[ec109685]

I think this is a pretty cynical viewpoint. You are right, he had privileges, but millions of other kids have them as well. For instance, he worked hard to impress at LinkedIn to get that meeting.

Please look at this pitch. It’s hard to come away unimpressed with what he and his founder were creating: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C1UUVdN3kdQ

I love when someone extremely smart and dedicated succeeds. Much better than a VC thought leader that happened to luck into the right startup and is now dispensing money and advice with abandon. That is luck and privilege.

[aeturnum]

I think you've misunderstood the point of the post you are replying to.

Pointing out the rare advantages Dylan had in founding Figma doesn't take away any of his accomplishment. Privileged people accomplish things and overcome things and do good stuff.

The point is to highlight that the privilege is load bearing - that a good idea and an amazing drive is not enough and that you often need to seem nice and likable to wealthy people in order to get that idea off the ground.

It's not that Dylan should have had to work harder, but that millions of other driven people's ideas die for lack of exposure.

[rtpg]

"you often need to seem nice and likable to wealthy people" is a very important point.

Part of it is ... sort of generically true in any chosen power structure in the world (easier for powerful people to do things for you if they like you, in theory). But because so much of this dealmaking and the like, and the completely capricious nature of VC funding in particular, means that if you're wanting to fundraise your job ends up being "be friends with the people with money".

And because it's so informal and based on friendships, each generation of money is... well, it's replicating culture from the previous generation. At least in more formal power structures there are exams or something to stop it from _just_ being about hiring people you like talking to.

The silver lining is I bet there's a huge untapped market in helping fund people in environments that don't require you to listen to a VC talk about how BTC is about taking power away from oppressive governments or whatever.

I bet there are loads of people who are interested in funding, in seriousness, and not necessarily looking for more drinking partners.

[peyton]

It’s a filter. Who’s gonna give money to somebody who can’t find their way around Palo Alto? Startups are at least that hard, right?

[retcore]

>you often need to seem nice and likable to wealthy people in order to get that idea off the ground.

Almost the entire if superficial opposite of what created the Silicon Valley of wonder and lore.

[ec109685]

What I think of is privilege is the family you were born into and opportunities available at the school district you went to. Millions of people have those privileges, but only a few create a ground breaking company.

Once he graduated from high school, the way he differentiated, including being friendly to future VC’s was his own doing and drive.

[aeturnum]

> Once he graduated from high school, the way he differentiated, including being friendly to future VC’s was his own doing and drive.

I think this only makes sense if you believe that "being friendly to future VC's" is entirely independent from "the family you were born into" - to which I would add social class and family connections. Given my experience with friendships and professional relationships I think you would have an advantage in getting to meet a VC and then making a good impression if you had experience interacting with people like them.

None of this is to say that it's impossible to make it without those advantages, but they do exist.

[daniel-cussen]

Stanford doesn't admit millions. There is no capacity for millions in Silicon Valley, there isn't the parking or public transport or apartments or offices or emergency rooms, nothing NOTHING anywhere close to that. Palo Alto is a very sleepy town, tallest building is 7 stories, then everything else is 4 or less. Not millions. By no means.

[EddySchauHai]

I enjoy the people I meet living in Palo Alto but yes, it’s very sleepy. Couple bars downtown and that’s it, really. In Europe it’d be classed as a small town.

[ec109685]

I grew up in Palo Alto. My point was that millions of people had his privilege growing up (myself included) and only a select few make it into Stanford (or Brown in his case) (myself not included!).

Saying someone is privileged because they graduated from Stanford highly discounts a person’s agency in their life.

[anonymouse008]

> Please look at this pitch. It’s hard to come away unimpressed with what he and his founder were creating: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C1UUVdN3kdQ

Ok, I did. Figma is absolutely valuable as evidenced by its customer base.

This said, it is impressive in a mild sense. While convenience / access (the pitch's main take away) is a huge factor in the macro-state creativity - if these affordances are not paired with meaning, a sense of taste, or purpose - then one quickly ends up with 'animate all the things' level thinking (the micro-state of today). For some, this means a great income and massive economic mobility - not something to sneeze at. However, designing everything to be the same, from securing reproductive care to hailing a car, sterilizes the lives lived through software.

[retcore]

>Figma is absolutely valuable as evidenced by its customer base.

See how quickly Quark lost the most loyal and hegemonic user base to Adobe InDesign just over Adobe choosing to use the TeX paragraph formatter. Gone in eight quarters. Figma doesn't have itself embedded in national scale print plant with degree level of user education and per seat licensing including the multiple necessary third party adaptations at >$10k per seat.