited in return.
- ralph 19y ago
  As an outsider in the UK who has no intention of applying, I agree that there's a "clubby" feel to YC. However, I don't think that's a bad thing; that's part of the benefit of being in a good beneficial club, just like any society. Cure it of that and it will be the lesser for it.
- juwo 19y ago
  My suggestion? Paul and Paul, Robert, Jessica (and whoever else): Try to help each of us, here at news.YC - those who arent part of the elite club of YC funded startups. I dont see any of you helping any of us (those not in the club). What if NOBODY were to apply to YC - would you have this fame and book sales and NY Times interviews? No. You owe your institutional success to us. You are standing on our shoulders. Furthermore, the structure of news.YC is not conducive to the rest of us helping each other. (Nevertheless, I can say I received valuable input from dpapathanasiou, goladus, npk etc., and I tried to provide the same to whoever asked). You have an elite samurai school with yourself as the master and the rejects hanging from the outside gates trying to peer in. You can do whatever you want. But if you are disliked, it comes with the territory. I had an intriguing thought today: we come to resemble those we demonize. You loathe Bill Gates (in my book, he has reformed into a saint), but his early interviews...
  - nostrademons 19y ago
    There are far too many of us on the site for YC to help each and every one of us. That's what the YC admissions process is for: to cut the numbers down to a manageable group. Speaking as a YC reject, I'd rather they limit the numbers and keep the quality up. PG et al aren't doing anyone any good if they "help" all 400 admitted startups but their help consists of a 3 sentence e-mail every month. Also, they may owe their institutional success to "us", with "us" being the class of entrepreneurs, but they don't owe their success to any individual one of "us". I, for example, have done nothing to help YCombinator become successful except spending lots of time on Reddit, and there're thousands of other people who could make that claim.
  - Sam_Odio 19y ago
    Paul and Paul, Robert, Jessica (and whoever else) ... I dont see any of you helping any of us (those not in the club). If you're going to demand that the principals of YC help you, you might start by getting their names right ;). They are (ordered by last name) Trevor, Paul, Jessica and Robert. I think you might be confusing YEurope (that also has a Paul) with YC. Realistically, I don't think you can expect them to help us on an individual basis. They would receive no benefit from doing so, and it would just detract their time from the focus of YC.
- andreyf 19y ago
  Personally, I would have very much appreciated a one or two-sentence personalized response to my rejected application. It can't be that hard to build that into the system, and although I have a decent guess as to why you didn't choose to fund my partner and I, a boilerplate rejection seemed kind of mean (even thought it was a very humble boilerplate rejection)...
  - Sam_Odio 19y ago
    Although I didn't apply, my guess is that this feedback would help tremendously. If implemented correctly, it might not even take much time. The majority of applications were probably rejected for the same few reasons: talent, quality of app, quality of demo, hard to monetize, lack potential market, etc. Only in a minority of cases would YC have to actually write a sentence explaining why the app was rejected.
- maxklein 19y ago
  I'll tell you. You ignore your public. You write technical essays about engineering or social things, but you never address the people you want working with you. You never write a blog entry that makes you (or any of the other founders) like real people who also care about those that are not as clever as the ones you pick. So we sit out here on the curb and think - ah, the cool kids are in this lovely clubhouse with their mentor making cool stuff and going to become millionares. While we sit out here watching through the window. All we see now is the business poker face of ycomb. It's no longer Paul giving money to kids to startup, it's a money making entity with a stern - you don't belong here, go away attitude. That's why there is the minor backlash. You are too busy to talk straight to the normal people, and they resent being left out. What can you do to change this? Try to be less perfect. Appearing vulnerable makes you human, and it makes people empathize with you. Then they make an effort to understand the why of your decisions.
  - ralph 19y ago
    YC make it clear that those that aren't picked may have the best ideas, or be the best people; i.e. that YC are perfect at picking. It seems like you depend too much on YC's verdict as a judgement on yourself. If you had more deserved confidence in your own ability perhaps you'd see their actions differently? pg's articles talk to "normal" people all the time.
  - nostrademons 19y ago
    "While we sit out here watching through the window." There's nothing that stops you from making cool stuff while sitting outside on the grass. I was rejected by YC, but I just figure I need to work a little harder. YC is not the ultimate verdict on the success of your startup.
- brianmckenzie 19y ago
  I am absolutely baffled as to how anyone could see YC as 'clubby', elitist, or whatever peoples' problem seems to be. Can anyone name another angel or VC firm that is more transparent than YC, or contributes more to the web startup world? It seems like a number of people on here were staking the entire existence of their startup on YC funding - that's not an entrepreneurial attitude. If you have something worthwhile you'll build and launch it with or without YC. Don't change a thing, Paul.
euccastro 19y ago
I only see unwarranted 'clubbiness' in the negative spaces- that is, in the supplicant/resented attitude of a minority of the people that didn't make the filter. I'm sure most of you understand that there is no room for all, and that the YCombinator folks are not taking anything from you by making others happy. It's not like pg is rubbing it in your face either. He even went out of his way to write an it's-not-you-it's-me essay, to prevent applicants from taking the rejection personally.
- jason13 19y ago
  Oh he actually wrote a "it's-not-you-it's-me essay", I actually didn't think he was arrogant, until you mentioned that. If that is true, then he really is arrogant.
  - euccastro 19y ago
    Oops.. I was aiming for the cliche about the girl trying not to hurt her boyfriend when breaking up. FWIW, this is the essay. Forget about my broken metaphor and just judge for yourself http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html
Andys 19y ago
If YC is doing anything wrong, it is that it is too transparent. Imagine if some of the top Wall St firms were as open about their business dealings. It would redefine the whole meaning of "Clubby".

