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"why not make an unconditional donation to Bing and then open up these dinners to teenagers willing to apply/write an essay for them, regardless of ability to p

by larrys 13y ago

"why not make an unconditional donation to Bing and then open up these dinners to teenagers willing to apply/write an essay for them, regardless of ability to pay?" What was done was easy to do. Simple decision "yes or no" here is the benefit. [1] What you are asking would require meetings, details and more thought amongst people who don't really have the time for that. [1] Keep that in mind when you are doing business with people. Make it simple for them to agree and require no effort on their part (or at least as little as possible). If you want to delay decision making do the opposite. If you want to delay it even more give them an assignment to complete (like a 3 page list of questions that they need to answer before you will take their money). Friction kills deals just like time does.

swalkergibson 13y ago
> If you want to delay it even more give them an assignment to complete (like a 3 page list of questions that they need to answer before you will take their money). In my opinion, you are comparing apples to oranges. This is not like putting up a 12 field registration/payment form for your web app, it is asking people who are interested in getting access to one of these dinners to express why they think they are worthy of attending. The perceived value is high enough such that you should theoretically only be reading essays from people who took the time and made the effort to apply. You are absolutely right, this is the easiest way, and it is by no means a bad idea. Donating to charity in anyway is a great idea. However, the virtue of that fact does not automatically mean that the method for raising the money to be donated was intrinsically great. I must note that my opinion is colored by the fact that I would have loved to attend one of these dinners myself during my teen years, but my parents (nor myself) could absolutely not afford to have paid for it, but I would have been happy to compete for the spot on other criteria.
- ericd 13y ago
  I'm pretty sure the YC partners don't have the time to comb through dinner attendance applications and manage the rest of that, unfortunately. Maybe they could outsource that, though.

by larrys 13y ago

swalkergibson 13y ago

> If you want to delay it even more give them an assignment to complete (like a 3 page list of questions that they need to answer before you will take their money). In my opinion, you are comparing apples to oranges. This is not like putting up a 12 field registration/payment form for your web app, it is asking people who are interested in getting access to one of these dinners to express why they think they are worthy of attending. The perceived value is high enough such that you should theoretically only be reading essays from people who took the time and made the effort to apply. You are absolutely right, this is the easiest way, and it is by no means a bad idea. Donating to charity in anyway is a great idea. However, the virtue of that fact does not automatically mean that the method for raising the money to be donated was intrinsically great. I must note that my opinion is colored by the fact that I would have loved to attend one of these dinners myself during my teen years, but my parents (nor myself) could absolutely not afford to have paid for it, but I would have been happy to compete for the spot on other criteria.

ericd 13y ago
I'm pretty sure the YC partners don't have the time to comb through dinner attendance applications and manage the rest of that, unfortunately. Maybe they could outsource that, though.