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How is this ethical: YC funds Vote.org as part of YC S16. Vote.org is a voter registration platform broadly similar to VotePlz, but with fewer emojis. Sam Altm

How is this ethical: YC funds Vote.org as part of YC S16. Vote.org is a voter registration platform broadly similar to VotePlz, but with fewer emojis. Sam Altman spends his summer advising vote.org in his role as a YC Partner. Soon after demo day, Sam Altman decides to launch what amounts to a clone knock off of vote.org. Paul Graham tweets about VotePlz at launch calling it the most important thing to happen today, after never mentioning the YC funded vote.org on his twitter all summer as far as I can tell. Shouldn't YC be as friendly to not-for-profit startup founders as they claim to be to for-profit founders? I'm all for there being lots of voter-registration organizations. YC should fund lots of startups in this space. It seems though that the role that YC Partners play as trusted strategic advisors is incompatible with those partners going on to start directly competitive organizations, whatever their tax status might be.

rhallie11 10y ago
VotePlz is a non-profit...
- pdq 10y ago
  They are both non profits.
  - rhallie11 10y ago
    OP: "Shouldn't YC be as friendly to not-for-profit startup founders as they claim to be to for-profit founders?" Made it sound like they thought VotePlz was a for-profit/getting more promotion because of that (which it isn't)
    - geofft 10y ago
      I interpreted that to mean: "sama would not spend his free time on a competitor to a for-profit YC startup, why is he spending his free time on a competitor to a non-profit YC startup?".
      - Semiapies 10y ago
        ...Because it's a non-profit. This isn't about profits or shareholders, but goals. These organizations exist to pursue goals. The goals are more important than the organizations.
tiles 10y ago
I am so confused as to why this is a separate product from https://www.vote.org/ https://www.vote.org/. Voteplz.org even instills less confidence—sounds like a single-serving website, glad they're communicating these ideas, but its conflict with the YC-funded project makes me believe both are more likely to fail because of split mindshare.
- nothrabannosir 10y ago
  Which is incredibly ironic, when you consider that one of the most fundamental problems with the US's voting system is the spoiler effect (where similar parties bring each other down by splitting voters).
  - rhallie11 10y ago
    How is this splitting voters if you have more than one place to register? That's like saying having multiple DMVs in a state would make it harder for people to get a driver's license
skybrian 10y ago
I don't know anything about it, but speaking generally, it seems like competition doesn't work the same for non-profit groups? If someone else is working in the same space but doing things a little different, that doesn't mean they're a competitor. But who knows what's going on behind the scenes.
rattray 10y ago
Presumably, the YC Partners lost faith in the vote.org team over the course of the YC S16 program. They decided the best course of action would be to launch a competitor. This would give me pause if I were considering applying to YC, even with a commercial venture, even if I predicted no such loss of faith. That said, I'd probably still accept a YC application if I thought the program would be a good fit for my (hypothetical) company.
- SVisourGod 10y ago
  Throwing a woman under the bus because dudes wanted to start a project.
sama 10y ago
I am contributing to both vote.org and voteplz.org, and probably two other get-out-the-vote non-profits. There are different approaches to this problem and I'm not sure which will work best, but unlike many for-profit startups it's non zero-sum--we have a long, long way to go to 100% voter turnout, and all the organizations working on this share the same fundamental goal. This feels like the most important US presidential election I've ever witnessed, and I want to do whatever I can to make sure we're all involved.
- jflowers45 10y ago
  Appreciate that you responded & didn't dodge the question. I think what makes it feel weird is that PG went out of his way to hype the launch of voteplz without (as far as I know) ever doing anything similar for vote.org
- specialist 10y ago
  Money towards promoting universal, automatic voter registration would also be goodness. Moots the voter registration kabuki. Brings the USA up to international norms.
  - sama 10y ago
    One of the other groups is pursuing this (and electronic voting). I think that's the right long term solution!
    - specialist 10y ago
      Disagree with you on electronic voting. I know a little bit about this one. There is no way to both protect the secret ballot and ensure a public vote count. Can't be done. And most systems (proposed, hypothetical, existing) don't do either.
      - rhallie11 10y ago
        I also disagree with electronic voting, but am a huge supporter of: - automatic registration - election days as (paid!) holidays - national no-restrictions on requesting absentee (some states require you to vote in-person unless you have a reason explaining why you literally can't)
kingoflosaltos 10y ago
I just went through the registration process for an absentee ballot on VotePlz and the email containing the link to download the ballot came from vote.org.
- sama 10y ago
  I hope the two organizations will work together in more ways than this, but it's a good example.
deleted 10y ago
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rhallie11 10y ago

