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For the uninitiated like myself, PearAi just took the source code of continue.dev (not fork, they copy pasted) and did some clunky work on it. That was their en

by a1371 2y ago

For the uninitiated like myself, PearAi just took the source code of continue.dev (not fork, they copy pasted) and did some clunky work on it. That was their entry to YC.

neom 2y ago
And to save anyone else looking it up, seems to be continue.dev is using Apache License in their repos. (also, I did some poking around, this is the founder 3 months ago talking about using continue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0OylwLzBQw&t=257s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0OylwLzBQw&t=257s - no horse in this race, just sharing)
pj_mukh 2y ago
"did some clunky work on it. That was their entry to YC" For more context, YC doesn't judge your code, never has. It was never a code quality competition. Orthogonally, they do judge the results (user metrics).
- FactKnower69 2y ago
  >For more context, YC doesn't judge your code, never has. It was never a code quality competition. it shows
  - pj_mukh 2y ago
    Yea it does! [1]. [1]: https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-176-annual-return-of-a-yc-startup-index-cf4ba8ebef19 https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-176-annual-return-of-a...
- moomin 2y ago
  Yeah, but they used to care about your moat and “Did some easily replicable work on a product anyone can duplicate.” ain’t it.
  - pj_mukh 2y ago
    Did they? YC regularly funded competitors. This was always true. Fundamentally, YC is betting on founders. They're optimizing for founders who can move fast enough to find a moat before they die, that's it. They fund competitors because most YC companies usually pivot out anyway.
thornewolf 2y ago
for additional uninitiatedness: one of the founders is "Frying Pan", a popular youtuber. There has been previous discussion on the fact that the cost to build software is approaching 0. If that is given, maybe "taste" is all that matters. Funding a ~productless popular youtuber is a great way to test if "taste" and "brand" is better to invest in than tech in the years to come.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  > There has been previous discussion on the fact that the cost to build software is approaching 0. People have been claiming that since COBOL came out (actually, probably before; I bet some people claimed it about _assembler_), so, er, yeah, will believe that one when I see it.
- gfourfour 2y ago
  “Taste” is something that’s developed through repetitive exposure to differentiated items in a particular set, combined with extremely high abstract analytical abilities, and that’s something completely different from having marketing or personal branding skills. I think you’re right that that’s the evaluation happening, but it’s totally misguided. If you’re indexing for differentiating levels of taste I would be very wary of empty vessel young influencers. Taste is built over years and years and imo requires a certain disdain for the crowd. Look at Linus Torvalds as a pinnacle of taste in code for example.

by a1371 2y ago

For the uninitiated like myself, PearAi just took the source code of continue.dev (not fork, they copy pasted) and did some clunky work on it. That was their entry to YC.

neom 2y ago

And to save anyone else looking it up, seems to be continue.dev is using Apache License in their repos. (also, I did some poking around, this is the founder 3 months ago talking about using continue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0OylwLzBQw&t=257s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0OylwLzBQw&t=257s - no horse in this race, just sharing)

pj_mukh 2y ago

"did some clunky work on it. That was their entry to YC" For more context, YC doesn't judge your code, never has. It was never a code quality competition. Orthogonally, they do judge the results (user metrics).

FactKnower69 2y ago
>For more context, YC doesn't judge your code, never has. It was never a code quality competition. it shows
- pj_mukh 2y ago
  Yea it does! [1]. [1]: https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-176-annual-return-of-a-yc-startup-index-cf4ba8ebef19 https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-176-annual-return-of-a...
moomin 2y ago
Yeah, but they used to care about your moat and “Did some easily replicable work on a product anyone can duplicate.” ain’t it.
- pj_mukh 2y ago
  Did they? YC regularly funded competitors. This was always true. Fundamentally, YC is betting on founders. They're optimizing for founders who can move fast enough to find a moat before they die, that's it. They fund competitors because most YC companies usually pivot out anyway.

thornewolf 2y ago

for additional uninitiatedness: one of the founders is "Frying Pan", a popular youtuber. There has been previous discussion on the fact that the cost to build software is approaching 0. If that is given, maybe "taste" is all that matters. Funding a ~productless popular youtuber is a great way to test if "taste" and "brand" is better to invest in than tech in the years to come.

rsynnott 2y ago
> There has been previous discussion on the fact that the cost to build software is approaching 0. People have been claiming that since COBOL came out (actually, probably before; I bet some people claimed it about _assembler_), so, er, yeah, will believe that one when I see it.
gfourfour 2y ago
“Taste” is something that’s developed through repetitive exposure to differentiated items in a particular set, combined with extremely high abstract analytical abilities, and that’s something completely different from having marketing or personal branding skills. I think you’re right that that’s the evaluation happening, but it’s totally misguided. If you’re indexing for differentiating levels of taste I would be very wary of empty vessel young influencers. Taste is built over years and years and imo requires a certain disdain for the crowd. Look at Linus Torvalds as a pinnacle of taste in code for example.