YC in the beginning was all about giving the people who make things a shot at using their ability and ideas to start a company. Now it's founders, funding, and hiring the first engineer.

Maybe half of what PG said is out of date, but a lot of that is because he wrote about a fundamentally different kind of startup. I think those stillexist, just not at YC any more.

There was a list of Thiel fellows published the other day* and it struck me that the companies listed are mostly all pretty mainstream sounding startups and founders that wouldn't stand out on a list from YC or another VC. Maybe it's always been that way, I had in my mind that a program like that was trying to be a little more outside the box, but it feels pretty mainstream. I dont know what "next" looks like but the whole scene feels a bit like a copy of a copy of a copy now. (I'm not criticizing any individuals, just the relative uniformity of a scene that presents itself as high risk bets on genuinely new stuff)

* https://finance.yahoo.com/news/thiel-foundation-announces-ne...

Always funny to see the "modern YC startup" of two corp-types looking to offer the privilege of a crappy salary and tiny equity to a 'founding engineer' to build their product for them.

I would say I'm saddened but ultimately VC money far outpaced the small minority of people who can build things.

Every time I see some of these, I'm reminded I should apply and get the equity myself.

But oh well, I'm not a US grad coming out of MIT or whatever those kids seem to have

I guess, bootstrapping and grants are the "new" way.

I've seen some startup horrors subsidized by nebulous gov't grants. Money laundering for the elite always finds a way.

Almost the entire Canadian startup ecosystem is like that (other industries too)