Welcome Adora, Nicole, Elizabeth, Case and Robby | Hacker News Reader

Welcome Adora, Nicole, Elizabeth, Case and Robby

blog.ycombinator.com

64 pointsdwaxe25 comments

"Adora Cheung is joining YC as a Partner. Previously, she was co-founder and CEO at Homejoy and a product manager at Slide."

I followed the Homejoy/Flymaids [1] controversy loosely. It seems like Adora was not involved in the Flymaids project, but the handling of internal customer data left a bad taste in many people's mouths. Was this situation with Aaron ever resolved?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10466888

i hired a firm to close down everything, including the sale of remaining assets - some of which ended up with aaron. obviously everyone around the table could've done better.

Gotcha, thanks for the transparency.

Congrats on the position at YC, looking forward to seeing what you guys bring to market in the near future.

"Case is a high-school dropout."

I really like this. Straight to the point. Not everyone needs a certificate to prove their worth. I imagine Case wears that phrase with pride.

I'm a high school drop out also, never completed grades 10-12 went straight to work for Microsoft coding up VB6 engine. I'll say it was quite the experience going from student cohorts to programmings 20 years my senior but I learned and lot and it prepared me for the next adventure

Why would he be proud of this?

Why wouldn't he?

He stuck it to the man, man!

somewhat relatedly, best engineer i know is an english major.

My higher education was more of a vehicle for social mobility rather than for acquiring knowledge -- the latter I had already been doing on my own while I was in high school (but not actually while I was at high school).

I guess titles no longer matter, eh? For Elizabeth she is "Office Manager" (per linkedin) and she was deans list all semesters at Cornell. Is this like starting in the mail room at CAA? [1]

[1] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-mailroom-sec...

My wife was an Office admin at Sequia Capital. She had not graduated college yet and I was out in Palo Alto for an internship. A friend randomly said they where looking to bring on a temp office admin and she got the spot.

She might not have had the coolest title or daily jobs, but she was there when fb bought whatsApp, got to sit in on partner deals (help bring coffee and set stuff up lol) and meet tons of amazing people.

But is she still the "office lady" or did meeting all of those "amazing people" earned her a better job someplace else?

That's a good question but read my comment below which starts with "Connections, halo, and pixie dust." This is a much on the initiative of the person as it is on meeting the right people and being in the right place.

i would happily work in the mailroom at YC for the chance to work the partners they've brought on-board, and im not even straight out of school

Connections, halo, and pixie dust. The thing is this though. Anyone who recognizes opportunity (such as yourself) is a cut above someone who doesn't. You'd be surprised at how many people don't think like this. I was able to get a relative an interview during college at a good PR firm for a summer job. They didn't want to travel to the part of the city where the job was located. Simply didn't understand how good this would be for their career (it was their major). In another case I offered to setup another person with connections to a lawyer that I knew in a big city so they could work part time and during the summer. They didn't want to do that and said they would get back to me "when they were ready". At the very least you should exploit all opportunities when you can because you need to give positive feedback to those that help you or they won't do it again in the future. This thinking is built in to some people and to others (regardless of grades or academics), well, it escapes them.

I would personally not want Adora advising my company after Homejoy/Flymaids

Huge shoutout to Sama! This, plus Elizabeth Rhodes and Matt Krisiloff recently, it really feels like Sam has taken the reins of YC and is passionately pushing the organization further, far past what many of us probably imagined. I'm sure PG couldn't be happier with his chosen successor.

Do partners get paid? Do they put in their own capital?

yeah, it'd be great if YC can provide some info on its internal working. I know that YC has multiple funds (one for each batch?), but not sure how partners contribute capitals/time?

Do I understand correctly that to become a partner in a VC firm you need to contribute investment capital? Does anybody know what is usual amount that is contributed?

On the more finance side of the industry maybe, but not in a situation like this.

First of all, YC has at minimum hundreds of millions in their fund ready to invest out and I'm sure no shortage of LPs looking to give YC more money. When they are looking for partners they don't care about people that can bring new LPs in to raise money, they are looking for people who will actually help the companies they invest in.

Second of all, I wouldn't be surprised if none of the people added as partners were significantly wealthy (unless it was independently). If your startup doesn't have a massive exit or you aren't an early employee at a massive public company (Google, FB, etc), you aren't going to have millions of dollars to throw around.

And of course the fact that the people joining don't need to be rich is an advantage for YC. They can find people who fit the mold of what they'd like their partners to be. I've worked with a lot of people before and I don't think there has been that strong a correlation between successful exit and smart, helpful person.

That's certainly the case when you're raising a new fund from LPs. I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't hold true when you're joining an existing fund as a partner.

How many partners are there at YC now?

17 full time partners.

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