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> I am curious how this will play out legally I am curious if/how YC will handle this to get ahead of earning a reputation of being a den of scammers - a few m

> I am curious how this will play out legally I am curious if/how YC will handle this to get ahead of earning a reputation of being a den of scammers - a few months after the Delve scandal

stevekemp 4mo ago
Many YC companies do bad things, and I guess they do so independently. There may well be repercussions for the most egregious cases, but I suspect a lot of ill-behaviour simply flies under the radar. For example only yesterday I got spam from an YC company, Polymath, and I replied back asking where they got my details from - no response yet. Once I get something I'll make a GDPR subject access request, then a deletion request. I hope the overhead of that causes them to rethink their spamming campaign. But I'm not going to complain to YC about it.
- eloisius 4mo ago
  I have also gotten spammed by a YC startup, but they spammed an email that I use in git commits, and lead with "I saw your fork of $POPULAR_PROJECT, pretty cool!" or something like that and then continued to pester me with their drip program even as I replied asking them to never email me again.
- overfeed 4mo ago
  > Many YC companies do bad things, My comment was not about doing a generic bad thing - it was about scammy behavior in particular (which ties to the Delve incident). YC depends on the VC ecosystem to fund its companies, and no VC wants to be scammed. If a reputation of cultivating/condoning/obliviousness scammers takes root, that would be bad for business. > But I'm not going to complain to YC about it. I am not complaining, or even expecting a moral decision. I'm legitimately curious how this will shake out, for purely capitalistic, reputation-management reasons.
- bcye 4mo ago
  Good luck with referring to GDPR. Try clicking through YC startup list and see how many load GA and other trackers onto their landing pages without a consent banner or even a privacy policy sometimes. It’s baffling.
john_strinlai 4mo ago
>I am curious if/how YC will handle this to get ahead of earning a reputation of being a den of scammers flock is a YC company, so it's pretty clear that YC does not care about a negative reputation. as long as it makes money, nothing else matters.
- overfeed 4mo ago
  > it's pretty clear that YC does not care about a negative reputation. Perhaps not what the general public thinks, but I assume YC cares a lot about its reputation among VC firms that fund its companies, because VCs don't like being scammed (directly, or indirectly through unknowingly funding scams)
- chihuahua 4mo ago
  Let's recall that YC used to be run by Sam Altman of all people, which confirms what you are saying.

> I am curious how this will play out legally I am curious if/how YC will handle this to get ahead of earning a reputation of being a den of scammers - a few months after the Delve scandal

stevekemp 4mo ago

Many YC companies do bad things, and I guess they do so independently. There may well be repercussions for the most egregious cases, but I suspect a lot of ill-behaviour simply flies under the radar. For example only yesterday I got spam from an YC company, Polymath, and I replied back asking where they got my details from - no response yet. Once I get something I'll make a GDPR subject access request, then a deletion request. I hope the overhead of that causes them to rethink their spamming campaign. But I'm not going to complain to YC about it.

eloisius 4mo ago
I have also gotten spammed by a YC startup, but they spammed an email that I use in git commits, and lead with "I saw your fork of $POPULAR_PROJECT, pretty cool!" or something like that and then continued to pester me with their drip program even as I replied asking them to never email me again.
overfeed 4mo ago
> Many YC companies do bad things, My comment was not about doing a generic bad thing - it was about scammy behavior in particular (which ties to the Delve incident). YC depends on the VC ecosystem to fund its companies, and no VC wants to be scammed. If a reputation of cultivating/condoning/obliviousness scammers takes root, that would be bad for business. > But I'm not going to complain to YC about it. I am not complaining, or even expecting a moral decision. I'm legitimately curious how this will shake out, for purely capitalistic, reputation-management reasons.
bcye 4mo ago
Good luck with referring to GDPR. Try clicking through YC startup list and see how many load GA and other trackers onto their landing pages without a consent banner or even a privacy policy sometimes. It’s baffling.

john_strinlai 4mo ago

>I am curious if/how YC will handle this to get ahead of earning a reputation of being a den of scammers flock is a YC company, so it's pretty clear that YC does not care about a negative reputation. as long as it makes money, nothing else matters.

overfeed 4mo ago
> it's pretty clear that YC does not care about a negative reputation. Perhaps not what the general public thinks, but I assume YC cares a lot about its reputation among VC firms that fund its companies, because VCs don't like being scammed (directly, or indirectly through unknowingly funding scams)
chihuahua 4mo ago
Let's recall that YC used to be run by Sam Altman of all people, which confirms what you are saying.