"The irony is that the DST/YC deal didn’t have to cause problems for independent angel investors. If DST simply committed to providing $150K to every YC company

"The irony is that the DST/YC deal didn’t have to cause problems for independent angel investors. If DST simply committed to providing $150K to every YC company, at whatever terms were determined by the lead investor in the syndicate, DST wouldn’t be pricing the angels out of the ecosystem." I don't really see how this is pricing angels out of the ecosystem. SV/Yuri isn't taking the whole funding round for themselves (though they might in some cases, who knows?). Nothing is stopping other angels from continuing with the same terms they have been giving. Start ups raising a typical angel round (400k-1 mill) will still need more than 150k. With the 150k blanket investment it just means YC startups can wait longer to ask for it. Which is similar to what the original YC investment meant. This simply seems like an extension of their philosophy. I'm sure they did not lock themselves into anything and if this turns out to not be a good move (and they have lots of data to figure it out) they will iterate.