

Ask PG: Bad apples that got into YC? - no-go-mojo

Hi again PG,<p>You have talked about a lot of great YC founders. You've also pointed that there have been others who weren't so great. Those who taught you how to do better by not picking founders like them.<p>Could you please elaborate more on those? Who they were, what were they like, what you learned from them? You sound like a positive fellow who sees the best in people. Why were these folks the wrong type?
======
pg
The symptoms are usually lying or betraying people. The underlying causes
vary.

I can't say we've learned general rules for avoiding bad apples. The best we
can do is to avoid funding people who remind us of bad apples we've funded in
the past.

There have been surprisingly few though. We spend a lot more time during
interviews worrying about which people will succeed or fail. Out of 170
interviews last batch, there were probably only 2 or 3 cases where we worried
about a founder's character.

------
Locke1689
pg has previously said that one of the most important things about screening
YC applicants is to make sure that they're not assholes. Answering this
question with personal information would definitely violate that rule.

~~~
abbasmehdi
Answering this question _without_ personal information would _not_ violate
that rule.

~~~
Locke1689
I never claimed otherwise. pg may deem it interesting to answer in such a
fashion. However, the post specifically requests personal information.

------
chad_oliver
I'm not sure pg would want to bad-mouth people in public.

~~~
benreyes
Yes it would be impolite to bad-mouth specific people. But one can talk
generally about traits and characteristics with a reflection on mistakes made
and improvements to such processes.

~~~
Mamady
if you reveal the traits the typically reflect a bad apple, the bad apples
will simply make sure they adapt to hide their traits (or innocent apples with
these traits may start questioning themselves). Either way, Im not sure the
net effect is positive?

~~~
no-go-mojo
It's as useful as "what we look for in founders" essay. It is just the flip
side of that coin.

------
leeHS
But couldn't he answer without giving personal information?

