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Interesting! I worked for one YC startup that committed blatant fraud, with the founders vanishing when investors started chasing them to bring them to responsi
by anovikov 7mo ago
Interesting! I worked for one YC startup that committed blatant fraud, with the founders vanishing when investors started chasing them to bring them to responsibility. And they haven't been removed. Just marked as "inactive".
- rvnx 7mo agoAs early investors, did YC benefit from the fraud at the expense of the newer investors ?
- anovikov 7mo agoNope. Founders just disappeared with whatever money was left. They claimed to have a working product and a big list of paying clients while in fact they had a half-assed prototype written by one hapless dude who they paid to the tune of $15 an hour. Which i helped to transform into a somewhat-better prototype and they paid very well for it. But no actual paying clients ever existed and the idea was obviously brain-dead from day one. After they got tired of pretending, they stopped paying, then disappeared. Then years later i read in the news that subsequent investors launched an investigation into fraud and they were put on the list in some countries. I'm sure no one except themselves ever made any money on it, certainly not YC.
- orf 7mo agoWhat one? There’s little risk of naming the startup.