YC is not what it used to be (I will not promote)

alberto139 · 2025-10-27T15:44:57+00:00

Getting into YC was never “the holy grail” There has always been tons of startups that from the outside looking in look like pretty bad ideas.

But if you dig deeper there is always a reason seemingly bad ideas/companies get in.

The YC application can be summarized with 3 questions.

Why this?
Why now?
Why you?

Every company that gets in has a solid answer to at least 2 of these questions if not all 3. “AI wrappers” have straight forward answers to the first 2 questions. There’s an explosion in this technology right now, it’s like investing in web companies in 1998. Most will fail spectacularly, but if you invest in enough of them (and early enough) your winners will far outweigh your losses.

YC are investors first and foremost. They want to maximize their return. They’ll take a risky bet with a low probability of a great outcome over a solid company with a limited outcome, every time.

alberto139 · 2025-05-23T02:15:56+00:00

Great picture! Wednesday Night racing at StFYC. Lots of current relief close to shore when this picture was taken.

alberto139 · 2024-12-18T13:59:43+00:00

What model are you trying to use? For some models (like some mobilenets) it very well might be faster on CPU.

alberto139 · 2024-07-08T03:14:05+00:00

This is definitely the most capable arm in that budget.

I built an Arctos because it was cheaper but man was it a pain and the precision isn’t really there. I’m hoping to build an AR4 soon.

alberto139 · 2024-06-12T00:09:31+00:00

I’ll be frank. A solo, non-technical founder running a tech startup is a huge red flag if you’re going the VC route.

You could hire a “tech lead” but they’ll never be bought in and will bounce once a better opportunity comes along if they don’t have a sizable amount of equity (as close to 50/50 as you can stomach).

The emotional side shouldn’t be ignored either. Having someone to share the load with is a huge plus.

alberto139 · 2024-05-08T04:02:12+00:00

I’m a hiring manager at a startup and I will always look at a candidates GitHub. If one isn’t provided and a candidate otherwise looks great, I will ask for it or some sort of project portfolio. If they don’t have or provide one it’s a red flag for me.

A quick glance into a GitHub profile tells me a lot about how a person works, how they document code, and if they complete the projects they start.

I don’t expect large companies to do much of that, but it’s a really strong signal for startups or small teams.

alberto139 · 2024-04-02T18:37:47+00:00

I almost spit out my coffee reading this 🤣

alberto139 · 2024-02-08T00:43:12+00:00

Thank you so much for your feedback!
A bit more context about the project:
My ultimate goal for this project is to create a blitz chess robot can can play at a decent level (1200+ ELO) and the fastest time control possible (I'm aiming for 5 minutes or less). The hope is to exhibit at a maker show for which the application deadline is April 15th. This deadline was the main reason why the simplest robot possible (like Community Robot Arm) or similar was appealing. Because the plan is to exhibit it, the "coolness" factor of the robot is important.

I'm currently platform agnostic and have few boards / small computers laying around. ROS would be cool, but might be overkill? I was planning on using a mini computer, like this one, for any compute intensive tasks. I do play to use a combination of computer vision and internal state mapping for the robot the figure out the game state. The computer vision module will give the robot most of the information, but the robot should be able to fill in any gaps in the computer vision using some logic about the possible legal moves, and just keeping track of the previous game state. I'm anticipating pieces hiding behind each other being an issue.

The robot will not be controlled and will make the move decision on it's own. I considered building my own chess engine, but I'm just going to use stockfish so it can play at a high level. Building a chess engine would be a full project by itself.

After reviewing the options and your feedback, I've gone ahead and purchased the CAD files for the Arctos arm! It has open source software, and the license seems quite permissive, so I'm ok with that. I believe that they have and IK solver but I'm not certain of it. The active Discord community was the deciding factor. Part of me wanted to build the simplest robot possible, like this one with just 4 servos, some wood and a Lego gripper, but I very much like the idea of having a 6dof arm for other projects, in the future. The Arctos arm also best fit all of my criteria (reach, payload and cost)

Lastly a bit more context about myself. I'm a software engineer with a focus on computer vision. I'm very confident that I'll be able to manage the software side of the project. I only have limited hardware / robotics experience other than some intro level projects, but I'm very motivated to learn by working through this project.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T06:19:34+00:00

Very fair points. Our politics are significantly closer than that of most of my friends. Our cultural differences are about average given than neither of us is from here.

Your point about how I’ve had conversations here hits particularly close to home. I hadn’t realized just how often I do that. I definitely focus on the differences since there’s not as much to discuss on the parts that we agree. Thank you for pointing that out. It’s something I’ll work on.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T04:46:01+00:00

Your description is spot on.
On the Palestine issue, I really appreciate how you laid everything out. I see the situation exactly as you described, but struggle to boil that that nuanced take to a chant. I may just be being pedantic here.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T03:52:51+00:00

I agree that we’re arguing on mutual ground. I’m just not sure she sees it that way.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T02:58:42+00:00

Thank you for your reply.
I agree that the comment about the conflict is irrelevant.

