[jacquesm]

They will still do that, but within the context of having an application that takes advantage of recent developments in AI. Whether that's smart or not is an open question, time will tell. But, given that YC is a seed level investor (with some follow on capacity) it makes sense because the 'downstream' VCs are handing out money like candy to start-ups that can plausibly claim to be AI startups. The idea is that some of these will go on to corner their respective markets and that by getting in early you guarantee yourself a place at the table later on.

Whether that is smart is also an open question.

[ilaksh]

When you say handing out money like candy, it makes me think I should try to apply to something. I am spending most of my time doing low-paying contracts that integrate generative AI for other companies or startups. And then I use that money to build out my own project for a few weeks before I run out of money and have to get another contract.

If it's actually easy to get money? How would I find a VC who would be impressed by my actual technical ability as opposed to something like marketing or networking prowess? I tend to not spend a lot of time on making slick web pages and promoting myself but focus on implementing features.

Right now my own thing is a ChatGPT plugin that generates web pages including appropriate images using a template and stable diffusion. I am working on building in a CRUD system that GPT-4 will have concise docs for, as well as a user login system and an API proxy and secrets management. This way the system should be able to create fully functional websites.

The previous version integrates GPT-4 with fly.io VMs so that it directly executes commands in a loop to accomplish tasks.

But the plugin is on hold to work for some other startup so I can make rent and stuff. I am building out a simple generative fill inpainting/outpainting editor inspired by Playground.ai. Previously for this other startup I created a Dreambooth tool and a live editing scribble image generation thing with Controlnet.

And before that I was working on a Slack bot where you can ask it questions about PDF or other documents, and another that used GPT to write SQL for querying a specific table and optionally creating charts on the fly.

I guess I am just suspecting that maybe working on all of these other startups to pay the bills isn't necessary if I ask the right person for money. Which I never really seriously considered as an option.

[xwdv]

You have to be a bit of a charlatan to really get the money. If you’re not willing to do that then maybe it’s not for you.

[ilaksh]

Well.. I guess I have had the impression that people who get investments or grants are often better at convincing people to give them money than actually solving problems.

But can you elaborate on why you put it like that, "a bit of a charlatan"?

[xwdv]

You have to be willing to tell them what they want to hear and hit the right notes, even if you know it’s not necessarily true or accurate.

[jacquesm]

Not necessarily. Not all founders and not all VCs are cut from the same cloth.

[jacquesm]

It's easy, but you have to wonder if it is really what you want. Your chances of seeing it through to the end are probably the same as every other start-up and taking VC money comes with a ton of strings attached.

More about this:

https://jacquesmattheij.com/three-roads-to-the-top-of-the-mo...

[ilaksh]

Thanks for the link to the article. It's a great article. My interpretation of your response is that you would suggest I do not try to get any investment and rather continue to do the contracts, but otherwise following the specific advice on the "third road" from the article.

I think I have been ineffectually following something like the "third road" for ten years already. Although in my case maybe instead of a road up a stately mountain, it's more like getting lost in a ghetto, because I do not seem to progress beyond the low-paying contracts or get any significant interest in my startup attempts. Probably I have just gotten used to them.

[jacquesm]

It depends on a lot of factors. Personality, life goals, circumstances. I took on investment for a start-up at some point and ended up paying it all back because I realized I was headed straight for a burn out with all this pressure on me and it helped me a lot. And - controversially! - I ended up as a small time investor and LP at a bunch of funds and I do a lot of tech DD, which is still in the service of the VC world. It was quite a series of coincidences that led to that but the end result is that I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, even though several attempts to make this company independent of me have failed and I'm pretty much reconciled to running it at a lower level of ambition.