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Comment by mhluongo | Hacker News Reader

I co-founded Fold [0], which went on to raise a $13M Series A from Craft and has some pretty incredible numbers. We were rejected a few times, one after a pretty spicy in-person interview where one of the partners told me to "have fun in jail" because we dared to mess with Bitcoin while the US regulatory system worked itself out.

The parent company became Thesis, a venture studio where we raised a $21M Series A, and have incubated a few more projects (Keep, tBTC, Saddle, Tally).

A friend's company, Wyre, was rejected. They ended up being acquired for 1.5B [1].

It would've been nice to do YC in 2013/14. From what I've heard from other founders, I'm not sure the value today is nearly so high.

[0] - https://foldapp.com [1] - https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-startup-wyre-being-acqui...

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That’s rich, considering that last year they funded a literal ponzi running on Luna lol where the founders are probably going to jail.

Good job on fold by the way - I am a user and it’s great!

They FOMO'd in.

Wyre got acquired for 1.5B by Bolt? Wasn't Bolt doing heavy layoffs and downsizing after it was revealed literally nobody used their payments system, and they locked their employees in predatory loans?

How much of that 1.5B was real money, and how much was soon-to-be worthless stock?

I believe it was an all cash txn

That seems unlikely. Startup acquiring another startup is rarely all cash deal.

Also according to CrunchBase Bolt has raised about $970 million in total. Their revenue is at somewhere around $20-50 million, so they wouldn't even had the cash. Also seems unlikely they would have taken or gotten a massive loan to do an all-cash acquisition like that

Another Silicon Valley scam.

Haha, “have fun in jail”?! Sheesh. Interesting anecdote about today’s value add. I wonder why?

You should blog about this "have fun in jail" incident

Ah, live and learn. Fun to share here, but as another commenter pointed out I don't want to spend too much time on it or burn bridges.

They did great with Coinbase, but by and large missed crypto due to that attitude. Maybe they'll reflect on that now that Garry is back.

When you say they “missed” crypto, has crypto actually become something legit yet, apart from a vehicle for wild speculation, hype, and what feels in many situations like get rich quick or ponzi schemes?

Genuine question (based on what my perception has been, it’s mostly been FOMO investing, but maybe I’m just missing something?)

I believe so! but try not to get too deep into it on HN tbh. Happy to discuss elsewhere though, my contact info is in my profile

They got coinbase and opensea...not sure there was much else to get tbh.

What other VCs do you think provide better value today?

Reminds me of: https://nitter.net/VCBrags/status/1566080075723730944 / https://archive.is/cTfKB (:

Sad how this kind of behavior (“have fun in jail”) is lauded in the VC world.

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