Ask PG: Bad apples that got into YC?

[no-go-mojo]

Hi again PG,

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.

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 → Locke1689]

Answering this question without personal information would not violate that rule.

[Locke1689 → abbasmehdi]

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 → chad_oliver]

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 → benreyes]

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 → Mamady]

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?