He has a point, but this is Hacker News. VCs most certainly do not want to invest in you if you just want to "make a dent". Everyone is searching for that next unicorn. If you don't want to be a unicorn, the VCs have no use for you.
I don't think I understand what that means. HN has always had a rich mixture of VC-seeking entrepreneurs, spare-time hackers, software hackers, hardware hackers, greyhair DB analysts, academics and PhD students, and curious 9-5 bystanders.
The community certainly provides good publicity for YC, but I never got the impression that pg intended this board to be exclusively a place to talk about VC investment or what it takes to get it. Exactly the opposite in fact, a wide diversity of experience and subjects was (and still is) encouraged.
I have no way to gauge, but I'll bet HN members interested in surfing VC-infested waters are a small minority of the people here. This article is right on point for a large number in this community.
Hackers News has tens of thousands of readers (if not more) tons, if not most, of which are not in SV style VC startups. Including enterprise programmers and "lifestyle business" owners.
>Everyone is searching for that next unicorn. If you don't want to be a unicorn, the VCs have no use for you.
You also don't have use for the VCs, so that's a moot point. A business like Basecamp can be started on a credit card, or a simple bank loan.