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Could Y Combinator Save The World?
- jacquesm 17y agoNo. That's easy enough. The worlds problems are massive and while I'm sure there are plenty of great people involved with YC I highly doubt that they have the power required to do what you suggest they could do. What's more interesting though is whether YOU can change the world. Not save it, not all of it, but just that little patch of it that you have influence over. And then to try to get as many people as you can to do that same thing, influence the small area of the world where they have a foot on the ground for the better as much as they can.
- nlwhittemore 17y agoHaha, fair enough point. But I think the interesting thing is that your description of influencing "that little patch of it that you have influence over" (which is great phrasing, by the way) is exactly what I'm asking YC to do, right? Their little patch is the organizations that come through their door. When Paul Graham writes "Be Good," his orgs (at least a bunch of them) listen, and it matters. If they took the initiative to prompt for organizations that had a particular social impact, there could be some amazing results.
- jacquesm 17y agoI'm pretty sure they're doing just that. Ethics seem to be pretty high up in PGs value system.
- nlwhittemore 17y agoFor sure, but there's a difference between finding and prompting ethical companies and specifically seeking out companies that have a bottom line that's not just financial but actually has measurable social or environmental impact as well.
- jacquesm 17y agocheck out this guy: http://www.extent.nl/ http://www.extent.nl/ Unfortunately he is no longer, but he was one of the nicest venture capitalists out there.