This is rough. I'm sorry you've experienced this. I had a similar experience a few months ago interviewing with a profitable YC company with a multi-billion dollar valuation.
I would encourage you to think of the YC investment (or any investor's "stamp of approval") as an indication of a potentially successful return of capital for investors. Not a good company for you as an employee to achieve your goals.
Inherently, labor and capital are in conflict with each other. The things which make a company successful for the investors are usually not aligned to what makes it a great experience and outcome for the employee.
I did a retrospective on my journey interviewing at this YC company and my key insight was to evaluate the leadership, not the investors. The hiring manager was great. But after retrospectively vetting the CEO and leadership team, I came to the conclusion that they were really struggling with building a healthy business in a really competitive space.
As part of my retrospective I tried to take an analytical view of the competitive dynamics. It's pretty clear in the near term that the LowCode space I was looking at is going to face pressure from incumbents amidst a general re-pricing —
https://blog.devnos.com/posts/2022-12-20-lowcode/
I would encourage you to think of the YC investment (or any investor's "stamp of approval") as an indication of a potentially successful return of capital for investors. Not a good company for you as an employee to achieve your goals.
Inherently, labor and capital are in conflict with each other. The things which make a company successful for the investors are usually not aligned to what makes it a great experience and outcome for the employee.
I did a retrospective on my journey interviewing at this YC company and my key insight was to evaluate the leadership, not the investors. The hiring manager was great. But after retrospectively vetting the CEO and leadership team, I came to the conclusion that they were really struggling with building a healthy business in a really competitive space.
As part of my retrospective I tried to take an analytical view of the competitive dynamics. It's pretty clear in the near term that the LowCode space I was looking at is going to face pressure from incumbents amidst a general re-pricing —
https://blog.devnos.com/posts/2022-12-20-lowcode/