The YC Board of Overseers

http://blog.ycombinator.com/the-yc-board-of-overseers

by hglaser • 12 years ago

85 41 12 years ago

blog.ycombinator.com

minimaxir• 12 years ago

Wait, Sam Altman is both the YC president and on the Board of Overseers. If the board is responsible for both hiring/firing the president, how does that work?

haldujai• 12 years ago

The same way a CEO sits on the Board of Directors which is also responsible for both hiring/firing the CEO/President. Meaning that if fired he will be removed from the board meeting and/or he will have to recuse himself from meetings discussing his role as President.

sofia_2• 12 years ago

There are 9 people, I guess they vote, but there could be a split board about the President, hopefully that will not happen anytime soon.

larrys3• 12 years ago

Hard to imagine that PG doesn't have sway over what the board decides if he should so desire. Obviously. But he can defer to the board in day to day and use it to his advantage. (Remember Godfather 1 "Michael's in charge now".) So playing the card will be a rare occurrence but possible.

sama2• 12 years ago

obviously i'd recuse myself from a vote about me :) and it's a big board anyway.

greattypo• 12 years ago

Very awesome. This seems like a healthy step in a direction I'm personally excited about: YC as a university (vs. YC as a mini VC).

larrys3• 12 years ago

"I'm personally excited about: YC as a university"

YC isn't a university (today) and I don't see a particular reason it should try to model itself in that fashion so as to draw comparisons. It's a different entity in itself and should try to foster that new category rather than try to compete in an existing category for attention and/or respect.

mbesto• 12 years ago

It's worth noting that YC's characteristics are slowly creeping into university territory. Facets and characteristics that make YC and universities successful:

- Strong alumni endowment (both capital and mentoring)

- Reliant heavily on personal networks and connections to vet at scale

- Critical of personal merit on application process

- Application process are almost identical (mostly criticized on paper, followed by a very short interview)

Couple all of this with the reality that:

- Many famous tech entrepreneurs are known for dropping out of school (Zuck, Gates, etc)

- Peter Thiel (and the PayPal mafia) are on a mission to fund children and have them skip uni

- pg's view of university life as a model for allowing smart people the time and freedom to create innovative new products.

I don't disagree that they are different entities, but in perhaps viewing through a particular lens, one could argue that there is little that separates how they behave at scale.

Food for thought -- let's negate the application process for a second -- if you're a parent, would you send your child to a university that will cost $150k with no guarantee (but high likelihood) of a job afterward or would you rather drop $150k into your son/daughter's startup to then be advised by some of the most successful modern day business people. I mean, life isn't all about working, but, well, it is.

keithwarren• 12 years ago

What is the technical difference between board of directors and board of overseers?

sama2• 12 years ago

board of directors has fiduciary responsibility over an organization, usually approves management plans, determines ceo compensation, etc.

our board of overseers is modeled after what universities do. it should be much lighter touch than a board of directors.

taroth3• 12 years ago

the board of overseers has a lighter touch perhaps but also the executive guillotine. even if the latter power is exercised rarely, the will of the overseers is final authority. to be sure the current overseers deserve no doubt in their moral commitment to YC, but as YC grows in influence, wealth, prestige and power, so too do its overseers, and the shadow of moral hazard darkens. actions impossible yesterday become intolerable today and invisible tomorrow.

as someone who cares about the future of YC, i am glad that a mechanism is in place to guard the integrity of the YC president, and i wonder mechanisms are in place to guard the integrity the YC board.

larrys3• 12 years ago

Could you elaborate on how the board of overseers were picked? Why these individuals?

bhummadi• 12 years ago

It is a great list but missing one person.

georgemcbay• 12 years ago

One sounds evil, the other sounds really evil.

troymc• 12 years ago

And then there's the Board of Overlords. Or The Council of Sauron.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_Council_of_Sauro...

danbmil99• 12 years ago

Does YC also have a BOD? Doesn't the BOD in most US corps have final say over basically everything?

sofia_2• 12 years ago

Interesting that PG is not there.

outside1234• 12 years ago

He retired, for some definition of retired. He's letting the new team run the ship. That said, I'm sure he's still virtually on the board of directors and if he really felt passionate about something that it would get done.

arfliw• 12 years ago

He's clearly above this board and could get rid of all of them if he wanted to. I think all involved know and understand that, and hope it never has to happen.

jnks2• 12 years ago

Why not call it "Board of Directors"? The word "overseer" still pretty much only refers to the middle-managers of slave plantations.

seeingfurther2• 12 years ago

I think that's incorrect. Overseer is generally a term the English use when referring to administration of the poor. Not sure if it's still in use today.

Can you tell I liked me some Charles Dickens?

001sky• 12 years ago

Here's the disambiguation from wikipedia:

In professions

[1] A supervisor or superintendent; one who keeps watch over and directs the work of others, often in the context of forced labor or slavery

[2] In law, a person appointed by the testator to supervise or assist the executor(s) of a will (mostly obsolete)

[3] Overseer of the Poor, an official who administered poor relief

It's muddled at best, but the usage in reference to a supervisory role in a professional context [1] is distinct from what you allude to [3], and [1] has the qualifier "often in the context of forced labor or slavery".

EricaJoy• 12 years ago

This is what I thought when I saw "overseer". I would not have chosen to use that word.

tlb• 12 years ago

It's common in academic institutions. http://www.harvard.edu/board-overseers

jnks2• 12 years ago

Fair. I like UC's "Board of Regents" http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/

Jun8• 12 years ago

You may find this interesting (or not): The way the Egyptian hieroglyph for overseer as commonly written has a visual pun, and literally means "one who is in the mouth" (http://books.google.com/books?id=aroQ0Zrl8J4C&pg=PA34&lpg=PA...).

zaidf• 12 years ago

Board of Directors usually meet once a month. Their job is much more than deciding to hire/fire/keep the CEO.

thinkerer• 12 years ago

Agreed. Advisors would be better but perhaps they were bored at the "normal" names...

presty• 12 years ago

Interesting that this board seems to be constitued by the founders of some of the most successful YC startups (Airbnb, Homejoy, Stripe, Dropbox, Weebly, Twitch)

mathattack2• 12 years ago

This is similar to universities, where most of the trustees are extremely successful former alumni. I think that's the model they're trying to follow.

jacquesm• 12 years ago

Success does not equate being a good trustee. Trustees should be picked for their ethics rather than their success.

orky56• 12 years ago

Just curious if there is any visibly transparent process in place to add/remove members to the Board of Overseers?

The YC Board of Overseers

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