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Comment by eaenki | Hacker News Reader

I can't help but wonder what would happen if YC and all its influence was to be focused on only a bunch of startups per year doing truly far fetched things - namely space, biotech, finance, robotics, computing and VR. Is focusing on social networks for grandkids, instant food, the 50th sticker app and countless B2B products truly worth it when it could be directed towards the former? Who could possibly, genuinely want to work at such places by the way (I mean, for anything else but money)?

As for this year, I'm extremely pleased to see so many startup trying to replace meat and dairy. Ditto for aerospace.

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I get the point you're tryin to make, but, then again, who are we to judge what is and is not worthy, especially this early? A lot of "unworthy" things have been extremely value to us as a society in hindsight, let alone things that have stemmed from them.

> countless B2B products truly worth it?

"B2B" is a very vague and extremely overarching term. Computers, internet, and cell phones were all, at one point, very much "B2B".

> Who could possibly, genuinely want to work at such places?

For starters, I can imagine some people would fancy having a large impact on the world and the subsequent 10-12 figures attached to their name from all the value they created. Microsoft was "B2B", Amazon was an online bookstore (some people would imagine "instant food" in a category close to that), etc. It can be hard for many to see the value of something at its origin and not be able to see how that would shape a society, let alone an exponentially changing one. I think Peter Thiel would call some of these things "secrets".

Microsoft owns the end user experience. I'd say it's as much B2C as it is B2B.

Being able to purchase any book (any knowledge) it's amazing. Definitely not even close to instant food.

> Who could possibly, genuinely want to work at such places by the way (I mean, for anything else but money)?

People who find their meaning outside of their work rather than through their work -- ergo most people.

I am thankful for my employer that provides a salary for me to allow me to do fun things with my family and take vacations and all the fun stuff that actually create memories that I will cherish when I am older and no longer working.

Somehow, even though you quoted it, you missed the content inside the parenthesis. Also, flash news! You'll be working roughly 1/4 of your entire life. Unless there's nothing that excites you, it makes much more sense to get a salary + the excitement.

You also sleep roughly 1/3rd of your life. Sleep doesn't particularly excite me, either.

I don't live my life thinking everything needs to excite me.

People are a lot more nuanced than I think you give then credit for.

I am excited by business. By creating things and seeing them work and be used, by digging into the finances and engineering ways to save money or make more money, by working with people that are fun and interesting, by testing out new marketing ideas and seeing what works and what doesn't.

So, for me, it doesn't matter so much what the product of the business is (as long as I am not actively harming someone) and I suspect that is true for a lot of people.

I work at a top tier University and I have been wondering the same thing, about some of the government funded research going on in Academia...

The problem is those ideas except maybe finance and computing don't convert well. When was the last one to go IPO. B2B, on the other hand, converts extremely well because they are solving real problems

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