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A comment on Sincere Apologies to Paul Graham and the Y Combinator Team (from the Seattle Founder's Co-op). Parent comment

Re:Sincere Apologies to Paul Graham and the Y Combinator Tea... by projectileboy on Thursday April 17, 2008 @11:26AM (#166395)
I've never applied to YC, so maybe I'm not qualified to comment, but I'm not sure your remark fairly characterizes what's going on. It seems to me that if YC gets hundreds and hundreds of applications, and if most founders who are accepted say yes, and if people know the situation going in to the interview (which they clearly do), then it's just not worth YC's time to futz around dealing with the few people who can't decide immediately.

Now, if YC and all their clones could agree to a similar cycle, so that founders could pick between different offers, then I would say that YC were the bad guys. But that's not the case (yet).

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Re:Sincere Apologies to Paul Graham and the Y Combinator Tea... by freax on Friday April 18, 2008 @01:00PM (#167396)
> and if people know the situation going in to the interview (which they clearly do)

You do the interview. Then you get a phone call with a percentage mentioned and no negotiation allowed. You say yes or they claim you "failed an IQ test". 5 minutes to decide.

> then it's just not worth YC's time

Yeah, not when you do this stuff in bulk, assembly-line style, with most companies fizzling out if they don't fund them (so very little risk of "being proven wrong").

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Re:Sincere Apologies to Paul Graham and the Y Combinator Tea... by projectileboy on Sunday April 20, 2008 @04:30AM (#168396)
I'll give you that "failed an IQ test" seems a bit harsh. But when did all this occur? 2005, or later? If later, there's been so much written on the web about this that it seems amazing to me that you would have been shocked by the offer.

To the second point, I agree with you that an assembly line style makes individual negotiations impossible. But I'd say two things: (a) that's a feature, not a bug, and (b) if you're a young founder with no track record, exactly what are your other options?

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