We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

http://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action;jsessionid=WNDnv5zHrGioxBktnO4qdw**.app4?id=202802658

by pg • 13 years ago

73 83 13 years ago

biddingforgood.com

gault8121• 13 years ago

This looks like a life changing experience for a teen. Is this auction going to Bing Nursery School?

pg4• 13 years ago

Yes, it's for the scholarship fund.

iamkoby2• 13 years ago

I think you should consider adding it to the auction page. It would probably make it clearer and help raise bids.

bennyg• 13 years ago

You should do a TOMS model for this - as in, one person pays for the meal and chance to meet/greet with founders, developers, and SV leaders (unfortunately biased towards wealthier people). Then, you give away a "meal" to a person who applies with an essay or something and who's parents can't pick up the check on this opportunity.

norswap• 13 years ago

Would it really be? I guess it depends on the teen.

TheMakeA3• 13 years ago

As a 22 year old, I'd happily give $1000 to go to a YC dinner.

larrys4• 13 years ago

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.

hartator• 13 years ago

I guess his $1000 is worth the same than everyone else.

TheMakeA3• 13 years ago

A.) I have a job. $1000 is about 58% of what I pay for a month of rent, and about 1/3rd of my monthly income. B.) Meet people, have fun, absorb information from smart people in a memorable moment. I don't see it as much different from e.g. a WWDC ticket, which would be nearly double the cost.

I will add: I grew up relatively poor in Michigan. My parents income was less than $60k, so I couldn't really afford college. I moved into my own apartment when I was 18, and supported myself except for around $130/mo in cell phone and car insurance bills. The only remaining financial support from my parents is a $19/mo cell phone bill.

This year I moved to Silicon Valley with less than $3000 in pocket, and I now work at a startup.

throwaway7808• 13 years ago

And how would you feel about chatting with startup founders there when you yourself is not one of them?

TheMakeA3• 13 years ago

I don't think it's about being in their social circle, but about the high concentration of smart people and being able to absorb their knowledge.

asdad• 13 years ago

How does this come to the main page of hacker news? 16+ points for a dinner auction does not sound believable. Whats the secret?

iamkoby2• 13 years ago

it's pg who posted it...

rohanpai• 13 years ago

I'm tempted to bid on this for myself

truthlaidbear• 13 years ago

Oh, cool, you found a way to stack the startup game towards the wealthy.

orik• 13 years ago

Even though this is for charity I feel the same way. :/

joshdance• 13 years ago

How is the startup game not stacked towards the wealthy already?

michaelochurch9• 13 years ago

This idea that parents can buy YC connections for their kids is the final nail in the coffin of the idea of Silicon Valley meritocracy.

Segmentation• 13 years ago

People with money have an advantage over people without money. News at 11.

conanbatt2• 13 years ago

No need to make that disadvantage deeper by contributing to it.

I also find selling connection-potential to be as anti-meritocratic as you can be.

Cookingboy• 13 years ago

In silicon valley merits play a huge part, but just like any other places, people are the build blocks of social interaction. Your connections and people you know and any other form of resources (rich parents, friend of VCs, etc) would fundamentally play a huge role in your success.

I still think Silicon Valley is meritocracy since it's actually very difficult to succeed without any kind of value/merit, but meritocracy does not imply it's always going to be a fair playground for everyone.

selmnoo• 13 years ago

Oh, for goodness' sake. You could have made a legitimate point if you hadn't been so abruptly cut-throat.

The fact of the matter is that connections, luck, etc. rule pretty much everywhere. It's useless and unproductive to cast this blame to specific, ultimately small entities. If I had been born about 5 miles north of where I was born -- in the ghettos, vs. to a household that valued education, I would have been living a very different life. And I'm grateful that didn't happen, I'm grateful for all the opportunities I got, that my dad had friends in high places and were willing to hire me as an intern. I'm grateful that I had the social support to seek therapy when I had depression, a place to live when I was unemployed and penniless, friends that respected me, etc. I would not have had a lot of this if I was living in the third world, where opportunity is scarce.

That is the way it is. You could chide YC and all the VC world, and I'm not sure if you'd get anywhere. As far as VC firms and incubators go, it's clear to see YC is something else: they're funding nonprofits like Watsi, their partners seem to have some sense of social good, so I think snark here is misplaced.

michaelochurch9• 13 years ago

I actually tend to like YC and the people it funds. They started with a noble mission, which was to provide access to funding for a larger set of people. I'd say that 75% of the YC founders I know are quality people.

I do think that Silicon Valley's arrogance and general out-of-touch attitude-- and unashamedly handing out VC connections to children who already benefit from a massive private welfare system is pretty damn out of touch-- poses a threat to the reputation of technologists in general (including people like me) and I'm going to fight the tide by making fun of this sort of shit. When the country stops liking "the techies" I would at least hope that some of them would recognize that we're not all the same, and that lifelong engineers are of a different (and better) character than the reigning VC-halo/TechCrunch leadership.

chongli• 13 years ago

That is the way it is. You could chide YC and all the VC world, and I'm not sure if you'd get anywhere.

