HNews is the web2 Y combinator crowd.

In it's early days, Y combinator was like an elite club that put developers in front of people with lots of money to invest into their ideas with the goal of making unicorn companies.

It was focused on raising money to create a company so founders could exit with a pile of cash. If the idea was commercially viable, the VCs would invest. It attracted entrepreneurs that wanted to be billionaires and less about changing or making the world a better place.