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by xiphias2 1177 days ago
Whenever I see interviews with YC advisors, they blame mistakes of founders of not taking their advice as the biggest as mistake.

I don't have a strong opinion on this, and I believe YC is worth it, as 7% of nothing is still nothing, so any way a startup can decrease its risks is great.
1 comments
indymike 1177 days ago
> Whenever I see interviews with YC advisors, they blame mistakes of founders of not taking their advice as the biggest as mistake.

This is normal human behavior. You did X and failed. If only you had done Y as I had suggested... Monday morning quarterbacking at it's finest.

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im_down_w_otp 1177 days ago
My experience is usually more like being told to do X, me saying X probably isn’t worth the time and energy, doing X anyway at their prompting assuming they’ll take some accountability for it going sideways, it ultimately going sideways because it was a bad idea, and then them taking zero accountability for their bad idea and not helping with the fact we’ve now been materially set back by the attempt.

I’ve since learned to align our incentives around advice. If they’ll put their money where their mouth is to stand behind their advice, then it’s good advice. If they won’t, then it’s bad advice and I’m just their lab rat.

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mahmoudimus 1176 days ago
As someone who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for venture capital backed companies, I can tell you that this absolutely does not change even at the highest level of the company.

My advice from experience - if the advice you're receiving is wrong and you know it's wrong, explain why it's wrong and if you're pressured to go against your advice, then that person is not a fit for you and you should part ways.

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im_down_w_otp 1176 days ago
Thanks for the tip. That’s more or less where I’ve ended up with things. Initially I was obstinate to predictable deleterious result. Then I went through being compliant only to be hung out to dry for abiding when it didn’t work out. Then I went through a phase of trying to educate in hopes of them coming around to no avail. Now I just look for stronger signs of alignment right out of the gate before even bothering to spend the time engaging at all.
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indymike 1176 days ago
> My advice from experience - if the advice you're receiving is wrong and you know it's wrong, explain why it's wrong and if you're pressured to go against your advice, then that person is not a fit for you and you should part ways.

I've raised about 5 million from VC... and agree at least 100% with this advice.

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