strangeloops85

Last report I read mentioned two waist-mounted units for computing and battery that would be linked up to the sunglass-sized product (presumably by wires).

I'm sure they have made some good technical advances. But the fact that it's taken this long to productize it to something people can try is.. not promising.

Given their burn rate they really need the first product to have substantial market traction to sustain such valuations and keep moving. That's challenging to say the least..

Also, holy crap is this terrible: "There are victims out there paying for oppression with their lives. As for the people here that whine that they aren't taken care of, who have not to worry about their lives being taken from them or their basic needs met, who owes them more than the voice they already have access to? To these whiners who want me to constantly address their questions preemptively, I say that we all have priorities."

If I'm reading this correctly, he's basically telling the women/URMs of Silicon Valley, "Hey, at least you're not dying of hunger here, stop whining." I'm really not sure telling those who face harassment and significant discrimination on a daily basis here that they are 'whiners' is a good response to this fiasco. But, then again, I don't run a VC with management fees that would presumably give me access to a world-class PR firm..

What is furthermore galling about this email to his founders is the lack of contrition towards them for the difficult position he and Binary have put them in. His actions and the actions of the firm have undoubtedly caused a great deal of distraction, angst, heartache and anger within the portfolio firms, and those founders deserve nothing but an apology from him. Instead, they are berated and threatened! Why on Earth would anyone read this and ever want to work with him as an investor?

Most studies suggest that between 1-4% of the general population are sociopaths. That is not exceedingly rare, but rather people we will encounter on a daily basis. In certain professions, it's likely much higher.

The overall scope of accusations against Caldbeck (including the rather detailed court filing of former employee Ann Lai, which includes disturbing documentary evidence in the form of text messages) is, at this point, substantial.

Your choice to interpret and minimize this as mere 'poor judgment' and 'signals got mixed up' is questionable given the preponderance of evidence, and certainly does seem to minimize the scope of harassment reported by the victims. I mean, for heaven's sake, he had to leave Lightspeed because of his harassment of one of their founders! They took a big financial hit with StitchFix. This was clearly widely understood and swept under the rug.

"The story in the public that you are all trying to buy back shares should be revised. Not for my sake. If that's what any of you want, ok, but know this. I strongly urge you not to be considered part of a group of entrepreneurs that would, at the first sign of trouble or opportunity, choose to renege. It is dishonorable. And it is opportunistic grandstanding. It will hurt the perception of your integrity and it will hurt your ability to raise capital down the line. No investor seeks out that risk. It's not an action of integrity. I would urge you to separate yourself from that narrative if it isn't true of your intentions. If it is, I hope you have a very credible reason to do it besides just doing a shakedown, or to stand outside your integrity for the sake of media perception. I also recommend you speak to each reporter who has quoted that erroneous article and have it corrected."

Nice, a threat that speaking against them/him will hurt your ability to raise money. This seems only barely removed from the retaliation threats and actions Caldbeck did against the former employee (and others he harassed). Seems like a great guy to work with! Also, 'Not for my sake', lol.

Seriously, did one of their lawyers not look this over? They're facing a lawsuit from a former principal alleging extensive retaliation against her throughout the valley, and I suspect this email will wind up being a pretty compelling exhibit in the case.

This does certainly cast yet another shadow on all the public remonstrations of fealty and support shown on various social media channels towards him. In the future, you may want to wait a bit and see how things shake out.

Glad to hear it's (at least somewhat) interesting! We did not build that particular startup for personal/ founder conflict reasons that were related to why we left the SFP. But I ended up having a great internship experience with a small Boston-area company that summer, and after graduating the next year, worked at a big tech co. for a little while. Then, not following what pg's advice would have been I'm sure, I decided to go get a PhD in physics/ engineering of all things. I now run a small cleantech startup based on that work, and do look back enviously at how 'simple' a software startup can be (I know, I know.. we all face The Struggle).

Jessica's article really did take me back to those quieter days in 2005!

After lurking for many years, I finally decided to create an account to comment on this. We were one of the companies in that first group -- alas, for various reasons, we ended up leaving after a couple of weeks (sigh). But I do remember the interview process, the first meal or two, and meeting the rest of the founders. Looking back, it's pretty cool to have (very briefly and inconsequentially) been part of that formative time in YC's history.

A bit of background: We were a group of Harvard CS-ish undergrads, had been readers of PG's essays, and also noticed a fellow classmate's startup taking off (The Facebook!). The Summer Founders Program, as it was called, was actually pretty well advertised in our community. And, from our vantage point, it seemed to be both a great opportunity and prestigious (which of course tickled our over-achieving prestige-seeking 20-year-old selves). In fact, I turned down an internship after I'd accepted the offer, to do YC (and, amusingly, after we left YC a couple of weeks in, somehow got the internship again). I remember PG asking a lot of very good questions, and poking some pretty big holes in our pitch. I'm guessing they picked us because they figured we'd pivot into something more reasonable than the idea we started on. This being the pre-smartphone era, our idea of doing something cell-phone-specific (and algorithmically focused no less) probably seemed a bit dubious.

While no one (or relatively few) may have cared in the broader investment world at the time, we -- the young hacker / startup wannabes -- definitely noticed. PG, Jessica and the rest of the team did a great job attracting our attention and interest. And that, I'd venture to say, was a key element of YC's future success that was there from the very beginning.