This is it, isn't it. The scale of the problem is so vast that it's easy for everyone to shrug off their share of the responsibility. This seems to be the case with all civilization-scale problems and one of the deepest flaws of our species.

nostromo• 13 years ago

It's not that hard to get a free meeting with pg.

Scroll down, click apply.

cinquemb• 13 years ago

I wonder if someone will apply to YC S14 with this idea? I mean, raising funds for charities like these for access to the people behind YC and taking a small cut could be the next IPO! I can see the tagline now: "Watsi but for addressing the growing inequalities in the 'developed' world" and for growth would be just buying up the clones that pop up in the rest of the world.

pg4• 13 years ago

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.

TrainedMonkey• 13 years ago

"No good deed goes unpunished". I feel really sorry that current state of affairs requires you to make this disclosure for donating something.

larrys4• 13 years ago

No more than when someone needs to say "with all due respect" before offering criticism. It's a prophylactic way of acknowledging the reality of what some people will think (which would be valid as they might jump to conclusions) and warding or dulling the harshness.

Samuel_Michon• 13 years ago

“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.

swalkergibson4• 13 years ago

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.

larrys4• 13 years ago

"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?"

What was done was easy to do. Simple decision "yes or no" here is the benefit. [1]

What you are asking would require meetings, details and more thought amongst people who don't really have the time for that.

[1] Keep that in mind when you are doing business with people. Make it simple for them to agree and require no effort on their part (or at least as little as possible). If you want to delay decision making do the opposite. If you want to delay it even more give them an assignment to complete (like a 3 page list of questions that they need to answer before you will take their money). Friction kills deals just like time does.

pg4• 13 years ago

I do make unconditional donations to Bing as well, and larger amounts than this auction is likely to generate.

Yes, frankly, I feel like the concerns expressed here are a kind of moral bikeshedding. What harm does it do if one rich kid gets to come to a YC dinner?

It's too much trouble to armor oneself against cheap shots. People who want to misunderstand you have an almost endless ability to do so, so you'd have to devote correspondingly endless energy to replying.

dutchbrit2• 13 years ago

Why should PG be worrying about the cheap shots? At the end of the day, well done for raising this amount of money for a good charity. He could of sat on the couch watching a mind numbing tv show, but instead, he raised money for a charity offering children a very important stage early on in their lives. It would however indeed be TOTALLY AWESOME (!!) if PG also would organise a dinner for other kids, free of charge, that they can somehow win, but at the end of the day, this remains to be his choice.

moocowduckquack4• 13 years ago

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.

abstractbill• 13 years ago

...otherwise you would presumably have chosen to auction off a different prize.

Do you have something in mind? An invite to a YC dinner is free and, much more importantly, costs nobody at YC very much time.

conanbatt2• 13 years ago

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.

gojomo2• 13 years ago

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.

morgante• 13 years ago

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.

JoeyJelinek• 13 years ago

I guess we can get market data on the value of a YC dinner...

s_m• 13 years ago

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?

michaelochurch9• 13 years ago

How about a chance for disadvantaged kids to attend a YC dinner?

The Poors are dangerous.

avargas• 13 years ago

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.

fireworks10• 13 years ago

Have invitations for the interviews for YC Winter 2014 been sent out yet?

granttimmerman• 13 years ago

As a 20 year old I'm seriously thinking about putting my internship money into this right now. I'll check back at 9:50pm and see what's the price.

dutchbrit2• 13 years ago

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).

marklittlewood• 13 years ago

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?

mikeryan52• 13 years ago

As a 20 year old student, this would be fantastic. I don't have the parents who could bid on this, so I suppose I'll shoot for it myself.

jhspaybar• 13 years ago

I read "come" as "become" and was like...what horrible joke awaits me?! Glad to see you won't be eating any children...

mildtrepidation2• 13 years ago

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.

lpolovets• 13 years ago

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.

The negative responses really bum me out.

swalkergibson4• 13 years ago

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."

michaelochurch9• 13 years ago

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."

Bingo.

Now, it's a huge topological stretch to argue that attending the YC dinner is really going to set a kid for life. More likely, he'll make a jackass of himself and that will be the end of that. However, it's the statement, the impression, and the direction that's getting everyone riled up.

The reason people dislike VCs is that they give resources to people who need them the least. They'd be more respected if they were pouring their efforts (at least in terms of time and mentorship; as they are businesses, they shouldn't be funding nonviable candidates) into projects and people who could actually use the help. No one likes a fairweather friend.

mathattack• 13 years ago

20k? Wow!

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.

code_duck• 13 years ago

Cool, I how the funds help YC in some way. Oh, they're being donated. Well that's cool too... But what was the purpose of this?

gojomo2• 13 years ago

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.

cmac2992• 13 years ago

If I had a kid/wasn't a kid myself I'd bid. I'd imagine this is one of the most inspiring events a young person could witness

garrettdreyfus• 13 years ago

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.

robg• 13 years ago

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.

We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

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