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Edit: I Googled it and it was Michael Siebel that helped them get into YC. You can debate what "walked in" means but I think it's safe to say the story of Airb

Edit: I Googled it and it was Michael Siebel that helped them get into YC. You can debate what "walked in" means but I think it's safe to say the story of Airbnb getting into YC is one of Winning Friends and Influencing People rather than any brilliant ideas or work they did on their actual startup, which is precisely what the blog post is saying. Edit2: just saw on Twitter that @paulg posted the email that got Airbnb an interview. It's hard to imagine a stronger attempt at walking them in than they received. They got very special treatment from friends with connections. https://mobile.twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011619268882432 https://mobile.twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011619268882432

sillysaurusx 6y ago
I just wanted to say, thank you for pointing this out. The other half of it, though, is that you’re being sort of unfair. Airbnb isn’t boring. YC’s goal was to make a tremendous amount of money. Without that, none of their other ambitions would succeed. Enough of their bets had to be right. In that sense, it seems like YC was a success in their original mission. One does not kill google simply by wishing it. That said, yes, you’re right about the special treatment. But that’s what the real world is like. It’s not meant to be a court with a judge. http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html You (like me, once) can be uncomfortable with the idea of special treatment, but it’s hard to argue with the result. After all, Airbnb IPO’d. EDIT: By the way, if you’d like to chat privately about the old days, feel free to DM me on Twitter. That 2008-era was interesting, and I remember you were there for it. I’m curious to get more of your impressions.
- dang 6y ago
  It's not true—there was no special treatment. I was there, and it was very clear that they were applying just like everybody else. To say otherwise is cynical bullshit, and you guys should really pause before reinforcing talented-but-disadvantaged people's worry that they don't have a shot. They do have a shot, and if you had any idea how hard YC works not to overlook applicants who show up without special connections, you'd be ashamed of yourselves.
  - sillysaurusx 6y ago
    But.. they didn't apply like everybody else. pg made an /apply2 endpoint specifically for them: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011619268882432 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011619268882432 I doubt they were given special treatment afterwards. Their interview probably went like everyone else's. But how can it be true that there was no special treatment beforehand, when it was a special /apply2 endpoint? Of course talented-but-disadvantaged people have a shot. None of this is to say that they don't, and no one implied that special connections were a requirement. I know how hard YC works not to overlook those. My position is that there's nothing wrong with it being a special exception. Instacart seemed to be, too. But that's different than saying there was no exception.
    - dang 6y ago
      Where does it say that he made /apply2 specifically for them?
      - sillysaurusx 6y ago
        The email asked for a special exception. "Are the YC applications for the next round completely, 100% closed? ... They missed the deadline" pg replied with a link to let them apply, in spite of the fact that the round was closed. It was an exception to the normal rules. And the exception was accessed by having a personal intro from a YC founder.
        dang 6y ago
        You didn't answer my question, which I assume means you had no reason to say "pg made an /apply2 endpoint specifically for them". The rest here is also false. The round was not closed. Application deadlines have never been enforced at YC. By accepting their late application he was treating them the same as anybody else. Even the point about the intro email is overstated; I did that too upthread, but now that I think of it, it's obvious that pg would have replied the same way to any email he got at that moment: tell them to apply fast, be concise, etc. No good startup investor would say "sorry, you missed the deadline" because they all know that missing outliers for dumb reasons is the biggest mistake they can make, the one that matters more than all the others put together. So really what this all boils down to is that Justin had pg's email address, and I don't think that's what the people arguing "special treatment" in this thread were talking about.
dang 6y ago
That link doesn't even show that they got an interview. It shows that they got an email and some application advice—entirely generic advice, the same things (be concise! for god's sake be concise!) that pg would have said to anybody. Scott and I were in the same YC batch as Airbnb. We had no connections and knew no YC founders. It's simply not true that you needed "friends with connections" to get into YC, then or now. It's not necessary, and it's not sufficient either. I don't mean to be a stickler but it's harmful when people imply such things. It discourages founders who don't have friends-with-connections from applying. That's really bad—what if they're just the sort of founder YC wants to fund? A lot of people are, who don't think they are—and maybe they lack the self-confidence to try, or they're teetering. If they run into HN comments or whatever that cynically say "it's all about connections", they may teeter away, and that could have a huge effect on their life. Getting into YC, knowing no one and having no special connections, changed my life bigtime, and that's true of many others as well. We met the Airbnb founders in the waiting room because our interview was right after theirs. They were super nervous, as were we, so we bonded around reassuring each other that their startup was great. I remember Brian saying that they had never heard of YC, but they knew the guys at Justin.tv, who had encouraged them to apply at the last minute, and that was why they were there. So the primary effect of the "friends with connections" was not that it got them into YC, but that it got YC into them—i.e. it got YC on their radar in the first place.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

