Comment by Alex3917
10 years ago
> I'm sure that most people who voted for pinboard did not do so because they thought it would be a good investment.
I voted for Maciej fully believing that he had no intention of building a billion dollar startup and just wanted the 20k. That said part of the reason I voted for him is that I thought it could could be a good opportunity for YC anyway, albeit risky, in addition to just being entertaining.
I also think they made the right call not to fund him, given Kevin's explanation.
If this had been "YC is giving away money! Pick someone you think YC should give $20k to!" then I would absolutely have voted for Pinboard. And I would have submitted Tarsnap, too.
But they were looking for more than that, so I voted based on the question they asked -- who should they fund, not simply who should they give money to.
And yet I bet you voted with the expectation that winners would be chosen based on the criteria laid out in the original ApplyHN post.
You're right, I thought that Dan would make the final call rather than Kevin.
But I never thought that votes alone would decide anything; the original post explicitly ruled out that possibility.
If it's unsurprising that YC picks based on their gut and not on any hard criteria... it shouldn't be. Surprise, almost all white dudes again!
1 reply →
Kevin's explanation was the one that was basically "I didn't like the cut of his jib", right? That Maciej is Not Our Sort, Dear?