As a 20 year old student, this would be fantastic. I don't have the parents who could bid on this, so I suppose I'll shoot for it myself.
We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
41–50 of 91 posts
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, for goodness' sake. You could have made a legitimate point if you hadn't been so abruptly cut-throat. The fact of the matter is that connections, luck, etc. rule pretty much everywhere. It's useless and unproductive to cast this blame to specific, ultimately small entities. If I had been born about 5 miles north of where I was born -- in the ghettos, vs. to a household that valued education, I would have been liv…
I actually tend to like YC and the people it funds. They started with a noble mission, which was to provide access to funding for a larger set of people. I'd say that 75% of the YC founders I know are quality people. I do think that Silicon Valley's arrogance and general out-of-touch attitude-- and unashamedly handing out VC connections to children who already benefit from a massive private welfare system is pretty d…
"and that lifelong engineers are of a different (and better) character than the reigning VC-halo/TechCrunch leadership."
In what way? That's not a disagreement or a challenge but I'm curious what you mean by "better".
In any case isn't this exactly what happens when things become to popular and money is made? (Reminds me of that Paul Simon song where he refers to Joe Dimaggio.)
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#43I don't think you should be auctioning this for money. I think you should have some sort of way for kids in that age range to submit a video to you, like a 30 second video someone on YCombinator could watch, and to see their potential. Some rich kid that might think he's got what it takes will ask his rich daddy to pay for it.
[deleted]
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#44As a 22 year old, I'd happily give $1000 to go to a YC dinner.
What would be interesting is if you could elaborate on a) where you would get the $1000 and how significant $1000 is to you personally (vs. whatever your assets are) b) what you would hope to gain by paying $1000 and doing this that you could get by being creative and not spending the money.
I guess his $1000 is worth the same than everyone else.
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#45Since there will no doubt be a lot of the predictable complaint that this gives an advantage to the kids of people rich enough to buy it, I want to make it clear that this auction is to fund scholarships to the Bing nursery school. Since going to Bing helps kids a lot more than going to a YC dinner would, it's a net win for parents with less money. We knew when we decided to offer this item for auction that people wo…
Do you feel that the concerns expressed are not legitimate? If attending Bing is more beneficial than a YC dinner, why not make an unconditional donation to Bing and then open up these dinners to teenagers willing to apply/write an essay for them, regardless of ability to pay? It would have the added benefit of self-selecting out those people whose parents think it is a good idea for them to go to such a dinner and r…
"why not make an unconditional donation to Bing and then open up these dinners to teenagers willing to apply/write an essay for them, regardless of ability to pay?"
What was done was easy to do. Simple decision "yes or no" here is the benefit. [1]
What you are asking would require meetings, details and more thought amongst people who don't really have the time for that.
[1] Keep that in mind when you are doing business with people. Make it simple for them to agree and require no effort on their part (or at least as little as possible). If you want to delay decision making do the opposite. If you want to delay it even more give them an assignment to complete (like a 3 page list of questions that they need to answer before you will take their money). Friction kills deals just like time does.
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#46Since there will no doubt be a lot of the predictable complaint that this gives an advantage to the kids of people rich enough to buy it, I want to make it clear that this auction is to fund scholarships to the Bing nursery school. Since going to Bing helps kids a lot more than going to a YC dinner would, it's a net win for parents with less money. We knew when we decided to offer this item for auction that people wo…
Is your auction and seems fairly harmless on the scale of things, but surely this prize is expressly intended to give an advantage to the kids of people rich enough to buy it otherwise you would presumably have chosen to auction off a different prize.
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#47I read "come" as "become" and was like...what horrible joke awaits me?! Glad to see you won't be eating any children...
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#48As a 22 year old, I'd happily give $1000 to go to a YC dinner.
What would be interesting is if you could elaborate on a) where you would get the $1000 and how significant $1000 is to you personally (vs. whatever your assets are) b) what you would hope to gain by paying $1000 and doing this that you could get by being creative and not spending the money.
A.) I have a job. $1000 is about 58% of what I pay for a month of rent, and about 1/3rd of my monthly income. B.) Meet people, have fun, absorb information from smart people in a memorable moment. I don't see it as much different from e.g. a WWDC ticket, which would be nearly double the cost.
I will add: I grew up relatively poor in Michigan. My parents income was less than $60k, so I couldn't really afford college. I moved into my own apartment when I was 18, and supported myself except for around $130/mo in cell phone and car insurance bills. The only remaining financial support from my parents is a $19/mo cell phone bill.
This year I moved to Silicon Valley with less than $3000 in pocket, and I now work at a startup.
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
What would be interesting is if you could elaborate on a) where you would get the $1000 and how significant $1000 is to you personally (vs. whatever your assets are) b) what you would hope to gain by paying $1000 and doing this that you could get by being creative and not spending the money.
I guess his $1000 is worth the same than everyone else.
Only from a literal third party perspective. Someone whose family lives in a poor area and lives on food stamps will place a whole lot more value on $1,000 than a rich kid who gets the latest tech, his private high school tuition, and his car paid for by his parents.
Most aren't this black and white, of course, but the point is that a fixed amount of any asset can mean vastly different things to people in different circumstances.
Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner
#50As a 20 year old I'm seriously thinking about putting my internship money into this right now. I'll check back at 9:50pm and see what's the price.
Totally not worth 20k, I'll tell you that! There are better ways to get your foot in between the door, for free (unless you have no social skills what so ever).