[ryporter]

You are alleging bias, not a conflict of interest.

YC accepted into their program as a founder someone who was a partner. Does that really sound like bias to you? If a former professor at a university applied to be a grad student, would you accuse the university of a conflict of interest?

[Cyph0n]

Firstly, other comments have disproven my claim already as I was under the assumption that YC accepted a fixed number of startups per batch.

> You are alleging bias, not a conflict of interest.

I'm not sure I understand the difference.

> YC accepted into their program as a founder someone who was a partner. Does that really sound like bias to you?

Yes, if and only if the decision resulted in another equally strong application being rejected, either directly or indirectly.

> If a former professor at a university applied to be a grad student, would you accuse the university of a conflict of interest?

Perhaps, because the committee that decides whether or not to accept a student consists of professors who likely know the former professor, which will likely introduce bias (positive or negative).