much love, thanks for speaking at the Angel Summit earlier this month!
Jason was one of the first and most helpful investors in Rapportive (YCS10, acq LinkedIn). He believed in us when there was no obvious reason to.
Jason was one of the first investors I went back to for Superhuman. (He negotiated hard, but then so do I — that's just part of each side getting what they want.)
I'd work with Jason again in a heartbeat for my next company.
He was the very first investor that invested in us, and has become our biggest champion since our very early days.
Most investors look for traction and only decide to invest when you have traction. Jason sees the fire and the determination in us (first time founders), and decides to support us, and helps us grow as a person and as a company.
Some other investors just put in money and disappears. But Jason truly cares and whenever we need help, he's always there. He gives us frank feedback that we really need, he challenges us and pushes us to be better. He helps us with intros. He sends product feedback and recommendations without being asked.
I know dozens of other founders that Jason had invested in and I know that they all feel the same way I do about Jason.
Truth is, we're all a little awkward at the start... Uber and Thumbtack were both a little awkward when I did those angels rounds too.
The job of an angel investor is to look at the promise of the startup -- not the problems.
Sam is wildly successful I'm wildly successful
We've disagreed twice in 10 years, but when we do it's like two huge bulls cracking heads -- it's ugly! :-)
There is absolutely no history of Jason being known for mistreating founders. The opposite is true. AngelForum, free Launch tickets for founders and so on. He wouldn't get in the deals he's getting in if it were any different.
As it currently stands I'd never enter YC as a founder. Your comment cries of hypocrisy and falseness.
Either you honestly think he's mistreating founders then ban him and tell it like it is (and back it up with proof) or you don't think he's mistreating founders and think the feedback is unsubstantiated (if it exists) then man up and do what's best for YC founders.
This is something I talked about on This Week in Startups, and frankly I think it has something to do with my "ban."
Sam's Post: http://blog.ycombinator.com/getting-into-y-combinator
my post: http://calacanis.com/2016/01/26/incubator-hopping-should-you...
99% of the investors out there agree with my position -- the 1% that don't work at YCombinator. :-)
We collect feedback from YC founders on investors (we have a giant database of this). If you mistreat founders, we don't invite you to Demo Day. This isn't permanent--if you stop mistreating founders we start inviting you again. Also, it's possible that our founders are wrong in their assessment of how a particular investor is treating them, but investors have enough advantages in the system and we unashamedly take the side of our founders.
EDIT: I also never think these things are black and white, and that all of us have good and bad parts. I've heard from plenty of founders that Jason has been very helpful to their companies.