An Open Letter to Founders and Investors

https://medium.com/@crispr/an-open-letter-to-founders-and-investors-b6e955a9d21a#.5ako11y5s

by alexmanuel • 10 years ago

11 8 10 years ago

alexmanuel2• 10 years ago

Someone else posted this here already, but we wanted to answer questions ourselves. Thank you all for the amazing support and kind words.

gragas2• 10 years ago

Trump is not a science supporter but altogether a vision of hatred

Trump loves America. He wants to save America from corruption.

chinese_dan2• 10 years ago

"In turn for voicing our concern and opinions about a partner who supports Donald Trump, they got cold, stopped responding altogether afterwards, and needless to say, we were discriminated against, we felt blacklisted "

You are begging for money. Investors have all of the power in this situation. They don't really owe you anything.

"And as investors, you guys have a commitment to do right by founders like us."

Sorry, no they don't.

"We have a strong team but also, a strong set of beliefs. And we for one, do not support the bigotry and hatred that is spread by people like Trump, and the fact that Y Combinator which is supposed to be on the side of the entrepreneur and promote technology and science has taken this stance is shocking and proves that change needs to happen. We ask investors to reconsider where they place their trust."

Guilty by association is a logical fallacy. Should I then conclude that you support rapists because you support Hillary (who fought against the women Bill Clinton abused)?

"Trump is not a science supporter but altogether a vision of hatred against humanity"

Complete hyperbole. You are an example of bigotry and bias that is destroying our society. You can't stand the fact that someone supports something you don't like and want to destroy them publicly.

"This was the first time we ever attempted to be part of a program like this, and if you see our CSO and his resume, it speaks for itself"

Please. Ycombinator doesn't need you more than you need them.

"That we were subjected to discrimination"

So not responding to your ridiculous requests is now considered 'discrimination'.

"and we shouldn’t be punished for it"

You are hardly being punished for anything. Take a look at all of the college professors and professionals that are fired from their jobs for merely speaking their mind.

"The truth is we never have and never will support Trump."

I have money and I would never invest in your company.

This article has shown the world that you are unwilling to compromise. If things don't go your way, you immediately go into hyperbole, name calling, and there is absolutely no empathy for anyone on the other side. From personal experience, you seem like a complete nightmare to work with.

Discrimination didn't cause your lack of response to Ycombinator, your poor behavior did. I hope you learn something from this.

I also find it disheartening that a group that claims to understand what it's like to suffer from discrimination, paints an entire part of the population with the same brush and exhibits the same exact behavior that they claim to be against.

More discrimination will not stop discrimination.

alexmanuel2• 10 years ago

I've never read a more ignorant post in my life.

gragas2• 10 years ago

You're the one who's ignorant. All your letter shows is that you didn't look at primary sources to form an opinion on Trump. Rather, you settled back into the naïve "he's racist and hates everyone" tactic.

chinese_dan2• 10 years ago

Well, I'm assuming you're young and naive, so I will give you some slack. You will look back on the article you wrote in a couple of years and want it buried due to embarrassment (just thinking about it now is pretty cringe inducing for me as I'm typing this).

Mixing business with politics is a mistake and will severely limit your future chances at getting a serious investor. Not to mention your intolerant and abrasive attitude pushes most people away.

This may work in a forum like HN or Reddit where you can downvote someone and make them disappear. But in the actual world, you need to work together with people that you absolutely disagree with politically.

I think you are also mistaken about the power-dynamic. You need to give them a good reason to invest in your company and they really don't owe you any explanation...and accusing them of discrimination? It's the kind of libel that goes on every day on social media and is the essence of what's wrong with our society today.

generic_user• 10 years ago

It's hard for me to believe that an educated person over the age of say 13 wrote that ridiculous rant. If there was any chance CRISPER inc could be taken as a serious business that essay put an end to it full stop.

Who ever wrote that should be fired immediately. Good luck trying to salvage the bits and pieces from this self inflicted train wreck.

entee• 10 years ago

Looking over the application, the science claims are wildly overblown. Claims of CRISPR making DNA sequencing free, having a 100% cure rate for cancer, eliminating the need for antibiotics are just on their face flat wrong. It seems they misunderstand what CRISPR is (a highly specific DNA nuclease), and how it can be used in the context of a larger organism.

CRISPR is a huge, important advance, it's not the cure-all to all of biology's real and imagined ills.

Not sure how the political thing is relevant in that context. This election season has been extraordinarily acrimonious, and I'll go on the record that I find Trump's views abhorrent. That said, at some point we're going to have to figure out how to talk about politics in a civil manner, because otherwise the whole situation is going to get even worse.

An Open Letter to Founders and Investors

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