Shutdown: Agora (YC S19)
thecolorinanything.comOver years, I have met a lot of founders, many of whom shared challenges they personally faced, many of whom it was heartbreaking knowing there was little to be done to help them.
On same note, having seen similar YC batch and alumni situations play out on HN before, I hope it’s obvious that YC is neither qualified to sort out mental health challenges founders face, nor should they attempt to do so in my opinion. YC to my knowledge doesn’t place limits on the use of its investments in founders —and if a founder felt they needed to step back, pause, or use a fraction of the funds to get professional help, I would be very surprised if the group partners were not supportive of that. Further, given the sensitivity of the topic, I personally don’t feel YC officially commenting would help anyone, and very possible might even be a breach of law depending of the specifics of the situation.
For anyone passionate about startups, as former YC founder & former YC partner Daniel Gross said in a startup school presentation, your health is critical to winning at startups:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LH1bewTg-P4
For anyone curious about Agora, their Wefunder page has a lot of information:
Seems like only praise and "our wonderful journeys" are allowed on "Bookface".
Telling people about the true nature (bad for health, family, relationships) of a VC Startup? Hell no.
Definitely not a good look for YC.
YC sells lottery tickets, not an understanding and acceptance that the lottery ticket is more luck than skill. That’s what friends, loved ones, and a therapist are for. I highly recommend the latter.
Enjoy the experience for having attempted, but don’t feel bad if you fail. Most do, you’re optimizing for the journey. Don’t let it ruin you, there are more chapters to be had.
https://www.shawnngtq.com/projects/y-combinator-startups-ana...
https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/a-fifth-of-yc-startups...
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=db663a78-3219...
I was talking about how their rejection of this post is a bad look for YC, not about how their lack of support for the entrepreneur is a bad look.
Me too. Our responses are just framed differently around the same problem. Sorry I wasn’t able to make that more clear in my comment. Words are hard!
This is the first bullshit-free "Our Incredible Journey" post I've ever seen. Bravo, Allie!
Sometimes when you want to say something to be understood, it seems daunting and isolating as those things don't feel heard.
I read this and heard this. The thing I can say is that looking at startup culture now, after twenty years of being here, it's just getting weirder and weirder.
It takes time sometimes to look at something and see it for it was rather what it could have been.
I, too, took $200,000 four years ago. I turned that into employing 40 people, two retail locations, and 100 hr work weeks, and it all disappeared with the pandemic shutdowns. I, too, did odd jobs, have failing mental health, struggled, dealt with others didn't understand, insisted, persisted, etc. If there was just one more thing to be done. Other days, I couldn't do a single thing.
I've also gone through experiences of trying to raise money to get the agency I worked with the funds to kick off a project and watching that fail in multiple hilarious ways.
If this experience was what it takes to handle your health do it. Your oxygen mask on first, always, before others. If you're looking for something to excuse your behavior, find it, accept it, and forgive yourself. Write out what you learned, and and keep trying.
> I struggled with making daily company decisions. Lots of doctor visits and hospital stays later, I was diagnosed with OCD and depression while trying to operate this company and bring my dreams to reality. This was not a recipe for success.
That seems an unnecessary take-down of the founder in the middle.
The "recipe for success" isn't a thing in you - the "recipe for success" is trying.
And that she did, as much as she could. If this was a success story everything about being a barista would be said in the same admiring tones as the famous Vegas Fedex story.
"You can't win the lottery without buying a ticket" is how I view silicon valley money, because you can win, but you have to put yours in to win it.
Not sure why this is downvoted. Success is trying. You don’t get anywhere with any substance without putting the hard yards in. And sometimes, it doesn’t work. That’s okay.
There is no magic recipe for success and frequently people find success via luck, hacks, etc.
In my experience, telling passionate potential founders if they never try they’ll never succeed leads to dark patterns in more than a few situations; for example, currently aware of a founder that left a good job to throw money and time at a startup even he clearly explained himself is doomed to fail. Personally seen people treat startups like a gambling addictions, pipe dreams that are clearly not based on any objective observable reality, etc.
In fact, comment you replied to referred to FedEx founder story of them gambling in Vegas to save the company with the last of the company’s funds. This is not the type of healthy, level headed, culture the startup community needs.
For a second, by reading "Agora", somehow, my mind went to "Algolia".
Anyway, although I'm not familiar with "Agora", I wish the best of luck to its founder(s) and the rest of the team who were affected by the shutdown.
Me too. I had to look up multiple Agoras to find www.agorastore.com
I went down with a sinking ship, early stage startup once. It was extremely painful for the employees, and I'm sure the founder/CEO - however, he ended up making a series of extremely selfish decisions and engaged in some very questionable behavior trying to keep it afloat. I wish I could have more empathy for founders that let their dream go on too long, but, I think it's just as (if not more) painful for the people they employ that bought in on their vision.
No job or project is worth your mental or physical well being.
This post brings up good but expensive memories. Should have kept my Bitcoins instead of dumping them into Agora.