2009 era YC was epic. Literally once in a century.
I was happy to be around, if not involved. Startup School afterparty at Anybots was a dream. Trevor even pinched me with his new robot (at my request).
There were posers even back then, though. I remember one guy getting very drunk, saying “Ok, this is it,” and walking up to pg to pitch his startup. I’m not sure who I felt worse for, him or pg.
I was at the 2010 after party and I will always remember trying to pitch Ron Conway and he just turned around and walked away. Scoble listened to me then said “You’re an idiot, RSS is dead”
Fun times for a 22 year old nerd on his first trip to USA. I grew a thick skin fast.
The fact that a random kid from Europe could even get a chance to show up and speak to all those amazing people ... priceless. Just wish I had had the chops to do more with the opportunity.
Some are. Most were nice. Some do that as a way of seeing whether a founder will get discouraged; if you know your idea will work, it’s easy to respond “Actually, that isn’t a problem anymore because X.” That tends to perk up the ears of VCs, since old ideas are bad until they’re suddenly very good.
If the intent is to test for resilience (not getting discouraged by setbacks) or for technical savvy (being able to debate the merits of the approach knowledgeably, and able to refine/pivot when problems with it encountered), I don't understand introducing the variable of rudeness.
If A being rude to B, there's a good chance B will walk away, even if B could argue their point.
If the situation is such that B can't walk away -- meaning that A has power over B -- then A being rude in that context is not only unpleasant, but possibly also an abuse of power by A.
To be clear, you’re absolutely right about the rudeness. But it happened to me, when sama referred me to a VC. They were extremely nice in how they said “but that probably won’t work because X,” and I was too young to recognize that they were probing for determination. Nowadays I’d chuckle and say nah, that’s not the problem because x; y is the issue, but we address that with z.
(Only if it’s true though! A surprising number of founders try to BS their way, which is always a mistake.)
They are not testing for such things. Sometimes over drinks, someone might say something, possibly rude, possibly just perceived as that. I wouldn't perceive it as rude if someone said to me 'Kid, XYZ is dead!'. It's just a statement.
There are not 'introduction of variables' here.
Also, I would perceive it a rude to meet someone in a social situation and have them 'pitch' to me. That part of 'always hustling' in every social setting is one of the reasons I will never move back to the Valley.
Not so much rude as possibly overzealous in that context, I don't think anyone cares that much, it's not something to ever worry about or linger on. It's the Valley.
It's just not something that people outside the game would handle well.
I realise this will sound negative, but: what made 2009 era YC a once in a century thing? I’m trying to think of the companies that came out of it that truly shook the earth and I’m coming up blank.
I was happy to be around, if not involved. Startup School afterparty at Anybots was a dream. Trevor even pinched me with his new robot (at my request).
There were posers even back then, though. I remember one guy getting very drunk, saying “Ok, this is it,” and walking up to pg to pitch his startup. I’m not sure who I felt worse for, him or pg.