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Comment by nostrebored | Hacker News Reader

There are few people I think are as consistently wrong as Daniel Vassallo. His writings on cloud are an exercise in fanaticism, and it looks like he’s turned that failed venture into yet another course.

People selling you courses and community are mostly grifters.

The content here has nothing to do with YC in particular, and makes a few interesting claims:

1. YC founders are all young, impressionable 20yos

2. YC encourages you to make up problems to solve

3. That an exit less than a billion dollars is a failure

All of which are easily dismissed by watching actual content from YC.

4. That a 1.25% chance of creating a company worth more than a billion is a bad outcome

Honestly what an opportunity!

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"1. YC founders are all young, impressionable 20yos"

Exactly the demographic he's targeting with his "courses". Easier prey for his engagement farming.

5. Saying YC doesn’t encourage businesses to pivot or explore until they find product market fit.

Yeah this one got me. I have nothing to do with YC but I was hired to consult to a couple of really nice young guys who were YC alumni. They worked their asses off doing All The Right Things - talking to customers, reaching out to people with deep experience :) - and when they realised it wasn’t going to work out, they pivoted right away.

This is the exact opposite of digging in one place for the rest of your life, and as someone who has done a few startups, I was super impressed by their attitude and their ability to let go (even though I was out of a gig!)

I think they’re going to do great whatever they do, and at least some of that will be because of what they learned at YC.

>4. That a 1.25% chance of creating a company worth more than a billion is a bad outcome

Slight logical problem, or unclear or poor wording here:

A chance is quite different from an outcome.

The first is in the future (chance), while the second is in the past (outcome).

A (1.25% or other) chance means something may happen.

An outcome means something did happen.

Also, a 1.25% chance in the past does not in the least imply the same chance in the future. See stock trading, for example.

To make it more clear, you were talking as though a chance is actually an outcome.

>4. That a 1.25% chance of creating a company worth more than a billion is a bad outcome

Has YC published age demographics for batches somewhere I’ve missed? They’ve talked a bit about it, but I haven’t seen hard numbers.

Helpful comment

> People selling you courses and community are mostly grifters

"Mostly". It could be argued that that is the purpose of HN

I do not know, but I am glad of it

And I'm not buying

(Absolutely not complaining)

Spot on, what a fucking grifter. A shame to this community.

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