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Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs
- greazy 5y agoA good number is focusing on dna sequencing. Very interesting to see if these will be successful. I highly doubt it as someone who works in the field. Zenopower seems insane though. How does a 23 year old lead an company working on nuclear power?
- rubyn00bie 5y agoI didn't know there was so readily a list of places I'd never want to work. Gonna bookmark this site to make sure I never do business with any of them. The most depressing part is how young they all are; which is of course, because they're easier to manipulate lacking real world experience.
- rubidium 5y ago“ Lada Nuzhna: 22, Kyiv, Ukraine Lada researches and develops biological tools to better visualize and manage biology at the molecular level.” Um this is pretty cool. Don’t know why you’re categorically dismissive.
- ihsw 5y ago[dead]
- SavantIdiot 5y agoI think the concern is that they are taking money from someone with highly debatable/questionable ethics.
- halpert 5y agoIsn’t that true of any public company though? And likely most private ones as well.
- SavantIdiot 5y agoA) On what basis do you claim that all public companies are not ethical? (You said "any", but by definition that means "all".) B) By that logic, isn't all money tainted? And everyone of us? And every thing? This is the starting point of every person's decisions regarding being ethical. How far back do you need to "follow the money" before you consider it "ethical"? That is up to every person. Theil has actively engaged in dubious ethics, I won't belabor them again. With him it is one hop to "dubious", compared to other organizations where you have to make several graph node hops to get to something dubius. This is a personal choice and everyone has to do their own research if they care about it.
- halpert 5y agoI’m not claiming that all public companies are unethical. I’m claiming that all public companies have some unethical investors. That is, the operations of the company directly benefit some unethical actors. This has nothing to do with “money being tainted” in general. Just to be clear, this is what you said that I was responding to: > I think the concern is that they are taking money from someone with highly debatable/questionable ethics. Some investors in almost all public companies have highly debatable ethics.
- SavantIdiot 5y agoIt's the "Thiel Foundation". It is in his name. But that is why I said it is up to the individual. Some people could care less, other people at least want to know if the board is ethical. I would put in the effort to know if any shady people were on the board of the company I'm taking money from. And if new information came to light after the fact, I would cease taking money. You can't know everything about everything, and not even attempting to be ethical because you don't have all the information without doing any research is, IMHO, cowardly. It's the "if we can't fix this one big thing why bother doing any of these other things" fallacy. But that's just me and my ilk. It's easy to make fun of someone trying to be ethical or who cares, because you can't know everything. That's what trolls do for fun. But I think it takes courage to try to stand for something you believe in. Again, that's just me and my ilk.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- emmett 5y agoDo you even know what the Thiel Fellowships are? Whatever you think of his politics, he literally gives away money to promising young people to help them realize their dreams...in exchange for no equity. Are you really saying that, because you dislike Thiel, you'd never do business with anyone who accepted free money from him?
- sebastien_b 5y agoPersonally, knowing what I know about him, I wouldn’t want any of his money. That’s just me personally, and I wouldn’t judge others by what I would do, but many people do.
- Kranar 5y ago
- sebastien_b 5y agoI fail to see the relevance of your own post as well, and frankly, I don’t see why I’d have to explain myself to you or anyone else, just as I don’t expect any from you.
- Kranar 5y agoThe point of my post is that there is nothing particularly significant about claiming that you would refuse to take money from someone who is never going to offer it to you to begin with. It's a completely worthless and trivial statement that comes across as posturing.
- johnny_b_g 5y agoAs opposed to posting an opinion as a "comment" to try to get that last word?
- samhw 5y agoI mean, it's called a hypothetical. They're pretty common. They can even be used as thought experiments to bring out interesting aspects of moral questions.
- vanusa 5y agoThey're young (and some live in foreign countries) and in any case probably have no idea what Thiel is really about. I say give them a chance to repent and rehabilitate. I'd definitely not want to work for a company that takes Thiel's money or has any of his acolytes or close associates on board, though.
- version_five 5y ago> They're young (and some live in foreign countries) I don't think it's fair to assume that startup founders who have applied to a Thiel Fellowship did so because of ignorance (or because they are young or "foreign"). This is an amazing opportunity for many people and highly competitive. I even see an upside to companies automatically being able to filter their hiring for people that don't get hung up on this. If someone won't work for a company because a particular VC funded it, I can imagine there a much higher probability of that person causing trouble wherever they end up
- vanusa 5y agoI don't think it's fair to assume that startup founders who have applied to a Thiel Fellowship did so because of ignorance (or because they are young or "foreign"). My assumption is they obviously know he's a "titan of industry" and that's obviously why they applied for the fellowship. They may not know or care about his politics, and (yes, partially due to the fact that the bulk of these events transpired when they were much younger) may not be aware of some of his more loathsome antics. I'm not condemning these people, or saying they're stupid. If anything I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, here. If someone won't work for a company because a particular VC funded it, I can imagine there a much higher probability of that person causing trouble wherever they end up. It's called ethical backbone. It is perfectly acceptable to not want to work for companies that are engaged in any manner of unethical practices. Or for people who are basically unethical and/or toxic. Or for companies they fund. If this kind of stance falls under the rubric of "causing trouble" then well, that's the world you chose to live in.
