Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

biddingforgood.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 91 posts

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#51

Post by abstractbill »

moocowduckquack wrote: post #46
pg wrote: post #18

Since 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.

...otherwise you would presumably have chosen to auction off a different prize.

Do you have something in mind? An invite to a YC dinner is free and, much more importantly, costs nobody at YC very much time.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#53

Post by testrun »

michaelochurch wrote: post #29
selmnoo wrote: post #27

Earlier 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…

can you elaborate on 'children who already benefit from a massive private welfare system'?

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#54

Post by swalkergibson »

larrys wrote: post #45
swalkergibson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 busine…

> 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).

In my opinion, you are comparing apples to oranges. This is not like putting up a 12 field registration/payment form for your web app, it is asking people who are interested in getting access to one of these dinners to express why they think they are worthy of attending. The perceived value is high enough such that you should theoretically only be reading essays from people who took the time and made the effort to apply.

You are absolutely right, this is the easiest way, and it is by no means a bad idea. Donating to charity in anyway is a great idea. However, the virtue of that fact does not automatically mean that the method for raising the money to be donated was intrinsically great.

I must note that my opinion is colored by the fact that I would have loved to attend one of these dinners myself during my teen years, but my parents (nor myself) could absolutely not afford to have paid for it, but I would have been happy to compete for the spot on other criteria.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#55

Post by lpolovets »

This is a cause that YC likes, and they're donating one of their assets to support the cause. Why is there so much negativity around this?

First, this is basically the most valuable thing YC can give away (without selling slots into its batches). What else would be a reasonable thing to offer? Second, this is access to a YC dinner, but it doesn't ruin the meritocracy aspect -- just because you met a partner at a dinner doesn't mean you can get into YC with a crappy idea or without a lot of work. Third, it makes sense to target wealthy people and offer them a valuable reward for their contributions. They have the most to contribute, and a reward makes them more likely to contribute, and to contribute more.

The negative responses really bum me out.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#56

Post by michaelochurch »

namenotrequired wrote: post #37
michaelochurch wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They started with a noble mission, which was to provide access to funding for a larger set of people. I'm simply curious, did you mean to imply that this is something of the past?

I'm simply curious, did you mean to imply that this is something of the past?

The use of past tense was more to reflect deficiencies in my knowledge. I was a huge fan of PG and YC circa 2006-7 because of what the original mission seemed to be: to make funding possible for less established or connected people. I have no reason to doubt that he has deviated from his mission; however, I avoided the present tense because I do not know that he stayed the course. I can speak with more confidence on the past, hence the use of that tense.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#57

Post by ericd »

swalkergibson wrote: post #54
larrys wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 busine…

> 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). In my opinion, you are comparing apples to oranges. This is not like putting up a 12 field registration/payment form for your web app, it is asking people who are interested in getting access to one of these dinners to express why they think they are wort…

I'm pretty sure the YC partners don't have the time to comb through dinner attendance applications and manage the rest of that, unfortunately. Maybe they could outsource that, though.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#58

Post by michaelochurch »

testrun wrote: post #53
michaelochurch wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

can you elaborate on 'children who already benefit from a massive private welfare system'?

The current system isn't really socialism or capitalism. It's the best of both for a well-connected elite ("the 1%", but it's closer to 0.1%) and the worst of both for the rest.

Their connections comprise a welfare system that keeps them from really failing.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#59

Post by mathattack »

20k? Wow!

I suspect that a resourceful kid could get a meeting with PG for free if they thought hard enough.

So I see this as 100% Donation. In some traditions, the value value of a donation is from the heart of the donor. In others it's from the benefit to the recipient. I am in the latter camp. I hope there is a bidding war and some rich self righteous jerk pays 500k to it. I think the charity would do a lot of good with that money.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#60

Post by moocowduckquack »

abstractbill wrote: post #51
moocowduckquack wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

...otherwise you would presumably have chosen to auction off a different prize. Do you have something in mind? An invite to a YC dinner is free and, much more importantly, costs nobody at YC very much time.

An invite to a YC dinner is free

The catering isn't.

Besides, my point wasn't about suggesting something else, it was just remarking that the whole intent of auctioning access to a business dinner is to sell some kind of percieved power to those who can afford it.

If there wasn't percieved power there, then the prize wouldn't raise much money.

Now it could also be that this prize was chosen precisely because it counterpoints the eventual use of the money, which would be as good a reason as any.

At the end of the day there are many ways of getting rich people to pay into charity and this is just one of them, is also probably quite effective as it taps into the whole dynasty thing.

Post reply on HN