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It seems YC encourages growth at all costs. AirBnb constantly broke city laws, they have outrageous cleaning fees, you pay 1.5x the price with fees. DoorDash st

by nojvek 6y ago

It seems YC encourages growth at all costs. AirBnb constantly broke city laws, they have outrageous cleaning fees, you pay 1.5x the price with fees. DoorDash stole tips from their drivers. However YC turns a blind eye and praises them for their growth. Reading Paul Graham’s recent essay have been disappointing. It doesn’t paint the full picture nor does it consider 2nd order effects. Recent DoorDash and Airbnb posts have quite a bit of survivor bias in them.

trymas 6y ago
I do not like to be negative and YC with PG are brilliant at what they do, but AirBnb and this self praising rubs me the wrong way. I had only bad experiences with AirBnb and after couple attempts will never use it again. Arguably it was long time ago and maybe the company changed, but I do not think I will ever use it, because there's plenty of sites which fulfil my needs. Problems for me with AirBnb (and their hosts) are: - Pricing dark patterns. Fees balloon the price above the price of proper hotels. - You can avoid cleaning fees, but then you will get filthy apartment for outrageous money. Even proper hostel would be better thing for your money then. - No where to complain other than to airbnb itself, as hosts usually are not registered businesses. All in all what I got from AirBnb is what they were creating - couchsurfing for money, but shittier. You pay price of a hotel, but get someones shitty couch, without socialisation, experience sharing, etc.
JamesAdir 6y ago
I'm happy to see this comment. All the investors in the world looks first and foremost to make money. They paint this in different colors and VC investors in SF are no different. But the rule remains the same - they are here to make money. If a competitor of Airbnb would have broke the law they would have accused him in unfair business, but if its' their own investment then everything they do is kosher in the way to the final target which is making even more money. So sad to see this culture and really happy that many people are finally seeing this investors and companies as true as they are.

by nojvek 6y ago

trymas 6y ago

I do not like to be negative and YC with PG are brilliant at what they do, but AirBnb and this self praising rubs me the wrong way. I had only bad experiences with AirBnb and after couple attempts will never use it again. Arguably it was long time ago and maybe the company changed, but I do not think I will ever use it, because there's plenty of sites which fulfil my needs. Problems for me with AirBnb (and their hosts) are: - Pricing dark patterns. Fees balloon the price above the price of proper hotels. - You can avoid cleaning fees, but then you will get filthy apartment for outrageous money. Even proper hostel would be better thing for your money then. - No where to complain other than to airbnb itself, as hosts usually are not registered businesses. All in all what I got from AirBnb is what they were creating - couchsurfing for money, but shittier. You pay price of a hotel, but get someones shitty couch, without socialisation, experience sharing, etc.

JamesAdir 6y ago

I'm happy to see this comment. All the investors in the world looks first and foremost to make money. They paint this in different colors and VC investors in SF are no different. But the rule remains the same - they are here to make money. If a competitor of Airbnb would have broke the law they would have accused him in unfair business, but if its' their own investment then everything they do is kosher in the way to the final target which is making even more money. So sad to see this culture and really happy that many people are finally seeing this investors and companies as true as they are.