Was just thinking the other day, it'd be super interesting if YC ran some YC Equity/YC UBI experiments within its own network. Basically in joining YC, each YC member would be granted a percentage of YC's 7% stake in all of the YC companies which would reduce their need to fundraise. In theory, YC members should all be highly motivated achievers and use that percentage stake to move their diverse set of businesses forward.
Since there is such a high barrier to entry into YC, it might not prove shared equity/UBI would 100% work in the real world. However, coming at it from the other side, it could provide some early clues as to whether a shared equity/UBI could ever work at all. For example:
- Would YC companies cheer each other on with positive peer pressure/be more motivated to knowledge share or would low achieving YC companies de-motivate high achieving YC companies? Would YC companies who fold be allowed to retain their percentage of the YC stake?
- Would high achieving startups bypass YC or be attracted to YC?
- Would every set of new annual entrants into YC be seen as diluting the value of the existing YC equity or additive? Would existing YC companies want more say in the selection process? Would Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe receive the same percentage of YC stake as new entrants?
- How do you socialize the concept with existing stakeholders (i.e. existing YC partners) who would be diluted?
- Is it better to implement it as a single monolithic YC group or divide it by YC Class?
Assuming ~1500 YC companies with ~10 employees each, that'd be about 15,000 participants, which would be a pretty good dogfooding [0] experiment!
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food
Since there is such a high barrier to entry into YC, it might not prove shared equity/UBI would 100% work in the real world. However, coming at it from the other side, it could provide some early clues as to whether a shared equity/UBI could ever work at all. For example:
- Would YC companies cheer each other on with positive peer pressure/be more motivated to knowledge share or would low achieving YC companies de-motivate high achieving YC companies? Would YC companies who fold be allowed to retain their percentage of the YC stake?
- Would high achieving startups bypass YC or be attracted to YC?
- Would every set of new annual entrants into YC be seen as diluting the value of the existing YC equity or additive? Would existing YC companies want more say in the selection process? Would Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe receive the same percentage of YC stake as new entrants?
- How do you socialize the concept with existing stakeholders (i.e. existing YC partners) who would be diluted?
- Is it better to implement it as a single monolithic YC group or divide it by YC Class?
Assuming ~1500 YC companies with ~10 employees each, that'd be about 15,000 participants, which would be a pretty good dogfooding [0] experiment!
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food