Thanks for sharing. It seems like everyone was mostly focused on sales and some were doing quite well. Were there any strategies that stood out to you that were working? Was there some leg up provided to companies in their sales efforts who were in YC?
Everyone in YC sells to each other. It's quite encouraged to buy from other YC startups and test out their tech as alpha customers because it increases the valuation of the YC network (including your own company). It's a very interesting model because as a SaaS getting the first enterprises to sign up is extremely hard, yet those add enormous equity value and provide the proof and case studies for growth at scale.
YC can be thought of as a tech startup affinity network. The"shocked-pikachu face" attitude of the author, from being surprised a napkin worked for funding to being amazed that YC-affiliated startups gave him revenue before a product is live, is a testament to the YC model. Either the author is unaware of this obvious inside-network effect or they are pretending it doesn't exist. In the real world no random enterprise cuts you a check for untested, pre-live, alpha software. It is the SaaS cross-selling YC scheme that enables this.
I'm not even saying this is necessarily a bad thing. It's just a very unique model that is a warped inversion of real-world economics, and it decreases the risk for investors provided the whole network can continue selling into each other.
That's an interesting way to think about it. In some respects it could be viewed as a way to funnel to total YC investment into the "more-functional" startups in the network. Companies that provide more value (to other startups in the affinity network) end up with more of the net investment.
There’s nothing wrong with people doing what they want to be doing. Even to your “perceived” grand visions like curing cancer or something else society has high value of - those people are usually motivated by doing that particular thing. And those people try until it’s either feasible or not, meaning they can make a living off of it. And they will get better by doing any of those things by failing and then being motivated trying harder and perhaps succeeding. So it seems that the economics will just work itself out. But I wouldn’t have a problem with somebody wanting to do something especially when they actually make an effort to do something. I think all people should have the opportunity to at least try, especially if they do you one of these jobs they don’t want to do to be able to afford the opportunity to try what they want. Respect to those people.
I’ve been running my company which focuses on helping people find purpose (novel job app). I’ve been building it for almost 5 years. When I started it was only for foodservice and when Covid hit I lost all my customers overnight. So I pivoted to include all industries. I’ll mention here I’m a solo founder with no tech background and I live on and off in South America with my outsourced team - constant bugs, behind deadlines by six months, extraordinary high bills for terrible quality of work in my opinion. I’m the product manager, QA, sales and marketing, etc. they just drop the ball and I’m running around picking up the pieces for things I don’t even understand - I didn’t go to school for this stuff.
Anyway, after years of +12 hour days seven days a week - I’ve taken about 4 weeks off total these past years - I can say that I super burnt out and have been for some time.
There are times when I can’t do anything, literally. It is terrible. But I just push through - I have no choice as my whole life and all my money are tied into this. Plus, I am really passionate about what I’m doing to help others (even though it seems almost everyone is trying to just rip me off as I delegate work).
Anyway, the thing is - from my life and observing others that I’m helping find jobs and purpose…you must have purpose or inspiration or you will get burnt out. If you don’t you will think what’s the point of working if you don’t find a purpose in your job or that you are really creating value in anything. Or if you have nothing going on in your personal life with purpose, then you will get burnt out on that. Without purpose you just always think what’s the point- why do anything, it’s a waste - bad place to be when the world is very full of opportunities.
You need goals and intrigue to keep going and not flop from your burnout. The burnout will probably always be there, it’s just having the inspiration to continue, like small wins towards that purpose. Small wins for me are seeing the amazing reviews on the App Store…like higher rated than the incumbents without cheating ;)
It was the win the other month speaking in front of my state senate to successfully lobby a bill that passed that will help a lot of people. It is the progress I’m making on writing my book about how to find more opportunities in life - a kids book for adults. It’s the fact that I’m in my late 30s and live with my dad who I never had a great relationship with (single dad raised me since I was 1) and I now do after trying so many years to have one. My purpose, my small wins. They keep me going.
So, if you feel stuck, the only thing I can say is keep changing things, trying new things, challenging things - the way you think and what you do. With enough change you will find something that inspires you eventually I hope. The rate of change you allow will determine how quickly that happens.
Best of luck - just remember there is a lot of stuff in this world, enough to keep you occupied with something interesting until you die I hope.
> An ignorant mind is precisely not a spotless, empty vessel, but one that’s filled with the clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, facts, intuitions, strategies, algorithms, heuristics, metaphors, and hunches that regrettably have the look and feel of useful and accurate knowledge. This clutter is an unfortunate by-product of one of our greatest strengths as a species. We are unbridled pattern recognizers and profligate theorizers. Often, our theories are good enough to get us through the day, or at least to an age when we can procreate. But our genius for creative storytelling, combined with our inability to detect our own ignorance, can sometimes lead to situations that are embarrassing, unfortunate, or downright dangerous—especially in a technologically advanced, complex democratic society that occasionally invests mistaken popular beliefs with immense destructive power (See: crisis, financial; war, Iraq)
> Very young children also carry misbeliefs that they will harbor, to some degree, for the rest of their lives. Their thinking, for example, is marked by a strong tendency to falsely ascribe intentions, functions, and purposes to organisms. In a child’s mind, the most important biological aspect of a living thing is the role it plays in the realm of all life. Asked why tigers exist, children will emphasize that they were “made for being in a zoo.” Asked why trees produce oxygen, children say they do so to allow animals to breathe.
Perhaps why this is why it is important to stay curious and open minded. Absorb and reflect from different angles, and stay humble.
Another thing is that some people get offended when you challenge / question them. They dig in deeper then with their beliefs. Makes it harder to debate and learn and come to potentially better conclusions from the start.
My neighbors are huge conspiracy theorists. It is hard for me to understand how they believe what they do because logically it doesn’t make sense (to me). I listen because I like different perspectives, but doing deeper dives doesn’t result in my confidence in what they’re saying. Now, I also take everything with a grain of salt, including the news (even from “great” sources as I’m not the politician in the room when the decision is made so what do I really know. And I try to keep that mindset, what do I really know?
Thanks for sharing. I can’t listen to songs with lyrics when I work - but the structure of the music seems to have the frisson, although I’m usually so far in a work groove that it doesn’t necessarily make my hairs stand up, but instead subconsciously motivates me more to get into a flow. Usually it’s mostly electronic (ie https://m.soundcloud.com/kobeyo) or classical. When watching classical live I get the frisson. When I’m at an electronic event they really play with the buildups and the frisson seems like the goal (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=quoAVYJfDuU)
My dad constantly listens to the same era of music, the 60s and early 70s…like every night. I think this brings back memories of when he was growing up and of the times (lots of political / social changes) because he just starts ranting about high school and super detailed small things that happened to him like almost 50 years ago. I speak three languages and can’t remember anything from my past almost. The music really puts him on a time machine, it’s pretty interesting to observe…it’s like this frisson thing is going non stop.
The way I see it, don’t get bored. Do things so you’re not bored. Having purpose helps tremendously, as well as being loved / part of a group and creating value for people / a group.
You’ll probably change intensities of focus on various things throughout life, I think we all do so don’t think there will just be one path and that’s it.
Anyway, yea, anything impactful usually takes time. I don’t know people who conquered the world overnight. Maybe you tried startups / big ideas and they didn’t pan out the way you imagined so you’re giving up on that a bit. If so you failed and learned what not to do that’s good - you tried. And in the end, trying lots of things keeps life not boring - especially when you « fail » and then try harder newly gained experience and hypothesis. Big ideas, relationships, hobbies - just try new things and don’t stay bored and I’m sure you’ll subconsciously guide yourself to where you need to be.