I just wanted to say, thank you for pointing this out. The other half of it, though, is that you’re being sort of unfair. Airbnb isn’t boring. YC’s goal was to make a tremendous amount of money. Without that, none of their other ambitions would succeed. Enough of their bets had to be right. In that sense, it seems like YC was a success in their original mission. One does not kill google simply by wishing it. That said, yes, you’re right about the special treatment. But that’s what the real world is like. It’s not meant to be a court with a judge. http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html You (like me, once) can be uncomfortable with the idea of special treatment, but it’s hard to argue with the result. After all, Airbnb IPO’d. EDIT: By the way, if you’d like to chat privately about the old days, feel free to DM me on Twitter. That 2008-era was interesting, and I remember you were there for it. I’m curious to get more of your impressions.

dang 6y ago
It's not true—there was no special treatment. I was there, and it was very clear that they were applying just like everybody else. To say otherwise is cynical bullshit, and you guys should really pause before reinforcing talented-but-disadvantaged people's worry that they don't have a shot. They do have a shot, and if you had any idea how hard YC works not to overlook applicants who show up without special connections, you'd be ashamed of yourselves.
- sillysaurusx 6y ago
  But.. they didn't apply like everybody else. pg made an /apply2 endpoint specifically for them: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011619268882432 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011619268882432 I doubt they were given special treatment afterwards. Their interview probably went like everyone else's. But how can it be true that there was no special treatment beforehand, when it was a special /apply2 endpoint? Of course talented-but-disadvantaged people have a shot. None of this is to say that they don't, and no one implied that special connections were a requirement. I know how hard YC works not to overlook those. My position is that there's nothing wrong with it being a special exception. Instacart seemed to be, too. But that's different than saying there was no exception.
  - dang 6y ago
    Where does it say that he made /apply2 specifically for them?
    - sillysaurusx 6y ago
      The email asked for a special exception. "Are the YC applications for the next round completely, 100% closed? ... They missed the deadline" pg replied with a link to let them apply, in spite of the fact that the round was closed. It was an exception to the normal rules. And the exception was accessed by having a personal intro from a YC founder.
      - dang 6y ago
        You didn't answer my question, which I assume means you had no reason to say "pg made an /apply2 endpoint specifically for them". The rest here is also false. The round was not closed. Application deadlines have never been enforced at YC. By accepting their late application he was treating them the same as anybody else. Even the point about the intro email is overstated; I did that too upthread, but now that I think of it, it's obvious that pg would have replied the same way to any email he got at that moment: tell them to apply fast, be concise, etc. No good startup investor would say "sorry, you missed the deadline" because they all know that missing outliers for dumb reasons is the biggest mistake they can make, the one that matters more than all the others put together. So really what this all boils down to is that Justin had pg's email address, and I don't think that's what the people arguing "special treatment" in this thread were talking about.

dang 6y ago

That link doesn't even show that they got an interview. It shows that they got an email and some application advice—entirely generic advice, the same things (be concise! for god's sake be concise!) that pg would have said to anybody. Scott and I were in the same YC batch as Airbnb. We had no connections and knew no YC founders. It's simply not true that you needed "friends with connections" to get into YC, then or now. It's not necessary, and it's not sufficient either. I don't mean to be a stickler but it's harmful when people imply such things. It discourages founders who don't have friends-with-connections from applying. That's really bad—what if they're just the sort of founder YC wants to fund? A lot of people are, who don't think they are—and maybe they lack the self-confidence to try, or they're teetering. If they run into HN comments or whatever that cynically say "it's all about connections", they may teeter away, and that could have a huge effect on their life. Getting into YC, knowing no one and having no special connections, changed my life bigtime, and that's true of many others as well. We met the Airbnb founders in the waiting room because our interview was right after theirs. They were super nervous, as were we, so we bonded around reassuring each other that their startup was great. I remember Brian saying that they had never heard of YC, but they knew the guys at Justin.tv, who had encouraged them to apply at the last minute, and that was why they were there. So the primary effect of the "friends with connections" was not that it got them into YC, but that it got YC into them—i.e. it got YC on their radar in the first place.