@umbrabates Definitely get rid of him, lying like that is unacceptable, this is a blessing as you’ve found out early on, and will save you lots of pain later. YC will likely be impressed with your honesty and ability to make tough choices, they will probably help you find a new co-founder. Good luck!
@umbrabates Drop him. I had a cofounder who was dishonest with everyone, including customers, always trying to fuck others over for his benefit. I tried to work around it and keep him honest to no avail. He ended up trying to stiff me for a few million right before a major raise and then proceeded to plot against me behind my back. I ended up just walking away voluntarily and all the potential investors dropped out since I was the bridge to credibility (we had the best tech in existence for our niche according to a US governmental entity's report but no one trusted him to manage funds properly despite the technical results).
Karma also bit him in the ass after I left between an FBI investigation and everyone else quitting since I was the one who addressed all the concerns that my cofounder had been ignoring/lying about. Truthfully, he's a technical genius but completely lacking in every other aspect including common sense (he almost blew us up by wiring company funds to a known scam artist on a verbal promise before I saw it in the ledger and intervened by calling a local bank executive's cell after hours).
@umbrabates This might be late, but remove him from the application and I’m happy to give you a referral too if you’ve got traction. You can always find a new Technical co-founder or fractional CTO.
It’s always best to apply when you’ve got the growth moving in the right direction.
@duke845 Any chance I could also trouble you for a fractional CTO/ technical co-founder referral? My former cofounder ran into some immigration issues, so backed out for his family and kid’s sake.
@umbrabates Echo everyone with clearly cut him off, but fyi YC will probably not let you in without cofounder. Wouldn’t withdraw app, but see if you can find one in time for batch. I know people that got accepted a week before batch starts.
If they say no and you still want to do YC, find a new cofounder and apply for next batch. Similar story happened with my cofounder (I was the replacement cofounder) and I think going through that process is a huge positive on you to show you’re capable of pulling things together after a situation like this and aren’t going to give up
@mommamimi If the OP had been the technical co-founder it would have been a different story, the problem is that the liar is the guy who wrote the code. And YC says specifically there has to be at least one person who can code.
@umbrabates Imagine if you had found out about it much later in the process. Also is this who he is? A serial liar or is this a everyone lies on their resume type of situation.
You may choose a different route. But here's what I would do, I would tell him, how hurt I am by this and that I value trust and honesty. And that this action has hurt the trust and honesty, is he willing to have an upfront conversation about setting that culture going forward with co-founders, partners, investors, and customers? I would see how they react to that conversation, if they get defensive and don't own up to anything. That's a red flag in my book. I don't ding people for their actions but give them a chance to prove they and make a mistake and have the right attitude to fix it. Most people don't have the right attitude to fix it.
@wayaok Serial liar, been doing this for 3-4 years, every employer (all series A/B backed by top funds) since he started working (4 including us) believe he had xyz resume, including our engineers who he brought on who worked with him over 3 jobs each