pg 19y ago

Can you give me an example of something YC does that seems clubby, and that we could do differently to cure that?

paul 19y ago
The problem is that success makes other people feel bad, and so even neutral statements get interpreted in the worst possible way, and of course it also attracts haters (such as this 'livinginfirstlife' guy), who will repaint everything to look bad. This was certainly the experience at Google. I don't think that there is necessarily a solution, though it helps to avoid things that could be misinterpreted, even though that also means avoiding some aspects of the truth unfortunately.
- nostrademons 19y ago
  "The problem is that success makes other people feel bad" It's more that success attracts attention, some fraction of attention will always be negative, and the haters tend to scream louder than the likers. I'm still a loyal GMail user, I still visit Reddit frequently, and (despite some quibbles and a rejection) I generally think YCombinator's done a lot of good for the startup community. But you don't hear from folks like me often: we're happy, the software does what we want it to, so we have little reason to speak up. Folks with a gripe, however, are willing to put countless hours into venting their spleen. That was one of the reasons I left FictionAlley (a non-profit Harry Potter fanfiction archive). 99% of users were very appreciative of what we did. However, 1% were not, and the 1% took up about 80% of our time and attention. When you're not being paid for your work (FA was all-volunteer), 80% is far too much time to spend on people with massive entitlement complexes. (There's perhaps a lesson for prospective founders here: build anything worth visiting, and people will hate you for it. Not a lot, and not nearly as many as it seems, but you better be prepared for it and willing to put it in perspective.) The latest fad in business now seems to be "fire your customers" - get rid of the 1% that soaks up 80% of your attention, so you can better serve the 99% that actually appreciate what you do. I dunno if that's applicable to YC; probably not, since they "fire" 95% of their customers simply through lack of resources and the haters come from the people who're not doing business with them anyways. Ironic, that is...
- jaf656s 19y ago
  I think it is also important to note that, on the internet, it is easy to misinterpret intention. The same sentence can have almost opposite meaning, depending on the context you read it and the mood you are in when you do. It is especially difficult if you read sound bytes, which are usually taken out of context in the first place.
brett 19y ago
I think you'll have a hard time curbing this sentiment because it's a time constraint issue. At some point you have to be exclusionary and focus on a smaller group. There is a necessary and clear delineation between who is part of YC and who is not. Naturally, people who are not part of the group are liable to feel left out. In terms of your treatment of the rest of us however, it strikes me as a real stretch to complain. News.yc is a huge step in terms of general community outreach and so far every time I've contacted someone from YC or a YC startup they've definitely been receptive. So, while I understand Sam's point, I doubt anything can or should be done about it.
menloparkbum 19y ago
I didn't realize you had a five-minute rule. The exploding termsheet is back in style for the worst valley B and C-list VC dinks. edit: I'm not saying YC are dinks, but that practice in the valley is very popular amongst the investors you want to avoid.
- pg 19y ago
  It's more like a two week rule. We give groups we invite to interviews all the deal terms two weeks in advance. So when we tell them we want to fund them, we expect them to have already made up their minds if they want to accept.
nostrademons 19y ago
Avoid public statements about how great YC is, how much it improves the average outcome for a startup (unless you can back it up with hard numbers), and how people would be stupid not to accept it. People who would be interested in YC already know that. People who wouldn't be aren't going to change their minds because you say so. I think YC's already doing as much as they realistically can to be inclusive, given their business model. News.YC, the Startup School, and Founders at Work were great steps forwards in that regard. But you're fundamentally limited by time and attention, so there will always be people left out. No need to make them feel even worse about not getting into YC.
- gms 19y ago
  And then people will complain about how YC is so secretive. Frankly, there's no pleasing some people. If people didn't care for YC-specific statements, what are they doing reading this site?
- Sam_Odio 19y ago
