[bsid]

Just want to preface by saying - this is not a comment on you but rather YC. You're trying to improve the VC process for consumer brands, and I'll take you at your word for that.

I'm surpised, and a bit saddened, to see YC investing in a PE rollup kind of play. I’m probably reading too much into it, and maybe I had a misconception about YC was supposed to be, but to me, the brand was about innovation and scrappiness. YC founders use technology to move the world forward, usually through a better product. This brand conglomerate is way more blatantly of the form of “lets try to take a pile of money, and turn it into a bigger pile of money”.. of course they need $160M in funding, it is a fund. That money will go chiefly to buy companies, not into massive scale.

Not many entrepreneurs start out hoping to engage in raw capitalism, guided purely by returns. YC seemed like a place that catered to that dream of building something for yourself. Maybe that was never true, and I just had stars in my eyes. Maybe there’s no longer those low hanging fruits and everything’s become harder. But this seems almost of a betrayal of that original dream, only showing that YC is the same as everyone else in our capitalistic society.

[skeeter2020]

Everything you state describes YC a decade ago, or even more recently but none of their current actions beyond empty words have demonstrated this sort of focus or commitment. I don't doubt that all the partners are genuine, honest and ambitious, but it's hard to see from inside the machine. YC is moving up market.

The good news is it's never been easier to bootstrap the phase YC traditionally got you through, and there are a lot more resources and higher level of sophistication from other providers. This is thanks to YC in a large part, but their role and focus has changed.