Summary
Y Combinator and Techstars are the top 2 incubators currently. They have some big names like Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and others that they’ve helped fund when the companies were just startups. After an experience with one of YC’s companies I got into a bad dispute and found they were committing unethical and board line illegal actions. It got to the point where I researched other incubator companies and found people were reporting the companies were running the same type of scam(s). This made me reexamine the larger companies like Stripe and that’s where I’m at now. There’s companies within companies, schemes within schemes and there’s no way I could research this on my own. This is truly the definition of organized crime and I believe it gets bigger than just YC and TS.
Main
I dealt with the syndicates refund scams firsthand and 1000s of other people have similar experiences with their companies. And 1000s of fake reviews to cover the bad ones up.
With PayPal I had a hell of a time finding any chargeback issues compared to Stripe who is littered with them. It's all about consistency.
The confidence I have it's a syndicate stems from my interactions with one of their (y combinator) companies regarding a dispute. It was pretty brutal dealing with them but I took note of their methods: gaslight, offer partial refund for little to no work, cite a sketchy contract, more gaslighting then ignore the customer until the window closes for refunds/chargebacks (~120 days). Finally, gave in and started looking for answers. I searched a few employees and eventually found that they had 4 other companies all with bad reputations. Searched more and finally came across that 1 of the 4 companies was funded by y combinator. That’s when I found tons of companies with a similar MO just like the ones I presented in my original post. Through social media I even found companies with other incubators referenced (Techstars)
That many fraudulent companies coming out of “elite schools” that are harder to get in than Harvard and Stanford showing that many signs of fraud? The rest was trying to figure out how and what kind of frauds they are committing from the limited information we have access to and getting enough evidence to present it to the authorities in the respect countries these companies reside.
All those companies I listed have customers who had same/similar experiences to me. I took this knowledge and applied it to the big companies. Stripe for instance gets $15 per chargeback and after so many you're not only screwed with doing business with Stripe your screwed with doing business with the card network which is comprised of Visa, MC, etc. They destroy businesses and profit at the same time. That's just one scam - they can freeze accounts for no reason and also hold money for long periods. With the amount and frequency of complaints it's hard to ignore Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase and the rest. The reviews are all over FB, Trustpilot and other sources. The reviews also reveal the fact that for every one review you see there's many more that haven't been reported. Visa also has a healthy stake in Stripe.
Other signs:
All of these issues are systemic. Venture capitalist (VC) and angel investors (AI) are being constantly reported for bad behavior. Abusing power and coercing women to have sex for startup money.
All this seedy behavior trickles down.
Template
Created a template along the way for organization
If you want a quick dose of what’s going on check out Clutch Prep because it’s the best example of how these companies operate. Separated the links but they are in order with the highlighted words:
Links - Updating
Techstar Companies
(not a full list)
Still getting some of this organized.
Y Combinator and Techstars are the top 2 incubators currently. They have some big names like Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and others that they’ve helped fund when the companies were just startups. After an experience with one of YC’s companies I got into a bad dispute and found they were committing unethical and board line illegal actions. It got to the point where I researched other incubator companies and found people were reporting the companies were running the same type of scam(s). This made me reexamine the larger companies like Stripe and that’s where I’m at now. There’s companies within companies, schemes within schemes and there’s no way I could research this on my own. This is truly the definition of organized crime and I believe it gets bigger than just YC and TS.
Main
I dealt with the syndicates refund scams firsthand and 1000s of other people have similar experiences with their companies. And 1000s of fake reviews to cover the bad ones up.
With PayPal I had a hell of a time finding any chargeback issues compared to Stripe who is littered with them. It's all about consistency.
The confidence I have it's a syndicate stems from my interactions with one of their (y combinator) companies regarding a dispute. It was pretty brutal dealing with them but I took note of their methods: gaslight, offer partial refund for little to no work, cite a sketchy contract, more gaslighting then ignore the customer until the window closes for refunds/chargebacks (~120 days). Finally, gave in and started looking for answers. I searched a few employees and eventually found that they had 4 other companies all with bad reputations. Searched more and finally came across that 1 of the 4 companies was funded by y combinator. That’s when I found tons of companies with a similar MO just like the ones I presented in my original post. Through social media I even found companies with other incubators referenced (Techstars)
That many fraudulent companies coming out of “elite schools” that are harder to get in than Harvard and Stanford showing that many signs of fraud? The rest was trying to figure out how and what kind of frauds they are committing from the limited information we have access to and getting enough evidence to present it to the authorities in the respect countries these companies reside.
All those companies I listed have customers who had same/similar experiences to me. I took this knowledge and applied it to the big companies. Stripe for instance gets $15 per chargeback and after so many you're not only screwed with doing business with Stripe your screwed with doing business with the card network which is comprised of Visa, MC, etc. They destroy businesses and profit at the same time. That's just one scam - they can freeze accounts for no reason and also hold money for long periods. With the amount and frequency of complaints it's hard to ignore Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase and the rest. The reviews are all over FB, Trustpilot and other sources. The reviews also reveal the fact that for every one review you see there's many more that haven't been reported. Visa also has a healthy stake in Stripe.
Other signs:
- Using SEO to push back sites that have bad reviews - sometimes 3 pages.
- Bad customer service is usually the telltale sign there’s other issues lurking.
- Mentions (threats) of contracts that wouldn’t hold up in court.
- Reputation management overkill is a sign there's more issues going on.
- Failed companies that don't announce they are closing up shop on social media.
- Using a non-research company to research basic income.
All of these issues are systemic. Venture capitalist (VC) and angel investors (AI) are being constantly reported for bad behavior. Abusing power and coercing women to have sex for startup money.
All this seedy behavior trickles down.
Template
Created a template along the way for organization
If you want a quick dose of what’s going on check out Clutch Prep because it’s the best example of how these companies operate. Separated the links but they are in order with the highlighted words:
Links - Updating
Techstar Companies
(not a full list)
Still getting some of this organized.
Last edited:
- 2
