Delve (YC W24) – Fake Compliance as a Service – Part I

(deepdelver.substack.com)

105 points | by sebmellen 18 hours ago ago

15 comments

  • AFF87 40 minutes ago ago

    I remember having sales calls with them and the vibe was that it was "cheap and quick"... exactly what you want for your compliance

  • halamadrid 14 hours ago ago

    This was such as interesting read, but I found this link via LinkedIn rather than hackernews.

    I would have expected this to be somewhere at the top right now given how deep the article digs and evidence seems legit.

    • sebmellen 13 hours ago ago

      I think it may be getting (intentionally?) suppressed from the homepage. Given this is a YCombinator website, I wouldn't rule that out.

      Regardless, it's been an ongoing issue. I know a few involved companies — it takes basically 5 days to get a SOC 2 Type 2 report through Delve. And, of course, they market this way too: "SOC 2 in days". Unbelievable.

      • browningstreet 3 hours ago ago

        It's a trending story on X. Was surprised there was no meaty discussion here on HN.

      • instalabsai 10 hours ago ago

        Surprised/not surprised that this is getting buried from the homepage

        • sebmellen 9 hours ago ago

          I just got blocked by another YC founder (and potential investor in Delve?) for refuting his handwavey argument that "all compliance companies do this" [0] — this is beyond just marketing, it is active and blatant/intentional fraud. I don't see how it can be defended. But in that sense it is a major crisis for anyone who invested in the company.

          [0]: https://x.com/kobyjconrad/status/2034843865396506864

      • baggy_trough an hour ago ago

        The obvious suppression is disgraceful.

  • ersshh 16 hours ago ago

    Forbes 30u30 pipeline remains undefeated.

    How did none of this come up during diligence? Feels like a prime example of too good to be true.

    • sebmellen 16 hours ago ago

      Trust me, you can lie and get away with it if you go through YC and dropped out of a top university. Garry Tan blocked me on X for pointing this out. It's a big club, and you ain't in it!

      Fortunately, some of the old-YC spirit seems to be alive here on HN still.

    • allovertheworld 5 hours ago ago

      You mean from the beginning? They could’ve just done it properly initially then moved to this scam process later

  • ManuelSuarez 16 hours ago ago
  • laidoffamazon 3 hours ago ago

    Major red flag with this should have been that their expensive marketing predicated heavily on them being MIT dropouts instead of any expertise in the space

  • ohyoutravel 4 hours ago ago

    All this evidence seems pretty legit. I found this on LinkedIn and came here to post, but noticed it had already been posted. Surprised I didn’t see it on HN front page.

    • sebmellen 19 minutes ago ago

      It is being suppressed by @dang, I believe they may have a policy that allows suppression for bad YC-related news.

  • moomoo11 12 hours ago ago

    I miss 2010s YC until like 2017 ish when crypto sort of just caused a massive decline across the board.

    I guess it is great if you're a grifter/scammer or looking to just sell off to a FANG.