Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator — one of the world’s top startup accelerator programs — has issued a serious warning to engineering and business college students. He spoke out against the popular idea of “fake it till you make it,” saying it can be dangerous and even land people in jail if taken too far.
Tan was speaking at Y Combinator’s AI Startup School during a live recording of the Lightcone Podcast. He said that some college entrepreneurship programs are teaching students to lie in order to appear successful. “We’re very worried because some of these programs are teaching students to deceive people,” Tan said. “That’s a waste of time — and it could send you to jail.”
He pointed to real-life examples of people who followed this path and ended up in serious trouble, like Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) and Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos), both of whom were convicted of fraud. Tan warned students that lying about a startup’s progress, misleading investors, or making up fake product features could lead to the same outcome.
Tan made it clear that Y Combinator does not support this kind of behavior. “They don’t represent us,” he said, distancing his organization from scandals that have hurt Silicon Valley’s reputation.
Jared Friedman, another leader at Y Combinator, added that many college entrepreneurship courses offer a shallow and unrealistic version of what it takes to build a startup. He said these programs often rely too much on hype instead of helping students build real products. “When you try to turn entrepreneurship into a college subject, you end up teaching methods — not how to build real companies,” Friedman said.
Tan and his team also criticized colleges that block access to AI tools like Cursor, an AI-powered code editor, which they believe are important for today’s startups.
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Tan ended his talk by encouraging students to be honest, create real products, and avoid shortcuts. “Software is the most empowering thing in the world. Why do you have to lie?” he asked.
His message was clear: True success comes from hard work, honesty, and real innovation — not from pretending to be something you’re not.