  I think nostrademons got it spot-on: Avoid public statements about how great YC is It is true, YC offers a great value. In my opinion, YC increases the expected return of a startup by 2-10x. But let others sing YC's praises - it will sound a lot better than if it's coming from the principals. For example, this: "Angels and VCs who don't go to this are missing some of the best innovations," says Ron Conway, the Valley's most celebrated angel investor. Sounds a lot better than this: When Graham calls the winners, the founders have only five minutes to accept. "If people turn us down," he says, "as far as we're concerned they've failed an IQ test." Here's some other suggestions: 1: Like nostrademons already said, data that seems objective is good. Here's a test to find out if YC really does increase the expected return of startups by 2-10x: compare the stats (values if they're available, or maybe just alexa web traffic) of top 2n applicants from previous funding rounds (where n is the number funded in that round). I bet 90% of the most successful ones were YC funded. If readers object to your sample selection, then use the entire population of applicants. My guess is that the majority of successful ones will still be those that were YC funded. 2: As an introvert (which I expect many of us are), I have had to come up with rules for social interaction. One is to ALWAYS credit others for my success. Nobody likes to hear "I'm so successful because of ME, and If you don't think so, you have a low IQ" In YC's situation, you might consider spending more time stressing that YC's success is a function of the teams YC invests in, and even the support of the community that surrounds YC. Focus on how those around YC have played a part and its success. 2. News.YC, the Startup School, and Founders at Work were great steps forwards in that regard These projects are very inclusive, and YC is being very generous by running them. Spend more time stressing these projects, instead of events that might appear more "clubby." For example, instead of talking about the attendees of founder dinners, talk about the fantastic speakers you got at the last startup school, and then mention that it's an event hosted for free by YC. Maybe the founder's program was the focus of the article - and the writer wasn't interested in Startup School. In that case, when you talk about the founder dinners - stress that you cook them yourself. That's the kind of stuff people like to hear about.
davidw 19y ago
Random, semi serious ideas, from someone who doesn't really notice or care if YC is "clubby": - Sell YC.news t-shirts, or give some sort of 'make something people want' shirts that goes out to 1) random people on the news site, 2) top karma of the month, something like that... - Open source the mechanical portions of YC. You obviously can't replicate your experience and time for the world to share in, but are there bits and pieces that could be spun out and made into templates to help those who aren't lucky enough to be able to apply/win a spot. Specifically, I'm thinking creation of the company itself, but perhaps there are other things. Just some random thoughts...
mattjaynes 19y ago
I hate to see these kinds of discussions happening now that YC is taking off in the press. YC puts out a lot of free content and value into the community already. Unfortunately YC does not scale well. And why should it? It was created at the pleasure of the former Viaweb team and JL. From my limited perspective, the following is what I see as something that may help counter the feeling of exclusion. In the community of PG followers there seems to be a desire to 'belong' somehow more officially, if nothing more than to make conversations easier. News.YC I think helps quite a bit, but when guys in this niche community have to describe themselves it often comes out like this: "I really like to read Paul Graham's articles and talk with other guys that like to read his articles." "I applied for YC and was rejected, but still like to associate with the other YC rejects." Both of those general statements just sound pretty lame when you try to tell your girlfriend (imaginary or real ;) about this little club of startup guys you're involved in. Despite it being totally arbitrary other than to just make conversations easier and reduce exclusionary feelings, it might be useful if there were a more defined way to refer to this yc-affiliated-but-not-officially-part-of-community-of -like-minded-startup-guys. Then those in the community could refer to their involvement in terms that doesn't sound like a fan club and isn't focused on a failed YC application. Ideas?
- brlewis 19y ago
  I just tell my wife that there's a lot of good knowledge and experience here to exploit, enough that it's well worth letting my own knowledge and wisdom be exploited in return.
ralph 19y ago
As an outsider in the UK who has no intention of applying, I agree that there's a "clubby" feel to YC. However, I don't think that's a bad thing; that's part of the benefit of being in a good beneficial club, just like any society. Cure it of that and it will be the lesser for it.
juwo 19y ago
My suggestion? Paul and Paul, Robert, Jessica (and whoever else): Try to help each of us, here at news.YC - those who arent part of the elite club of YC funded startups. I dont see any of you helping any of us (those not in the club). What if NOBODY were to apply to YC - would you have this fame and book sales and NY Times interviews? No. You owe your institutional success to us. You are standing on our shoulders. Furthermore, the structure of news.YC is not conducive to the rest of us helping each other. (Nevertheless, I can say I received valuable input from dpapathanasiou, goladus, npk etc., and I tried to provide the same to whoever asked). You have an elite samurai school with yourself as the master and the rejects hanging from the outside gates trying to peer in. You can do whatever you want. But if you are disliked, it comes with the territory. I had an intriguing thought today: we come to resemble those we demonize. You loathe Bill Gates (in my book, he has reformed into a saint), but his early interviews...
- nostrademons 19y ago
