tansan 2 hours ago

This seems like a top signal to me. Some form of institution rot going on?

melvinmelih 4 hours ago

I do not understand how:

1) Someone actually thought this was a good idea

2) Someone actually built it

3) YC actually funded it

  • tansan an hour ago

    4) Someone actually pitched the marketing idea

    5) Someone actually made the video

    6) Someone actually shared it with YC

    7) YC thought it was a good idea to post it

    This went through too many layers

infrawhispers 4 hours ago

Why not frame things from the perspective of rewarding good performance? I am sure this will get bought by companies looking to squeeze their workers…and I will not be surprised if this leads to worse outcomes for staff and employers in the medium to long term.

The launch video was disgraceful.

  • geepytee an hour ago

    >Why not frame things from the perspective of rewarding good performance?

    This guy knows marketing. Agreed it would not have been as controversial

JustTheTruth 2 hours ago

If you've ever worn a swag tee made in Bangladesh, you've touched the output of a much less nice management process than the one depicted in the video. If you've ever eaten a tomato, you've stuffed the result of a much less nice management process down your gullet. Where do you think the t-shirts that cost $2.00 come from? Sunshine and roses? At least in a world where all the factories use Optifye.ai, woman workers won't get raped by bosses that hold discretionary firing over their head: they'll just be able to track in the top 10% and protect their job using data and facts and science and logic. This is the world you were fighting for. If this is surprising to you, your eyes have been closed.

This is the world you all wanted.

  • moralestapia an hour ago

    Hi Kushal and/or Vivaan,

    "The world is trash" is not an excuse to make it worse, and this kind of statement only digs you a bigger hole.

    This is not the end of your startup, it could just be a bumpy start if you are able to find a different angle for this technology and turn the boat around. It could be a really nice story tbh, you have the whole world looking at you which is the most difficult thing! No publicity is bad publicity.

    But leave that attitude behind ...

moralestapia 3 hours ago

This is getting HUGE exposure on Xwitter right now.

YC is backtracking on them and rightly so. I don't blame them, they probably pitched something relatively ok-ish; today's demo is just a disaster from every angle.

Incidentally, this also shows why 2020s YC is a different beast than 2010s YC, they don't really care about your startup, they don't even really know what is it about, its just a pure numbers game at this point.

Methaphorically, YC also optifye-d itself into what it is nowadays.

WantonQuantum 5 hours ago

Some thoughts as a software engineer living in a country with quite strong workers' rights laws (not the US):

- Yuck.

- This is capitalism and, like it or not, I personally benefit from capitalism.

- When the capital comes from affluent countries and the labour comes from countries with weak labour laws, we get a bad situation where the workers are exploited.

- I need to up my game on purchasing from ethical clothing brands.

elfbargpt 3 hours ago

I assume unions would have a problem with this right?

carabiner 2 hours ago

This is an actual panopticon?