VotePlz is a non-profit...

pdq 10y ago
They are both non profits.
- rhallie11 10y ago
  OP: "Shouldn't YC be as friendly to not-for-profit startup founders as they claim to be to for-profit founders?" Made it sound like they thought VotePlz was a for-profit/getting more promotion because of that (which it isn't)
  - geofft 10y ago
    I interpreted that to mean: "sama would not spend his free time on a competitor to a for-profit YC startup, why is he spending his free time on a competitor to a non-profit YC startup?".
    - Semiapies 10y ago
      ...Because it's a non-profit. This isn't about profits or shareholders, but goals. These organizations exist to pursue goals. The goals are more important than the organizations.

tiles 10y ago

I am so confused as to why this is a separate product from https://www.vote.org/ https://www.vote.org/. Voteplz.org even instills less confidence—sounds like a single-serving website, glad they're communicating these ideas, but its conflict with the YC-funded project makes me believe both are more likely to fail because of split mindshare.

nothrabannosir 10y ago
Which is incredibly ironic, when you consider that one of the most fundamental problems with the US's voting system is the spoiler effect (where similar parties bring each other down by splitting voters).
- rhallie11 10y ago
  How is this splitting voters if you have more than one place to register? That's like saying having multiple DMVs in a state would make it harder for people to get a driver's license

skybrian 10y ago

I don't know anything about it, but speaking generally, it seems like competition doesn't work the same for non-profit groups? If someone else is working in the same space but doing things a little different, that doesn't mean they're a competitor. But who knows what's going on behind the scenes.

rattray 10y ago

Presumably, the YC Partners lost faith in the vote.org team over the course of the YC S16 program. They decided the best course of action would be to launch a competitor. This would give me pause if I were considering applying to YC, even with a commercial venture, even if I predicted no such loss of faith. That said, I'd probably still accept a YC application if I thought the program would be a good fit for my (hypothetical) company.

SVisourGod 10y ago
Throwing a woman under the bus because dudes wanted to start a project.

sama 10y ago

I am contributing to both vote.org and voteplz.org, and probably two other get-out-the-vote non-profits. There are different approaches to this problem and I'm not sure which will work best, but unlike many for-profit startups it's non zero-sum--we have a long, long way to go to 100% voter turnout, and all the organizations working on this share the same fundamental goal. This feels like the most important US presidential election I've ever witnessed, and I want to do whatever I can to make sure we're all involved.

jflowers45 10y ago
Appreciate that you responded & didn't dodge the question. I think what makes it feel weird is that PG went out of his way to hype the launch of voteplz without (as far as I know) ever doing anything similar for vote.org
specialist 10y ago
Money towards promoting universal, automatic voter registration would also be goodness. Moots the voter registration kabuki. Brings the USA up to international norms.
- sama 10y ago
  One of the other groups is pursuing this (and electronic voting). I think that's the right long term solution!
  - specialist 10y ago
    Disagree with you on electronic voting. I know a little bit about this one. There is no way to both protect the secret ballot and ensure a public vote count. Can't be done. And most systems (proposed, hypothetical, existing) don't do either.
    - rhallie11 10y ago
      I also disagree with electronic voting, but am a huge supporter of: - automatic registration - election days as (paid!) holidays - national no-restrictions on requesting absentee (some states require you to vote in-person unless you have a reason explaining why you literally can't)

kingoflosaltos 10y ago

I just went through the registration process for an absentee ballot on VotePlz and the email containing the link to download the ballot came from vote.org.

sama 10y ago
I hope the two organizations will work together in more ways than this, but it's a good example.

deleted 10y ago

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