[sillysaurus2]

Honest or not, starting a startup for the sake of making money (whether that money will fund a more altruistic "end-goal" or not) is probably not the right reason to build a company.

Making money was exactly pg's reason for starting Viaweb. YC wouldn't be so hypocritical as to deny someone for advertising that as their reason, when YC itself wouldn't exist if its founder hadn't started a startup for the purpose of getting rich.

[adamzerner]

Exactly. To be more specific, I recall pg saying that his main motivation was that he wanted to solve "the money problem" (the fact that having to make money doesn't allow you the time you need to do other things).