- dang 5y ago"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." "Please don't fulminate." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html This kind of comment doesn't help, even in the case that you're right. Edit: you've unfortunately been doing this repeatedly. We ban that sort of account, so please stop. We've already had to ask you more than once about this.
- adem 5y agoCTRL+F "climate" - Phrase not found. This is saddening. But hey, at least blockchain is present!
- finite_jest 5y ago> Zeno Power is developing small-scale nuclear power systems to provide clean and resilient power in austere environments. Also, not everyone has to frame and align every single one of their actions in accordance with the "progressive" view.
- JohnTHaller 5y agoOnly certain folks think of the climate as a '"progressive" view'
- finite_jest 5y agoNot really. It is certainly an issue which progressives put more weight on. And there is a disagreement on the solutions too: progressives are generally apprehensive about nuclear. [1] You can personally attack me with any one of the "certain" labels in the arsenal. But you can also choose to argue in good faith. [1]: e.g. https://www.greenamerica.org/fight-dirty-energy/amazon-build-cleaner-cloud/10-reasons-oppose-nuclear-energy https://www.greenamerica.org/fight-dirty-energy/amazon-build...
- samhw 5y ago> And there is a disagreement on the solutions too: progressives are generally apprehensive about nuclear. Yeah, this is one of the things I really hate about my side of the aisle. It's stupid, unscientific, and just plain uninformed. Nuclear energy is one of our best, most actually viable ways out of this mess. (File with: GMO crops, 'chemicals', etc.)
- JohnTHaller 5y agoI replied to parent. Democrats now poll around 60% in favor of nuclear energy while Republicans poll at 64% in favor. It changed a lot in a few years.
- petenick 5y ago
- dnautics 5y agoKind of disappointing that the thiel fellowship has finally descended into "fund kids who already have businesses". It was more interesting when it was "fund kids who have <generic> potential", but also I did watch the fellowship struggle to match fundable ideas with money (that is actually hard and takes effort, reputational risk, followthrough, discipline, that I think only one person I knew in the org had - and she left a while back, and probably investments in real leadership training and real mentorship that they weren't willing to do) much less know what to do with smart kids that had good ideas that weren't fundable/profitable.
- ksec 5y agoConsidering Peter Thiel is on the list [1] of most hated person on HN and Silicon Valley, I am kinda surprised this reached front page. Does Peter Thiel still does VC? I thought he left YC and Silicon Valley. [1] Mark Zukerberg, Larry Ellison and Peter Thiel.
- adventured 5y ago> Does Peter Thiel still does VC? I thought he left YC and Silicon Valley. They've recently legalized doing venture capital in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Boston and dozens of other cities (including those outside of the US too).
- ibn-python 5y agoWhat do you mean legalized? Was it not legal before?
- laingc 5y agoI can't speak for Silicon Valley, nor for the majority of HN, but my (obviously biased) sample of approximately 20 HN-reading friends are all massive Thiel fans. Myself included. So perhaps there are more of us than you think, we're just not keen to speak up in the comments section because it just invites a flame war?
- samhw 5y agoIf your 20 friends are all "massive fans" of a given person, I agree, that's a pretty solid indicator of significant bias. Well, maybe not if that person were the Dalai Lama or something like that, but Thiel is not the Dalai Lama. (Even a regular llama would be strong competition.) I should add that the same would very much apply if all your 20 friends felt the opposite way - that would be closer to the norm, but still implausibly unanimous.
- laingc 5y ago> If your 20 friends are all "massive fans" of a given person, I agree, that's a pretty solid indicator of significant bias. I'm glad you agree. Would you say that the tone of your comment reinforces, diminishes, or is neutral with respect to my comment about starting flame wars?
- narrator 5y ago
- newsbinator 5y agoNone of these businesses actually replace a USB drive :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- bsder 5y agoWhen I see someone funding a 40 year old and providing indemnification, I'll believe that they have a hope of doing anything in the biomedical space. Biomedical is NOT stuck for innovation or execution. It is stuck on indemnifcation. For example, one doctor developed an asthma sensor for his daughter that would automatically let the school nurse know, let him know, and call 911 for an ambulance if the attack was bad enough. It works really well. Nobody will touch it with a 10 foot pole because when it doesn't work and somebody's child dies, there is an inevitable lawsuit incoming. This is where biomedical is stuck--not engineering.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y agoWell, yeah. If the purpose of your biomedical device is to measure x or y or z so the patient can make a certain decision, you need to be able to prove that your device can provide accurate enough data for the patient to make that decision. If the purpose of your device is to provide alerts, you need to prove that it your device actually alerts the patient at the right time. To do this you need accurate continuous measurements, and a proven system that alerts the user based on that data. This is extremely difficult. I work for Dexcom, the only company that makes an FDA approved glucose monitor that can both fire alerts, and is approved for use by children under 12. We started with a very small team and it took a solid decade before we got FDA approval, but FDA approval is basically the highest bar for a medical device. So much so that many nations automatically greenlight any device with FDA approval. If you've built something, and you can't prove with documentation that the specific device you're selling a customer will work exactly as advertised, before they take it out of the box, you can always sell your probably-works device to another nation (or nations) first until you get your ducks in a row for the FDA.
- bunkydoo 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]