This attack is full of inventions. “Wilfully ignoring” the legal issues, and didn’t read the article. False. “Claiming LendUp did nothing wrong”. Seriously, where? “Perpetuating and defending the idea that YC can do no wrong”. Again, where, aside from pointing out that nobody has been able to provide any evidence that YC did wrong in this case?
The claim I’m disputing is that the original founders, when founding the company ten years ago, set out with malicious intentions to defraud people, and that YC and other investors knew and supported this.
(Others have later claimed that this wasn’t the allegation, and it was rather that YC made a mistake to invest in this company, in which case, fine, I have no major quarrel with that - most of YC’s investments turn out to be mistakes, that’s how their model works.)
But for those who insist that the original founders’ intentions from the start were nefarious and that YC was aware and complicit, this needs to be pushed back on, hard, as there’s no evidence for it and it makes no sense as you can’t build a successful business that way.
That the founders had high-minded ambitions that later turned out to be unachievable is the simplest explanation. Legal issues several years later, or examples of different companies doing different things to what the founders set out to do are not proof of malice on the part of the founders or YC, or of my dishonesty, and further wordy and aggressive replies from you won’t change that.
Seriously, the legal process has worked and the company has been shut down. Put away the pitchforks and torches.
The claim I’m disputing is that the original founders, when founding the company ten years ago, set out with malicious intentions to defraud people, and that YC and other investors knew and supported this.
(Others have later claimed that this wasn’t the allegation, and it was rather that YC made a mistake to invest in this company, in which case, fine, I have no major quarrel with that - most of YC’s investments turn out to be mistakes, that’s how their model works.)
But for those who insist that the original founders’ intentions from the start were nefarious and that YC was aware and complicit, this needs to be pushed back on, hard, as there’s no evidence for it and it makes no sense as you can’t build a successful business that way.
That the founders had high-minded ambitions that later turned out to be unachievable is the simplest explanation. Legal issues several years later, or examples of different companies doing different things to what the founders set out to do are not proof of malice on the part of the founders or YC, or of my dishonesty, and further wordy and aggressive replies from you won’t change that.
Seriously, the legal process has worked and the company has been shut down. Put away the pitchforks and torches.