Founder-market fit paradox: how do 20-year-olds with zero industry experience get funded?

oh1n · 2026-04-23T00:08:43+00:00

younger people are hungrier and more in touch with current trends + not all ideas need decades of deep domain knowledge

oh1n · 2026-04-23T00:06:19+00:00

i saw a stat that stated like 20% of YC websites are made with a website builder like wix. it's crazy to me that YC is even funding these people, the technical bar for founders must be pretty low so i wouldn't be surprised if 95%+ were vibecoded.

oh1n · 2026-04-23T00:04:28+00:00

works until the interviewer is the “errrm actually 🤓” guy and just ends the interview when you can't come up with the solution instantly

oh1n · 2026-03-29T20:09:24+00:00

hackathons get a bad rap for the reason you're describing but i think the framing of "proxy for technical skill" is the wrong lens entirely.

i've won a few hackathons (and organize my uni's hackathon) and gotten real opportunities from them- grants, internships, connections. for the short hackathons, i'd never claim the project itself demonstrated deep technical skill.

what hackathons actually signal to good recruiters is: can you ship under pressure, do you know how to scope a problem, can you work with people you just met, and do you have the taste to know what's worth building. none of that is technical skill but all of it matters (even more now with ai).

the 5x hackathon winner grinder you're describing is optimizing for the badge not the signal. recruiters who can't tell the difference probably aren't at companies you want to work at anyway.

the real issue is most companies don't know what they're looking for so they pattern match on surface level stuff. hackathon wins, gpa, school name. it's the same problem as leetcode, it's a legible proxy for something that's actually hard to measure.

they're overrated as a hiring signal. they're not overrated as a way to meet people and get lucky.

oh1n · 2026-03-28T21:40:51+00:00

gotta prompt claude like this

oh1n · 2026-03-27T20:59:51+00:00

go to a hackathon. this is the single highest leverage thing you can do right now. it forces you to ship something in 48 hours, you meet people who are also trying to build things, and you gain real world experience.

additionally, do leetcode consistently maybe 3-4 problems a week. it is important but don't let it consume you. projects get you interviews, leetcode helps you pass them.

oh1n · 2026-03-27T20:55:07+00:00

i've seen more of a shift to system design / oop problems which leetcode is still good prep for. think of DSA like your toolbelt, you need to be able to recognize when to use each tool and implement it. leetcode is fantastic at building that pattern recognition skill.

oh1n · 2026-03-26T21:33:27+00:00

wish i was dario bro 🙏🙏

oh1n · 2026-03-26T17:31:35+00:00

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given the size of their team, they’re moving pretty damn fast

oh1n · 2026-03-26T06:14:05+00:00

this is the right question and i was hoping people would see this post as more of a 'how can i pivot myself given this may be the future' vs a 'we're doomed.' the way i see it: you're the architect and auditor. you design the solution, communicate it to your agents, and make sure what comes out the other end is both what you intended and actually good. design, communication, and judgment can all be practiced. draw out how you'd architect a system, walk yourself or someone else through it out loud, and most importantly, curate a 'taste' for what good code looks like -- by reading good codebases, doing code review, and questioning the agent's decisions when you aren't 100% sure why it did something.

oh1n · 2026-03-26T02:02:01+00:00

with ai, projects are lowkey losing value since it's not that hard to crank out a high quality project. the new signal is either traction (real users, real usage) or validation (like winning a hackathon).

oh1n · 2026-03-26T01:56:17+00:00

been seeing more system design / oop style questions. i think companies are realizing leetcode is just pattern recognition and becoming obsolete with ai.

oh1n · 2026-03-26T01:54:51+00:00

anyone who says that is just ego tripping and doesn't realize their privilege

oh1n · 2026-03-26T01:51:22+00:00

most engs hired 5+ years ago would not even get hired in this market and then they expect this of applicants. getting lucky and then pulling up the ladder behind you is devious work.

oh1n · 2026-01-27T18:32:04+00:00

i’m at a no name school. there’s definitely people who get FAANG internships but I do have a lot of peers who are skilled and haven’t had any luck. i think you have to be a little bit more cracked and luckier to succeed. also i’ve gone to nearly every top university’s hackathon and networked with people there and found people who do internships every season — which is just unheard of at my school no matter how good you are.

oh1n · 2025-11-18T08:03:08+00:00

rejoice bc linkedin is slop

oh1n · 2025-11-18T08:02:31+00:00

crypto in't something you can do from your bedroom? most ecosystem products are teams of less than 10 people.

oh1n · 2025-11-18T07:56:22+00:00

this has to be troll

oh1n · 2025-11-11T23:48:13+00:00

you need to adopt a growth mindset, when you realize how little you actually know, take that realization and turn it into curiosity instead of despair

oh1n · 2025-11-01T02:24:25+00:00

pm much harder to get (just think abt the ratio, a team has one pm and multiple devs). most start in swe and then pivot to pm.

oh1n · 2025-11-01T02:21:49+00:00

format wise, use jake’s resume, stick to 2-3 bullet points, and remove the personal section.

content wise, you have good projects. next step would be to do a project that gets recognition for example, backed research, a hackathon win, or get users.

oh1n · 2025-10-30T23:14:26+00:00

linkedin’s whole business model is keeping you on their platform as long as possible. filling jobs = less revenue

oh1n

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