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Comment by andrei | Hacker News Reader

I think this downplays things quite a bit. I grew up as a middle class immigrant in Canada. My parents have office jobs, but basically 0 connections (certainly not the ones you're implying you need to raise).

In university (which I paid for myself through internships + loans), my cofounder and I just started coding on an idea, which got us into YC, which helped us get in front of a bunch of VCs, which allowed us to raise $3m in seed funding. No connections, just lots of googling and talking/pitching to anyone that would pay attention to us.

It could've been the 5% luck you're talking about, but certainly don't think that coming from a well-connected family is the only way to fundraise in 2021.

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You used YC's connections. You applied were accepted and now are part of that network.

Leveraging YC's rep for selection is one way to break in. You were part of the lucky 1% who make it through the program from application to funding,congrats!

An aside.. How did the company do?

> You were part of the lucky 1% who make it through the program from application to funding,congrats!

People aren't selected at random. There isn't any luck involved. It's hard work.

I feel it's diminishing peoples achievements to say that their lotto numbers came up and YC let them in.

Do you think everyone who wasn’t accepted simply did not work as hard?

Think of entrepreneurs as athletes. Working hard is a necessary but not sufficient condition.

So they all worked hard and some got lucky?

No, some were better.

They pulled harder on the bootstraps!

It's not the lucky 1%, it's the carefully selected 1%.

The other 99% is where the random rejection component amounts to more like "bad luck".

IOW good luck on its own isn't even enough, but bad luck can set you back years.

And since there's realistically at least another 2% out of the 99 who would have been equally performant if there was actually room for them to be accepted, the greatest pool of most promising candidates are among those whom have been the most unlucky.

Hmm.

I completely believe you, but anecdotes are not data. There are exceptions, but most of the VC world is a circle-jerk of nepotism and "social proof".

> In university (which I paid for myself through internships + loans)

So you got a loan that your family backed and you were able to work as an intern in various places. You also went to a prestigious university. You were a privileged 1% and after entering YC you are part of the 0.1%. This would not have happened if you had been born in Namibia.

My complaint is that by using the leverage of the 0.1% you try to convince the 99,9% that: if you work, think and play hard you can achive your dreams. This is no longer the case. Maybe it was like that 10 or 15 or 35 years ago. Today the wealth difference and inequality is abysmal because of the network effects. So basically you don't need to be good or bad business, you just leverage your network and keep going.

PS: I'm also a 1%

> which got us into YC

That's your "connections" right there

Which university did you go to?

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