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PG: care to comment? Were you involved in this investment decision?

rdl 14y ago
One thing to keep in mind is that YC funds groups. If a team is funded to do one thing, then pivots to doing something else later, it's not like YC is going to de-fund you. (I don't know anything about this specific company)
- dasil003 14y ago
  Not today, but this could be terrible for PR for YC over the medium term given the vitriolic hatred it inspires in techies, and I'll bet the reason PG is not responding here is because they're figuring out behind closed doors what they can and should do about this sort of thing. Obviously they don't tell their companies what to do, but they may end up needing to institute some additional general guidelines and contingencies if too many bottom-feeders get past their filters.
  - rdl 14y ago
    I'll bet the other reason is he was asleep.
    - pg 14y ago
      Close; I was taking my son to school. We're investigating this now.
- edandersen 14y ago
  Surely that can be abused? What could this group have possibly pivoted from? http://www.installmonetizer.com/AT_aboutus.php http://www.installmonetizer.com/AT_aboutus.php Plus there are photos of them at YC with their company logo above - they clearly did not pivot.
  - rdl 14y ago
    I actually think there's a lot of legitimate room in the "help developers make money" space. There are also a lot of ways to do it as a scam. I don't know the specifics of this company at all. If they pitched to YC as "we're building something to help developers make money, which is a problem due to ...", that's potentially legitimate. Desktop ads are clearly ok; PPI generally not ok. I think you could even do PPI in a decent way. e.g. if I were installing a developer tool and got a "get 3 months of free developer VPN/backup/design/whatever service" offer as well via "click here to install", I wouldn't feel cheated or scammed. Toolbars and AV clearly are generally scams, but there are businesses which involve signup or client software installation which have high enough LTV to justify this channel. I think a YC and silicon valley funded company who was doing this kind of thing would be a lot more likely to go the legit route than someone who came from the spam world. I'm definitely more inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt as another YC person, but mostly because I have no idea if they're good or bad based on what I've seen from them.
  - namdnay 14y ago
    Funny, the site is blocked at my office: "Malicious Sources;Scam/Questionable/Illegal"....

rdl 14y ago

One thing to keep in mind is that YC funds groups. If a team is funded to do one thing, then pivots to doing something else later, it's not like YC is going to de-fund you. (I don't know anything about this specific company)

dasil003 14y ago
Not today, but this could be terrible for PR for YC over the medium term given the vitriolic hatred it inspires in techies, and I'll bet the reason PG is not responding here is because they're figuring out behind closed doors what they can and should do about this sort of thing. Obviously they don't tell their companies what to do, but they may end up needing to institute some additional general guidelines and contingencies if too many bottom-feeders get past their filters.
- rdl 14y ago
  I'll bet the other reason is he was asleep.
  - pg 14y ago
    Close; I was taking my son to school. We're investigating this now.
edandersen 14y ago
Surely that can be abused? What could this group have possibly pivoted from? http://www.installmonetizer.com/AT_aboutus.php http://www.installmonetizer.com/AT_aboutus.php Plus there are photos of them at YC with their company logo above - they clearly did not pivot.
- rdl 14y ago
  I actually think there's a lot of legitimate room in the "help developers make money" space. There are also a lot of ways to do it as a scam. I don't know the specifics of this company at all. If they pitched to YC as "we're building something to help developers make money, which is a problem due to ...", that's potentially legitimate. Desktop ads are clearly ok; PPI generally not ok. I think you could even do PPI in a decent way. e.g. if I were installing a developer tool and got a "get 3 months of free developer VPN/backup/design/whatever service" offer as well via "click here to install", I wouldn't feel cheated or scammed. Toolbars and AV clearly are generally scams, but there are businesses which involve signup or client software installation which have high enough LTV to justify this channel. I think a YC and silicon valley funded company who was doing this kind of thing would be a lot more likely to go the legit route than someone who came from the spam world. I'm definitely more inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt as another YC person, but mostly because I have no idea if they're good or bad based on what I've seen from them.
- namdnay 14y ago
  Funny, the site is blocked at my office: "Malicious Sources;Scam/Questionable/Illegal"....