YC and Founders Pledge
blog.ycombinator.com
YC and Founders Pledge
1–10 of 99 posts
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#2I wish Founders Pledge wouldn't break scrolling or include gratuitous, contentless animations. I also learned far more about what they do from Sam's blog post than from their website.
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#3Are we to take away from this that founder charitable giving is more important than employee equity compensation in YC's eyes? Wouldn't make me want to work at a YC company.
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#4I think this is a neat idea but I wish they would explain this in a simple sentence on their site instead of all the mumbojumbo.
Something like
This is a Donor-Advised Fund that is completely free to participate in. Donor-Advised Funds are the best way to give when you have a major liquidity event because: Reason 1 Reason 2 Reason 3
Join a community of people who want to do the same. This is useful for you because: Reason 1 Reason 2 Reason 3
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#5I really commend YC for supporting this. If my startup ever succeeds, I definitely have a duty to give back to the world which has given me incredibly luck (and benefits).
I just took the pledge and realized it would be nice to have a sliding scale based on exit size.
If I have a relatively small exit (Also, it would be nice to include an option for employees.
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#6Are we to take away from this that founder charitable giving is more important than employee equity compensation in YC's eyes? Wouldn't make me want to work at a YC company.
> charitable giving is more important than employee equity compensation
You are probably assuming that employees are definitely under compensated.. what about the case when founder owns only 5% and still wants to donate a part..
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#7I think this is a neat idea but I wish they would explain this in a simple sentence on their site instead of all the mumbojumbo. Something like This is a Donor-Advised Fund that is completely free to participate in. Donor-Advised Funds are the best way to give when you have a major liquidity event because: Reason 1 Reason 2 Reason 3 Join a community of people who want to do the same. This is useful for you because: R…
> Donor-Advised Fund
This sounds more like mumbojumbo to me
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#8I understand giving to charity is great and all but what about employees 10, 35, 97? So someone works hard at a start-up but they weren't among the first dozen or so to join then they likely get next to nothing from an exit. So how about, instead of a pledge to give to charity, founders pledge to give more equity to later employees so only a small handful are not the only ones to profit.
Everyone takes a risk joining a start-up. Many times employees use the equity as part of their compensation (right or wrong many do this). If you're joining a start-up that has taken this pledge then you know going in you're likely not going to get as much as another start-up.
I don't know this just feels like a way to neuter the company making it less attractive to future employees. How about, instead of counting our chickens before they hatch, we get founders who had a big exit to donate money to charity?
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#9Are we to take away from this that founder charitable giving is more important than employee equity compensation in YC's eyes? Wouldn't make me want to work at a YC company.
> charitable giving is more important than employee equity compensation You are probably assuming that employees are definitely under compensated.. what about the case when founder owns only 5% and still wants to donate a part..
> You are probably assuming that employees are definitely under compensated..
Seems like that would be pretty typical. Start-up companies, especially YC start-ups, pay under the average for engineers. At least that's been my experience shopping around for a job. So I would expect them to all be under compensated.
Re: YC and Founders Pledge
#10I understand giving to charity is great and all but what about employees 10, 35, 97? So someone works hard at a start-up but they weren't among the first dozen or so to join then they likely get next to nothing from an exit. So how about, instead of a pledge to give to charity, founders pledge to give more equity to later employees so only a small handful are not the only ones to profit. Everyone takes a risk joining…
Came here to say the same thing. Donating to charities is great but why not donate and invest into your employees who may also happen to be your neighbors.