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1121 points alokedesai | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.213s | source
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thaumaturgy ◴[] No.10467160[source]
What's the big deal? Homejoy is just hacking startup downfunding... (/s)

I'd like to see some kind of stronger YC influence on ethics in the companies they fund. I realize that YC doesn't have any direct control over the companies, but it could be as simple as including good ethics in the traits they look for in startup founders.

A while back I started compiling a list of YC companies that spammed or otherwise behaved badly. It quickly got back-burnered by other projects, but there was AirBnB from W09, InstallMonetizer and SocialCam from W12, Zenefits from W13, Abacus and GetAirHelp from W14, Gradberry and OmniRef from W15 ... while so far it looks like the majority of YC startups are well-behaved, the trend was looking like there's a few in every batch that are willing to do shady things to meet their growth metrics.

Or, in Homejoy's case, maybe make a little more money while winding down.

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1. JoblessWonder ◴[] No.10467244[source]
Does YC officially offer any ethics training/mentoring?

It would be an interesting offering even if there isn't any weight behind it. Sometimes I think the message, "Hey, maybe we should all think about what we are doing and whether or not it is in the best interest of something besides our bottom line" isn't something that is brought up/told to a lot of founders. However, whether or not they listen is totally up to them and I am fine with that.