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Gives me weirdo Thiel vibes who pays (or used to pay) kids to drop out of college and start a company for him.

by shafyy 1y ago

sungam 1y ago
In fairness, while I’m sure it didn’t work out for all of them, one of these students became one of the youngest self made billionaires in history
- flkenosad 1y ago
  He did it to the smartest kid in our CS class. I feel bad now because I feel like he deserves a degree.
  - cinntaile 1y ago
    He'll receive plenty of opportunities regardless of degree so I don't see why you feel sorry for him.
    - flkenosad 1y ago
      He would have made a fantastic professor in my opinion. But I think also, certain opportunities just require a degree on a policy level.
  - ohyoutravel 1y ago
    A classmate of mine dropped out to do this. Failed, and ended up picking up later to finish the last two years of college. It really didn’t seem to have slowed them down, and finishing college a few years later (with some startup founders experience) seems to have been overall good. Unfortunately did end up going to Boston Consulting Group from on-campus recruiting, so not a great end to the story, but historically that’s a high-ish paying and hard to get job.
    - skeeter2020 1y ago
      I get the feeling only very affluent and well-supported people follow this path, and they probably don't need THiel's money to do it. The vast majority don't have a few years at this stage of their life to play the lottery.
      - disgruntledphd2 1y ago
        Yeah, I hung out with one of the early batches of these people (my former supervisor was involved) and would agree that they tended to be from better off families. How much of that was the Ivy league selection bias vs anything else I dunno though.
- shafyy 1y ago
  Doesn't mean that this was a good thing for them. For example, many kid actors who become rich and famous are not happy.
- squigz 1y ago
  I mean... is it self-made if a billionaire helped you?
Thorrez 1y ago
It seems kind of the opposite to me. YC is allowing you to finish school. You don't need to drop out.
DonHopkins 1y ago
Or weirdo Russ Hanneman vibes who bought a company called The Lady so he could use his phone as a parental remote control to raise his kid with AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy5SGTuAGI&t=217s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy5SGTuAGI&t=217s A company I'm funding, we call it The Lady. I press the button, and The Lady tells Aspen when it's time for bed, time to take a bath, when his fucking mother's here to pick him up. I get to be his friend, and she's the bad guy. I've disrupted fatherhood!
doctorpangloss 1y ago
another POV is two people who are willing to risk a lot of money on pre-seed stage companies - no traction, only people and an idea - have arrived at a lot of the same mechanics for such investing the better question is: how do these two investors differentiate themselves?

Gives me weirdo Thiel vibes who pays (or used to pay) kids to drop out of college and start a company for him.

by shafyy 1y ago

Gives me weirdo Thiel vibes who pays (or used to pay) kids to drop out of college and start a company for him.

In fairness, while I’m sure it didn’t work out for all of them, one of these students became one of the youngest self made billionaires in history

flkenosad 1y ago
He did it to the smartest kid in our CS class. I feel bad now because I feel like he deserves a degree.
- cinntaile 1y ago
  He'll receive plenty of opportunities regardless of degree so I don't see why you feel sorry for him.
  - flkenosad 1y ago
    He would have made a fantastic professor in my opinion. But I think also, certain opportunities just require a degree on a policy level.
- ohyoutravel 1y ago
  A classmate of mine dropped out to do this. Failed, and ended up picking up later to finish the last two years of college. It really didn’t seem to have slowed them down, and finishing college a few years later (with some startup founders experience) seems to have been overall good. Unfortunately did end up going to Boston Consulting Group from on-campus recruiting, so not a great end to the story, but historically that’s a high-ish paying and hard to get job.
  - skeeter2020 1y ago
    I get the feeling only very affluent and well-supported people follow this path, and they probably don't need THiel's money to do it. The vast majority don't have a few years at this stage of their life to play the lottery.
    - disgruntledphd2 1y ago
      Yeah, I hung out with one of the early batches of these people (my former supervisor was involved) and would agree that they tended to be from better off families. How much of that was the Ivy league selection bias vs anything else I dunno though.
shafyy 1y ago
Doesn't mean that this was a good thing for them. For example, many kid actors who become rich and famous are not happy.
squigz 1y ago
I mean... is it self-made if a billionaire helped you?

Thorrez 1y ago

It seems kind of the opposite to me. YC is allowing you to finish school. You don't need to drop out.

DonHopkins 1y ago

Or weirdo Russ Hanneman vibes who bought a company called The Lady so he could use his phone as a parental remote control to raise his kid with AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy5SGTuAGI&t=217s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy5SGTuAGI&t=217s A company I'm funding, we call it The Lady. I press the button, and The Lady tells Aspen when it's time for bed, time to take a bath, when his fucking mother's here to pick him up. I get to be his friend, and she's the bad guy. I've disrupted fatherhood!

doctorpangloss 1y ago

another POV is two people who are willing to risk a lot of money on pre-seed stage companies - no traction, only people and an idea - have arrived at a lot of the same mechanics for such investing the better question is: how do these two investors differentiate themselves?