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Time of India
11-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan warns engineering and business college students: This mindset may land you in jail
Garry Tan , CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator , has issued a stark warning to engineering and business students: adopting a 'fake it till you make it' mindset. Tan emphasised that that such a mindset, if taken too far, can lead to severe legal repercussions, including jail time. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Speaking at Y Combinator's AI Startup School during a live recording of the Lightcone Podcast, Tan criticised some academic entrepreneurship programs that promote deceptive practices. 'We're very worried about them because what we're coming to understand is they are teaching you to lie,' he said. 'That's a waste of time — and you're gonna go to jail.' Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's warring for engineering and business college students Tan directly criticized unnamed university entrepreneurship courses , suggesting they might be fostering an environment where students feel encouraged to bend the truth in their pursuit of startup success. He emphasised that while ambition and innovation are important, they must be grounded in honesty and integrity. Tan referenced disgraced tech founders Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) and Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos), both convicted for fraud and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. He warned the students that who follow the same path of exaggerating traction, misleading investors, or fabricating product capabilities they have the risk of ending in jail. 'They don't represent us!' Tan declared, distancing Y Combinator's ethos from the high-profile scandals that have tarnished Silicon Valley's reputation. Tan and his colleagues argued that many college entrepreneurship courses offer a 'cheap facsimile' of real startup life. Jared Friedman, YC's managing director, said these programs often teach rigid formulas and encourage hype over substance. 'Anytime you try to bottle up entrepreneurship and teach it as a college course, what you end up with is a method, not a company,' he said. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now They also criticized institutions for restricting access to AI tools like Cursor, an AI-powered code editor, which they believe are essential for modern startup development. Tan has also asked the budding entrepreneurs to go for transparency, build real products, and avoid shortcuts. 'Software is the most empowering thing in the world. Why do you have to lie?' he asked. His message: success should be earned through innovation and integrity, not illusion.
Business Insider
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan warns students that a 'fake it till you make it' business mindset could land you in jail
Garry Tan says too many business students today are being taught to fudge the truth — and warns that going down that road could lead to serious consequences, like jail time. Speaking to an audience of undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students during a live recording of Y Combinator's Lightcone Podcast, Tan criticized unnamed academic entrepreneurship programs that he claimed teach a "fake it till you make it" attitude. "I'm very worried about them because what we're coming to understand is they are teaching you to lie," Tan told the audience at Y Combinator's AI Startup School conference. "Software is the most empowering thing in the world. Why do you have to lie?" Tan runs Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that pulls from a similar talent pool and has produced breakout successes like Airbnb and Doordash. After a competitive application process, YC promises mentorship, investor connections, and a $125,000 seed and $375,000 SAFE note in exchange for a 7% equity stake in startups selected for the program. Jared Friedman, YC's managing director of software and former cofounder of Scribd, said that academic programs suffer because they aren't run by founders. "Anytime you try to bottle up entrepreneurship and teach it as a college course, what you end up with is basically a cheap facsimile," Friedman says. "They teach you to follow a particular method or a particular practice and that's just not what startups are actually like." Tan said that these programs were teaching students to "fake it till you make it" and "lie to investors." He also warned that such ideas could lead students to become founders like FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced to over 11 years in prison. "That's a waste of time, and you're going to go to jail," Tan said. He spoke against how Bankman-Fried, Holmes, and other "fake" founders grew to represent the tech industry, chanting, "They don't represent us!" to applause from the audience. Earlier in the conversation, Tan and his YC colleagues also said the unnamed academic entrepreneurship programs don't promote AI use. Diana Hu, YC group partner and former cofounder of Escher Reality, asked which students in the audience were allowed to use Cursor, an AI code editor. When limited hands were raised, Hu said, "This is the future." "They're quite literally prohibiting the students from learning the tools that they are going to need," Friedman said.
