Incidentally, we also hope that this deal will encourage more founders of any age and from every demographic group and geographic location to take the leap into

Incidentally, we also hope that this deal will encourage more founders of any age and from every demographic group and geographic location to take the leap into the startup world, apply to YC, and build their own successful startup. This is a rare example where I see an "equity" thing like this making sense with little downside. One one hand, I think YC might be cooler if it offered less money and gave more support of other kinds. But that means that only funded or independently wealthy startups could do it, which probably doesn't achieve the fund's ostensible aims of searching for the best ideas / founders. So more money means people don't have to worry about money as much, and YC gets access to more deal flow