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There are lots of negative risks from taking VC money. Even freshly minted from university there are enough true horror stories like this on the internet to lea

There are lots of negative risks from taking VC money. Even freshly minted from university there are enough true horror stories like this on the internet to learn from. But working in an incubator you see it all and have little excuse to be surprised (I was a founder and we were in an incubator for a while - saw some of the action!). Avoiding outcomes like these would be a reason I would go through YC if I wanted to chase VC money rather than bootstrap. Having a strong minority investor beside you; one where the VCs do repeat business, and one the VCs care about their reputation, would be very helpful. > Tech people need to retain way more of the equity That's just fantasy. Common shares really suck: VC rights trump and VC model has a lot of dilution built into the success case. The median return of a any business is zero. VC money gears the risks higher for a Tech/investor. Good luck!

j45 3y ago
>That's just fantasy. YCombinator started partially to change the fantasy. Not fantasy at all. Below recent video from YC for technical founders on balance that's not occurring. The lack of healthy balance between founders leads to risking investments more than they are. If the VC model is imablanced and it incentivizes non-tech founders to do the same, both will need to understand the cheaper it gets to build and scale larger and larger. Leveraging young founders or tech talent who might not know any better won't last long, it seems founders are learning from the experiences of others now that there have been so many more funded startups. YC clearly talks about avoiding co-founders and situations that rip off the technical founder when they are creating so much equal value to anyone else in the start. "How not to get screwed as a software engineer". What they see in applications from a mile away from people being exploited in applications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfVjd_oV1I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfVjd_oV1I
- robocat 3y ago
  Relevant discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38477057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38477057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38632269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38632269
- robocat 3y ago
  This essay is about the reality of VC power versus founders: https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/02/18/relationships-and-power-startup-ecosystems/ https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/02/18/relationships-and-... We can talk about the balance of power between founders and we can encourage technical founders, but VC actually holds the cards.

j45 3y ago

>That's just fantasy. YCombinator started partially to change the fantasy. Not fantasy at all. Below recent video from YC for technical founders on balance that's not occurring. The lack of healthy balance between founders leads to risking investments more than they are. If the VC model is imablanced and it incentivizes non-tech founders to do the same, both will need to understand the cheaper it gets to build and scale larger and larger. Leveraging young founders or tech talent who might not know any better won't last long, it seems founders are learning from the experiences of others now that there have been so many more funded startups. YC clearly talks about avoiding co-founders and situations that rip off the technical founder when they are creating so much equal value to anyone else in the start. "How not to get screwed as a software engineer". What they see in applications from a mile away from people being exploited in applications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfVjd_oV1I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfVjd_oV1I

robocat 3y ago
Relevant discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38477057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38477057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38632269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38632269
robocat 3y ago
This essay is about the reality of VC power versus founders: https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/02/18/relationships-and-power-startup-ecosystems/ https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/02/18/relationships-and-... We can talk about the balance of power between founders and we can encourage technical founders, but VC actually holds the cards.