jlevy

Great quote: Speaking of the Band in the 2020 documentary "Once Were Brothers," Bruce Springsteen said, "It's like you've never heard them before and like they'd always been there."

+1 -- nothing better.

+1 -- great post.

I am one of the YC lawyers who was in the interview room and I was actually pretty pumped to hear the description of 20 year olds (I'm in my 40's)...

I also take exception to the comment "Y Combinator has been created for one single purpose: to make money." That's a pretty cynical view, but more important: it's not true at all.

I am happy that you think I misunderstood his post (and yes I have more information than many about the situation). When I read the post I thought it was implicit that YC supported Seth fully. That is not the case. There are mentions of YC throughout the post, and a couple of references to the YC network. I was hoping to clarify that the YC network doesn't automatically include YC. My one example may have been misconstrued and there are many parts and sides to this story. As long as it is clear that there is not unconditional support at YC for Seth's handling of the situation, then that is all that matters.

As internal counsel for YC, it was very upsetting to learn about the ongoing troubles at Amicus. It was particularly distressing to hear about the payroll tax issues, given that YC has funded excellent companies that specialize in accounting and payroll for small businesses, such as Indinero and Zenpayroll. The tone of Seth's post suggest that YC has supported Seth in all of his recent actions. That is not true -- YC supports its companies through good times and bad, but we do not support illegality. For example, in paragraph 3 Seth writes that PG looks for founders that are "naughty" and writes about levels of rule-breaking. YC's principal tenets are to "make something people want" and "talk and listen to users/customers" -- YC may promote a culture of disruption, but that does not mean neglecting payroll taxes and breaking rules.

There are two chunks (as Sam mentions in his post) -- one chunk is for common stock and the other is in the form of a Safe that converts to Preferred stock.

agreed

There is no law preventing a 17 year old from applying to YC, nor do we have any rules prohibiting a 17 year old from applying to YC. But as the other commenter noted, the problem with minors is that they cannot enter into contracts that are not voidable at the option of the minor. In California, there is a lot of case law on this subject related to minors in the entertainment industry. If a minor is accepted into YC, then we would do our best to find a work-around.