[jakobmi]

For better or worse, it sounds a lot like Qi screwed YC here. Raising 55mn USD, leveraging the YC brand, and keeping all of the profits and upside to himself in China.

On a fairer note, I think YC got to ask: what unfair advantage do we have in this country?

Most of their advantages are network effects in SV and brand-awareness in the western world. Their advantages in the US are MUCH higher than in China, where you'd have to build much from scratch, rebuild the investors' and founders' networks. If Qi was supposed to bring all this -- which he undoubtedly had as ex-COO of Baidu -- why would he need YC at all?

I'm not going into the details of his personality or whether this is a gentleman's move or are the highest standards of honesty and integrity. You shall make your own opinion about Chinese business.

That to say, all of this -- just like any other comment here obviously -- is a hypothesis and nothing less. So take each comment with a huge grain of salt :).

Cheers

[jorgezaccaro]

You got it right. I read the announcement in Chinese on WeChat before any reports were available in English, and had to check other sources to make sure I was not misreading the facts. I attended all YC events in Beijing (May 2018, May 2019, June 2019) and certainly noticed some changes in marketing messages and a declining role of US partners, but never expected this sudden "rebranding" to happen. After leveraging the YC brand to gather resources and attract applicants, this just feels like a shameless takeover.