There is no universal answer to that question. For some companies the answer is clearly "yes", for others it is clearly "no", and for some it's a tough call. But there is absolutely no way anyone could give a more specific answer without knowing a whole lot more about what's going on.
That is not something that should have to be explained to you unless you are a totally clueless noob. That is not a value judgement. There is nothing wrong with being a clueless noob. Everyone starts out that way. Echelon even came right out and said that he (she?) had "little business experience".
But I'm not convinced that Echelon was really being sincere about this because he (she?) then went on to strongly imply that his company was so bad-ass that YC should be willing to seriously consider changing their standard terms for the privilege of being allowed in. Echelon is almost certainly wrong about this [1]. So "I have little business experience" sounded to me like a humblebrag.
My answer was intended to convey the following message: Yes, Echelon, your lack of business experience was evident even before you told us, and though you don't seem to have fully taken this on board, it is a serious threat to your success. You are almost certainly not as bad-ass as you seem to think you are. Not yet.
Maybe I should have spelled all that out originally, but I was in a hurry.
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[1] Since I am passing judgement on Echelon's odds of success on very little data, I feel I should give you some of my bona-fides: I have been a principal (founder or co-founder) in six startups and invested in about 20 others. Just this year I am closing out an investment fund that I managed which had an IRR of 70%. I've seen success, and I've seen failure, and while there is obviously no reliable way to make these predictions, there are a few warning signs that manifest very early that have in my experience proven to be very good predictors of failure, and signaling that you think you're bad-ass when you pretty clearly aren't is one of them.
There is no universal answer to that question. For some companies the answer is clearly "yes", for others it is clearly "no", and for some it's a tough call. But there is absolutely no way anyone could give a more specific answer without knowing a whole lot more about what's going on.
That is not something that should have to be explained to you unless you are a totally clueless noob. That is not a value judgement. There is nothing wrong with being a clueless noob. Everyone starts out that way. Echelon even came right out and said that he (she?) had "little business experience".
But I'm not convinced that Echelon was really being sincere about this because he (she?) then went on to strongly imply that his company was so bad-ass that YC should be willing to seriously consider changing their standard terms for the privilege of being allowed in. Echelon is almost certainly wrong about this [1]. So "I have little business experience" sounded to me like a humblebrag.
My answer was intended to convey the following message: Yes, Echelon, your lack of business experience was evident even before you told us, and though you don't seem to have fully taken this on board, it is a serious threat to your success. You are almost certainly not as bad-ass as you seem to think you are. Not yet.
Maybe I should have spelled all that out originally, but I was in a hurry.
---
[1] Since I am passing judgement on Echelon's odds of success on very little data, I feel I should give you some of my bona-fides: I have been a principal (founder or co-founder) in six startups and invested in about 20 others. Just this year I am closing out an investment fund that I managed which had an IRR of 70%. I've seen success, and I've seen failure, and while there is obviously no reliable way to make these predictions, there are a few warning signs that manifest very early that have in my experience proven to be very good predictors of failure, and signaling that you think you're bad-ass when you pretty clearly aren't is one of them.