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Comment by rdl | Hacker News Reader

I'm still confused what happened: did you have a cofounder dispute? Aaron is probably the most chill partner at YC, so you got good advice I'm sure.

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I read it twice, but I still didn't catch a motive beyond "it wasn't fun." I'm thinking he couldn't stomach the process of building a company: the day in, day out of keeping a fledgling venture alive.

On the bright side, he may have saved his former company's life by parting ways with it when he did. Early stage ventures past the incubator/accelerator stage don't seem to weather cofounder disputes without taking significant damage.

The motive that came through to me was a sense of a loss of voice, i.e. he didn't feel like he had an equal say now that they had accepted money from investors. I.e. unrealistic expectations.

I don't really understand that. Investors gave you money because they believed in the vision you conveyed (or whatever); aside from some very minimal minority-shareholder protections, and protecting your reputation, investors in early stage companies have very little power over you.

The strongest pressure is probably from cofounders, or from employees/customers (once you have those; you can also fire either), or from yourself.

> Investors gave you money because they believed in the vision you conveyed (or whatever);

But it isn't just that. They are locked into an exit strategy and they have to protect that interest. This is even true of the investors with the most honesty and integrity.

In other words, one would hope that an investor would not micromanage, but the investor is ultimately in it to make money and has a few small acceptable options to do that, so they are going to protect that interest. Money == power.

Seed stage investors have essentially no power. They have convertible notes (i.e. are debtholders) -- this gives them about as much power over you as your credit card company, as long as you stay current on the payments (which are usually deferred in the contract); YC is common-holder (and has 2-10%).

You can literally ignore the investors for at least the duration of the note (and probably longer) with no real repercussions. If you sell the company, they'll be able to get in line for money (and generally get paid first), but until Series A, investors have essentially no control to do anything.

In practice, being a dick to your investors (intentionally or unintentionally) is a bad idea (sorry! was busy!), as they usually will help you a lot more if they know how they can help you, but otherwise, it's pretty much at the bottom of concerns.

So, it was an individual who dropped out of a YC team? Or was it an entire YC team which dropped out? The former is common (although often pushed...); the latter only heard of once personally, except for the one famous "YC retraction (storenvy)". (someone in YC S11 had an idea for a payment system, got in, realized it wasn't viable, so dropped out before the beginning of the program; honestly probably should have stayed in and explored things in Bitcoin, etc., but that's with the luxury of hindsight).

I don't think founding a startup is ever "easy", but it's incredibly fun for a lot of people.

My take is cofounder dispute.

> Maybe in the wake of a failed startup I deluded myself into thinking great teams are predicated on great friendships, a truism that no longer holds absolute truth.

> It was also the acceptance that the startup would never be something I could call my own, not just in stake but in equal say, that cemented my decision to walk away.

> and when you’re grinding away on an early stage venture with no pay, the enjoyment you derive from working with your partners is all you have.

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