  There are far too many of us on the site for YC to help each and every one of us. That's what the YC admissions process is for: to cut the numbers down to a manageable group. Speaking as a YC reject, I'd rather they limit the numbers and keep the quality up. PG et al aren't doing anyone any good if they "help" all 400 admitted startups but their help consists of a 3 sentence e-mail every month. Also, they may owe their institutional success to "us", with "us" being the class of entrepreneurs, but they don't owe their success to any individual one of "us". I, for example, have done nothing to help YCombinator become successful except spending lots of time on Reddit, and there're thousands of other people who could make that claim.
- Sam_Odio 19y ago
  Paul and Paul, Robert, Jessica (and whoever else) ... I dont see any of you helping any of us (those not in the club). If you're going to demand that the principals of YC help you, you might start by getting their names right ;). They are (ordered by last name) Trevor, Paul, Jessica and Robert. I think you might be confusing YEurope (that also has a Paul) with YC. Realistically, I don't think you can expect them to help us on an individual basis. They would receive no benefit from doing so, and it would just detract their time from the focus of YC.
andreyf 19y ago
Personally, I would have very much appreciated a one or two-sentence personalized response to my rejected application. It can't be that hard to build that into the system, and although I have a decent guess as to why you didn't choose to fund my partner and I, a boilerplate rejection seemed kind of mean (even thought it was a very humble boilerplate rejection)...
- Sam_Odio 19y ago
  Although I didn't apply, my guess is that this feedback would help tremendously. If implemented correctly, it might not even take much time. The majority of applications were probably rejected for the same few reasons: talent, quality of app, quality of demo, hard to monetize, lack potential market, etc. Only in a minority of cases would YC have to actually write a sentence explaining why the app was rejected.
maxklein 19y ago
I'll tell you. You ignore your public. You write technical essays about engineering or social things, but you never address the people you want working with you. You never write a blog entry that makes you (or any of the other founders) like real people who also care about those that are not as clever as the ones you pick. So we sit out here on the curb and think - ah, the cool kids are in this lovely clubhouse with their mentor making cool stuff and going to become millionares. While we sit out here watching through the window. All we see now is the business poker face of ycomb. It's no longer Paul giving money to kids to startup, it's a money making entity with a stern - you don't belong here, go away attitude. That's why there is the minor backlash. You are too busy to talk straight to the normal people, and they resent being left out. What can you do to change this? Try to be less perfect. Appearing vulnerable makes you human, and it makes people empathize with you. Then they make an effort to understand the why of your decisions.
- ralph 19y ago
  YC make it clear that those that aren't picked may have the best ideas, or be the best people; i.e. that YC are perfect at picking. It seems like you depend too much on YC's verdict as a judgement on yourself. If you had more deserved confidence in your own ability perhaps you'd see their actions differently? pg's articles talk to "normal" people all the time.
- nostrademons 19y ago
  "While we sit out here watching through the window." There's nothing that stops you from making cool stuff while sitting outside on the grass. I was rejected by YC, but I just figure I need to work a little harder. YC is not the ultimate verdict on the success of your startup.
brianmckenzie 19y ago
I am absolutely baffled as to how anyone could see YC as 'clubby', elitist, or whatever peoples' problem seems to be. Can anyone name another angel or VC firm that is more transparent than YC, or contributes more to the web startup world? It seems like a number of people on here were staking the entire existence of their startup on YC funding - that's not an entrepreneurial attitude. If you have something worthwhile you'll build and launch it with or without YC. Don't change a thing, Paul.

euccastro 19y ago

I only see unwarranted 'clubbiness' in the negative spaces- that is, in the supplicant/resented attitude of a minority of the people that didn't make the filter. I'm sure most of you understand that there is no room for all, and that the YCombinator folks are not taking anything from you by making others happy. It's not like pg is rubbing it in your face either. He even went out of his way to write an it's-not-you-it's-me essay, to prevent applicants from taking the rejection personally.

jason13 19y ago
Oh he actually wrote a "it's-not-you-it's-me essay", I actually didn't think he was arrogant, until you mentioned that. If that is true, then he really is arrogant.
- euccastro 19y ago
  Oops.. I was aiming for the cliche about the girl trying not to hurt her boyfriend when breaking up. FWIW, this is the essay. Forget about my broken metaphor and just judge for yourself http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html

Andys 19y ago

If YC is doing anything wrong, it is that it is too transparent. Imagine if some of the top Wall St firms were as open about their business dealings. It would redefine the whole meaning of "Clubby".