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Y Combinator's motto is literally "Make something people want."



isn’t there an implied, “in order to generate revenue”?


Maybe so, but that's very different than "Beat the system and make tons of money".

See some of pg's early essays:

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html

http://paulgraham.com/good.html

Entrepreneurship is one of the least zero-sum activities you can participate in.


http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html

It's literally on the YC application form.

"He said to ask about a time when they'd hacked something to their advantage—hacked in the sense of beating the system, not breaking into computers. It has become one of the questions we pay most attention to when judging applications."

The part about "make tons of money" isn't there, but I don't think anyone disagrees with that part -- YC recently launched a separate branch to handle nonprofit ventures.


If there were, why would they accept non-profits, which they have done so since 2013?[0]

[0]https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/


> Since some people were confused when we funded Watsi, I’d better clarify that the money we’re putting into the nonprofits will be a charitable donation, rather than an investment in the narrow sense. We won’t have any financial interest in them.

For good vibes, tax credits, & marketing


I always assumed every YC startup is "non profit" for the first 5 years of life... ;)




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