The line between leveraging networks and being a "mob boss" is really more of a matter of perspective. Say I'm a photographer, and I know a couple good makeup

The line between leveraging networks and being a "mob boss" is really more of a matter of perspective. Say I'm a photographer, and I know a couple good makeup artists. A client is searching for a makeup artist and I refer them to someone I know. Chances are, had I not given this referral some other makeup artist would have been chosen by this client. From the perspective of other makeup artists, I acted like a mob boss. From my perspective, I just made use of my network. A lot of what's alleged in this thread can be attributed to network effects among YC. Startup gets referred to Stripe because YC knows them. Stripe gets more coverage on HN because YC-backed companies are of more interest to the HN readership. Ultimately, I can empathize with Ryan's perspective. But I'm not seeing any sort of "mob boss" behavior here.