4 ms·
Watsi is not a portfolio company. They're a nonprofit we donated money to, not a company we invested in.
by pg 14y ago
Watsi is not a portfolio company. They're a nonprofit we donated money to, not a company we invested in.
- minimaxir 14y agohttp://ycombinator.com/watsi.html http://ycombinator.com/watsi.html Per the announcement: Y Combinator is trying something new this batch: we're including a nonprofit along with the for-profit startups we're funding. Meet Watsi, where donors can fund medical treatments for people in need. [...] I've never been so excited about anything we've funded. If Watsi is not a portfolio company, that fact should be more explicit.
- pg 14y agoI'm not sure if you're including that quote because you think it contradicts what I said or reinforces it, but just in case it's the former: A portfolio company means a company that an investor has stock in, i.e. that is part of their portfolio of investments. We don't own any stock in Watsi. When we fund a for-profit startup, we trade money for stock. In Watsi's case, we simply gave them the money. A lot of people seem to have been confused about this. I feel like I've explained several times in HN threads that we have no financial interest in Watsi. We thought it was clever idea to start including nonprofits in YC, but it seems to have been such a left turn that it threw a lot of people off.
- minimaxir 14y ago@pg: That's a helpful explanation, because I was confused myself on the distinction. Unfortunately, Twitter users many not be aware.