The stars of ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank” devoured a Silicon Valley titan over Twitter after he slammed their show as a waste of time for ambitious entrepreneurs.
Paul Graham, co-founder of the startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC), took a shot at the show Wednesday night in a seemingly unprovoked attack, cautioning entrepreneurs to focus on their product rather than exposure. Graham, who is known as a major player in Silicon Valley, seemed to suggest the exposure was a waste of time, reports Geek Wire.
Startups: Instead of appearing on Shark Tank, spend that energy fixing whatever makes your product so unappealing you think you need to.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) January 28, 2016
Mark Cuban hit back hard however, calling Graham and YC entitled and arrogant. He also jabbed that Y Combinator is a waste of money for entrepreneurs. Y Combinator gives money and support to startups in exchange for a share in the company, but receives criticism for their reported elitist mentality when approaching venture capitalists, reports Business Insider.
@paulg you mean like the sense of entitlement and arrogance they get when they become part of a YC class ? It's hard to wash it out
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 28, 2016
@paulg the real question is why does a startup become part of YC any more ? The good old days of YC are just that
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 28, 2016
Chris Sacca, a billionaire investor known for his early plays in Twitter and Uber also got in on the action. Sacca is a guest host of the show and dryly pointed out that millions of viewers watching a pitch might be worth something to unknown entrepreneurs looking to make it big.
@paulg Yeah, because a free 10-minute pitch to 7 million Americans is something every startup should turn down.
— Chris Sacca (@sacca) January 28, 2016
It’s unknown why the twitter brawl got so heated, however some have suggested Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, may have been a bit upset at his team’s 127-107 blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors Wednesday night.
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