Occasionally in YC founder circles a new founder will raise a bunch of money and then ask something like "What's the best way to invest all the money our company just raised?"
The responses are always along the lines of "Your startup is already risky. Don't innovate in areas of your business where the status quo is known to work. Innovate your product + technology, don't be innovative with your company's finances, HR, etc"
That advice always stuck with me. It just makes a lot of sense to do things in the most boring way possible, except where it matters (your competitive advantage <-- that's where you innovate, that's where you set yourself apart)
Running a startup is distracting enough. Doing things non-standard just adds to the list of distractions that you don't need as a founder.
KnuthIsGodyesterday at 11:33 PM
Sounds like a camouflaged IQ test for the founders...
Or perhaps Y Combinator is great at funding startups,
but incredibly bad with financial decision making.
In which case it is an IQ test for Y Combinator,
which they have failed.
wmfyesterday at 8:13 PM
Stablecoins make a lot of sense in countries like Argentina where the national currency is a shitcoin. But YC doesn't fund startups in Argentina. Stablecoins can also be used to pay remote employees but that should probably go through an employer of record so that people aren't paid under the table. This sounds like more crypto for the sake of crypto.
throw03172019yesterday at 7:04 PM
If they aren’t a crypto startup where it’s normal to pay others in stable coins, what is the benefit?
fogzentoday at 1:37 AM
“Stablecoins is one of the key pillars for us,” Dalal said, referring to one of the areas where Y Combinator would like to see more startup ideas. “So we just want to live and breathe that as well.”
I asked ChatGPT for an honest translation:
“We’re actively trying to manufacture demand and legitimacy for stablecoins by forcing them into the startup supply chain.”
tehjokertoday at 1:29 AM
I guess this can make sense if the startup is doing crypto, otherwise it seems like financial friction. That said, I believe the entire crypto ecosystem is just a giant scam.
JumpCrisscrossyesterday at 11:49 PM
Might help them win crypto deals. Or expand into shady geographies. Otherwise, I guess having a signal that your founders will donate the interest they’re owed is…something.
tomberttoday at 12:55 AM
Despite still not really showing any utility these tech companies want so so so much for cryptocurrency to catch on.
It feels like the entirety of cryptocurrency, outside of being a thing people used to buy drugs, has been an example of Chesterton's Fence, with half of Silicon Valley in denial of this fact.
j45today at 1:04 AM
Exploring the simplest version of this - I wonder if stablecoins are cheaper / easier to financially to transfer that much money.
Indirectly it might provide some more public visibility initally anyways.
UqWBcuFx6NV4ryesterday at 11:49 PM
Indisputable evidence that YC loves smelling its own farts. Pure absurdity. America truly is reaping what it’s sowing.
j-pbtoday at 1:09 AM
How about receiving funds in coffee-shop vouchers and ramen?
Animatsyesterday at 7:48 PM
YC's previous recommendation was to use Silicon Valley Bank.
That ended well.
reducesufferingyesterday at 7:38 PM
Remember when YC funded (and boosted reach of) ~50 crypto scamlike co's during the heyday of the craze? Like the Stablegains scam fiasco:
I hope we aren't too close to "territorial currencies" where each feudal lord was authorized (or not forbidden) to mint his own currency, which couldn't be carried over the next feud. Think awarded "miles" by your credit card, or tickets in a games center.
Both are equally stupid, and you have to exchange them to buy most of the things you might need.
naileryesterday at 8:11 PM
As evidenced by the comments on this post, HN understanding of crypto is typically ten years out of date, so I'm going to post this top level:
- Transferring money across regions with the best 'normie' tools (eg Transferwise/wise.com) is multiple orders of magnitude more expensive than $0.0000015 (tranferring USDC or another GENIUS-compliant stablecoin on Solana).
- You can easily put stablecoins in a Lulo savings account and get 5% interest instead of 0.1% or whatever your bank provides. Yes Lulo has insurance.
- The Genius act regulates stablecoin provision. US-issued stablecoins are backed by government bonds with proof of reserves. USDC and PyUSD are compliant already, USAT exists because USDT isn't compliant.
- There's no offramp fees for PyUSD, and you, random American, have a Solana address in the 'crypto' tab of your Paypal app. 1234.56 in PyUSD means you get 1234.56 in Chase or Wells Fargo or whatever. In future your bank will hold these assets directly without need to off-ramp at all.
If you want to throw your investors money away to outdated percentage point cross border payments systems you're welcome to.
CuriouslyCyesterday at 7:31 PM
Between this and Canada being dropped as an investable country shortly after the recent US/Canada fracas, I'm starting to wonder about YC's current political affiliations. Also, if you want to put your tinfoil hat on, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell were publicly anti-Trump, and they both left months after the Trump admin took over, a very paranoid take is that the big shot VCs tied to YC made a push to "clean house" or "toe the line" and they were either gently pushed out or decided to leave because they didn't like the new vibes.