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 would give us grief about it. But we're happy to take the heat to give more kids the opportunity to attend Bing.
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 reserve it for only those who are interested.
Obviously, any donation to Bing is better than no donation to Bing, and the reality is that it probably is a net win for the parents with less money, but it seems like it could be even better refined and ensure that there are fewer cheap-shots like in the thread below.
“Bing was constructed as a laboratory school with a grant from the National Science Foundation and a gift from Dr. Peter S. Bing and his mother, Mrs. Anna Bing Arnold.”
I’m glad I went on DDG before assuming Microsoft paid to name a nursery school after its advertising business.
That's all well and good, but couldn't even more net social utility be created by a better auction? This perpetuates generational wealth rather than giving an opportunity to someone who earned it for themselves.
At the very least, couldn't you auction off a seat to adults? At least that would be people using their own money to buy themselves advantages rather than yet another example of parents buying significant advantages for their children.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm 20 and my parents could never afford to pay $20,000. I don't see why you should purposefully give someone else whose parents could yet another advantage in life.
PS. To put my money where my mouth is, I'd donate $1,000 of my own money to Watsi or another charity of your choice if it buys a seat.
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.
I'm OK with auctions, price-based-rationing of scarce goods, and your analysis of the net good this will do.
But, you might also consider an occasional raffle'd spot, or a spot otherwise drawn from an eligibility pool with a lower economic barrier-to-entry.
You might raise as much or more, and it would be easier to mix in things like donated-tickets or third-party-sponsored-tickets.
And, the pool of losing-entries would itself be valuable, as a community with expressed interest in YC. Perhaps the drawing-winner(s) and some volunteer YCers could throw a followup separate, larger-audience event for them: passing on the good wisdom and fortune, in the YC style.
I just wished there was a solution to this that made everyone happy. The mere idea of bestowing knowledge to someone who has a resource advantage creates discomfort.
I know the amount of places is limited, but would it be possible for the next time to offer a differential attendance?
For example, donators get front-seats and the non-resourceful can participate farther-back or standing up, a la kickstarter.
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.
I think that it is more the fact that the prize is specifically for the children of the people who have, at this point, $20k+ to contribute to a perfectly valid cause. It would be another matter entirely if it were some adult buying access to a YC dinner. It is not. The gut reaction is that some rich kid gets to build his/her Rolodex because he/she hit the sperm lottery. In my opinion, it just seems like the antithesis of what YC is all about, which is (as far as I can tell), "who are you, what have you built, and why are you so good at what you do."
Well intentioned probably. Full of suck though. Let's face it, if Y Combinator can't fund a few scholarships for whatever school it wants to, it isn't the most successful incubator in the world, or whatever it is. It can and it should it it wants to. Drawing attention to it like this seems remarkably gauche.
This seems to implicitly support the 'poor' in a rather patronising way. Rich person pays for kid to come to dinner. Poor person gets gift of education.
Wonder who would bid if it was rich person gets to pay for poor person's kid to go to dinner and rich kid gets 0?
As if a Bay Area kid whose parent has a couple extra grand to bid on such dinners is going to be short on advantages in startuplandia. How about a chance for disadvantaged kids to attend a YC dinner?
Am I reading this wrong, or is this an auction for a single slot that's currently at twenty thousand dollars? If this is a standard auction model and that's what's actually going on... wow.
I 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.
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 $1000 and doing this that you could get by being creative and not spending the money.
I believe the real issue we are discussing is do the ends justify the means. Is setting the precedent that you can buy a seat at a YC dinner worth a 20,000$ charitable donation. All in all I think it is. Also as a fifteen year old programmer whose parents definitely couldn't afford the 20k, I don't see this seat at the table as a great advantage and am thankful that the less fortunate will be helped.
It's a no-brainer. One seat at one dinner for one seat for one year of education. That's an obvious win for everyone. I'm sad something so trivial turned into something so meaningful can become so controversial.
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.
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).
Perhaps the winner will be a sullen, rebellious child of overbearing rich parents... who rather than showing up that night decides to crash daddy's car.
[+] [-] pg|12 years ago|reply
We knew when we decided to offer this item for auction that people would give us grief about it. But we're happy to take the heat to give more kids the opportunity to attend Bing.
[+] [-] TrainedMonkey|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swalkergibson|12 years ago|reply
Obviously, any donation to Bing is better than no donation to Bing, and the reality is that it probably is a net win for the parents with less money, but it seems like it could be even better refined and ensure that there are fewer cheap-shots like in the thread below.
[+] [-] Samuel_Michon|12 years ago|reply
I’m glad I went on DDG before assuming Microsoft paid to name a nursery school after its advertising business.
[+] [-] morgante|12 years ago|reply
At the very least, couldn't you auction off a seat to adults? At least that would be people using their own money to buy themselves advantages rather than yet another example of parents buying significant advantages for their children.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm 20 and my parents could never afford to pay $20,000. I don't see why you should purposefully give someone else whose parents could yet another advantage in life.
PS. To put my money where my mouth is, I'd donate $1,000 of my own money to Watsi or another charity of your choice if it buys a seat.
[+] [-] moocowduckquack|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gojomo|12 years ago|reply
But, you might also consider an occasional raffle'd spot, or a spot otherwise drawn from an eligibility pool with a lower economic barrier-to-entry.
You might raise as much or more, and it would be easier to mix in things like donated-tickets or third-party-sponsored-tickets.
And, the pool of losing-entries would itself be valuable, as a community with expressed interest in YC. Perhaps the drawing-winner(s) and some volunteer YCers could throw a followup separate, larger-audience event for them: passing on the good wisdom and fortune, in the YC style.
[+] [-] conanbatt|12 years ago|reply
I know the amount of places is limited, but would it be possible for the next time to offer a differential attendance? For example, donators get front-seats and the non-resourceful can participate farther-back or standing up, a la kickstarter.
[+] [-] lpolovets|12 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] swalkergibson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marklittlewood|12 years ago|reply
This seems to implicitly support the 'poor' in a rather patronising way. Rich person pays for kid to come to dinner. Poor person gets gift of education.
Wonder who would bid if it was rich person gets to pay for poor person's kid to go to dinner and rich kid gets 0?
[+] [-] s_m|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelochurch|12 years ago|reply
The Poors are dangerous.
[+] [-] gault8121|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] norswap|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mildtrepidation|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avargas|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] TheMakeA|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] larrys|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway7808|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] garrettdreyfus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathattack|12 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] JoeyJelinek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] granttimmerman|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dutchbrit|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gojomo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fireworks10|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeryan52|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cmac2992|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhspaybar|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] code_duck|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asdad|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iamkoby|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rohanpai|12 years ago|reply