One thing which might skew your statistics, is that taking VC funding or going to YC is itself the result of wanting a large success being your mindset in the first place.
In other words, it's true that investors don't necessarily have leverage over founders, and I'm sure the scenario that Daniel describes is just as rare in YC as you say it is.
But the reason this is true might be that the kind of people who go to YC are also the kind of people who want to take a 1-in-a-million shot at big money, rather than taking more conservative odds for less money. And one of the reasons this is true, is that founders don't understand the statistics and the risk profiles of their options, or in many cases don't recognise that they even have options in the first place when choosing what type of business to build.
Daniel's meta-point about founders being able to choose which kind of business they will build, including choosing it's risk profile, is something I hope more and more founders get exposed to.
That could be. At least at YC there are comparatively few misunderstandings about what's expected of companies that take various kinds of investment. But if there are people out there who are unclear about what kind of company they want to create, or take money from investors without understanding what the investors expect in return, I could imagine there would be trouble down the line.
In other words, it's true that investors don't necessarily have leverage over founders, and I'm sure the scenario that Daniel describes is just as rare in YC as you say it is.
But the reason this is true might be that the kind of people who go to YC are also the kind of people who want to take a 1-in-a-million shot at big money, rather than taking more conservative odds for less money. And one of the reasons this is true, is that founders don't understand the statistics and the risk profiles of their options, or in many cases don't recognise that they even have options in the first place when choosing what type of business to build.
Daniel's meta-point about founders being able to choose which kind of business they will build, including choosing it's risk profile, is something I hope more and more founders get exposed to.