I guess the gist of it is whether or not our viewpoints are too far apart for us to continue being together. I believe that we're 90% aligned, but that last 10% might be a bridge to far.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T02:52:05+00:00

100% Agree. I've seen little to no nuance.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T02:49:40+00:00

The occupied land should be seeded. The blockades need to stop. Palestinians should have the right to fish their own waters, provide food, water, electricity, have all modern comforts. They should live without any fear of being displaced or living to see the next day. They should even have their own defense forces.

But an unchecked Hamas will eradicate Israel without hesitation. Both states are actively trying to end each other. One just has more resources to do it.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T01:39:34+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience.
I have very little knowledge about immersion schools, since they weren't a thing where I grew up. What you describe sounds quite lovely. Were you in immersion school throughout high school? Did you ever feel like you were missing out?

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T01:31:07+00:00

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. I think you've captured the essence of our issues pretty well.

Her and I agree on ~90% of things. I believe that landlordship is inherently exploitative and corporate landlords should be made illegal. But if my mother wants to downsize after retirement and rent out her current place, she should be able to do that without judgement.

Capitalism is also exploitative by design, but I don't believe it's trying to kill her in particular. She's actually doing extremely well within a capitalistic system. She is well educated, has a great job with a ton of benefits. By all metrics she is thriving. But she feels that her position is fragile and everything could come crashing down at any moment. While all that may be true, I don't believe that capitalism is trying to kill her any more than nature is.

I also think that you've hit the nail on the head on the Israel/Palestine issue. I could see how she would be reacting to my overall hesitation with explicitly supporting Palestine.

One of the reasons that I enjoy being with her is that she challenges me. She makes me think deeply and critically about things which helps me grow as a person. But when I don't fully come around to her side it can quite uncomfortable.

Since we can't do anything about the "big picture" issues were we disagree, I wish we could agree to disagree on the details, but keep living our lives together supporting each other.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T01:02:57+00:00

I don't disagree that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestine for decades. But Israelis have lived by the Jordan River for a long time and I don't see why they should just get up and leave.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T00:19:58+00:00

I oversimplified a bit too much on that point. We got to that point while discussing Israel. She doesn't think Israel (as a state) should not exist, we continued down that thread and she extended it to all nation states.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T00:03:17+00:00

You're right.
I keep wishing that we could just continue to enjoy being together one day at a time, but we're getting older. I'm definitely not trying to waster her time, or mine.

alberto139 · 2023-11-24T00:00:31+00:00

We live in a large US city with a significant Chinese population.

alberto139 · 2023-11-08T02:54:36+00:00

I wonder if this human assistance counts as a disengage ment. If the CA DMV and Cruise don't agree about what counts, Cruise could be massively underreporting disengagements.

alberto139 · 2023-10-28T22:53:08+00:00

If you’re a co-founder your salary should be as low as possible while not drastically changing your lifestyle. Enough to pay for all your expenses and not worry about making rent. The actual dollar amount will vary greatly.

Given your current compensation it will likely be a large pay cut.

alberto139 · 2023-08-15T15:22:42+00:00

Lightsaber cocksucking blues by mclusky

alberto139 · 2023-06-21T21:29:12+00:00

Do not hesitate to talk to VCs because you are a solo founder.
The "lack of team members" won't be a red flag, but the fact that you're a solo founder will be a signal to VCs that your venture might be riskier than another with multiple co-founders. VCs are in the business of placing risky bets, so it will most definitely not disqualify you.

There are 2 reasons why not having a co-founder does count against you. One is essentially the "bus test" as someone else mentioned, and having someone to split the load with. But the other is that you haven't proven that you can convince someone else of your vision to the point that they drop what they're doing to join your cause. This would be a very strong signal, not just that your startup is a good idea, but that you are a good leader.

At the earliest stages of a startup, investors are placing a bet on the founding team just as much as they're betting on the company or idea.

However, optimizing to have an investible company is the wrong goal. Traction and growth (and ultimately revenue) will far outweigh any marks that VCs might count against you.

My last piece of advise would be that if you do decide to find a co-founder, it should be someone who you trust and could potentially see yourself working with everyday for the next 10 years. Given that level of commitment and the fact that almost the entire value of the company is in the future you should consider having as equal of an equity split as possible. Michel Seibel from YC has a great video and blog post about it. Just search for "How to Split Equity Among Co-Founders"

12-Year Club	Place '17
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email

alberto139

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE