If you believe this company is an outright fraud (I don’t have an opinion) “shrug its crypto” is a horrendous defense for the funds backing it.
At a bare minimum they should be doing due diligence for their own investors to prevent losses if not the higher standard of being a good citizen and shutting down the fraud.
We would not think it’s ok for a fund backing pharma startups to give cash to Avon Barksdale…
I think I'm saying that YC by design funds companies at a point where it's too early to reliably determine whether they're an outright fraud. And YC can't shut down anything; they invest relatively little money and take zero control over their portfolio companies. The best they can do is performatively kick companies out of the program, so they can't access Bookface or whatever.
Fair enough. I mean, it's performative by definition! This company appears dead in the water. But you're right, sometimes the performance itself has value.
At a bare minimum they should be doing due diligence for their own investors to prevent losses if not the higher standard of being a good citizen and shutting down the fraud.
We would not think it’s ok for a fund backing pharma startups to give cash to Avon Barksdale…