I couldn't give a damn about giving up equity. If they didn't have a stake in you, then there wouldn't be as much motivation for them to make you succeed, woul

I couldn't give a damn about giving up equity. If they didn't have a stake in you, then there wouldn't be as much motivation for them to make you succeed, would there? Founders need to be less greedy about this equity thing. It's more about whether your chances of success are amplified enough by what you give up, i.e. Expected Value. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_value http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_value If you don't want to give up equity for that little of an amount, and you've got something, then go pitch an angel investor directly. YCombinator is not the end all be all. I think it's important for newbs like us to get our feet wet so we have an idea of how much (or how little) bargaining power we have, and where we stack up against other entrepreneurs. Finally, everything in this world is negotiable. You could apply and work out the numbers with them, and I don't think there's a requirement to accept if you're accepted (correct me if I'm wrong). What I would envy is not getting into that sort of club. For a moment (however small that moment is), it makes you wonder how you could ever possibly make up for not having that advantage (that being said, lamenting about such a thing is unbecoming of an entrepreneur, and the motto of "be endlessly resourceful").