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It's to the DNC, and President Obama is their guest. This is a political fundraising visit. If it were a visit by the President of the United States in an off
by rdl 13y ago
It's to the DNC, and President Obama is their guest.
This is a political fundraising visit. If it were a visit by the President of the United States in an official capacity to talk about issues, I would be ecstatic that it was happening at YC, regardless of the President's party. The difference is the trip is being paid by the DNC, from political funds; an official visit is paid by the taxpayer.
Maybe I've been influenced by working in government facilities where any political lobbying or support is completely banned, but this seems exceedingly inappropriate.
- supergeek133 13y ago^ You articulated it better than I did. Haha.
- tptacek 13y agoIt is exceedingly inappropriate in exactly what way, Ryan? It's YC's space. They own it. What duty do they owe you or anyone else to host or help only politicians you agree with?
- rdl 13y agoYC is an investor in my company, and I donate about 50-100h of my time to YC every year. I agree that gives me zero ownership, but by the common definition of "stakeholder", it's reasonable to be upset. I felt equally bad when another investor went off the deep end on anti-gun politics.
- tptacek 13y agoI don't even know what to say to the idea that you might believe your investors are obliged to either share your opinions about gun control or keep quiet about them.
- rdl 13y agoThe "trying to pressure portfolio companies into supporting political agenda on non-tech issue" was the part I objected to. The issue isn't the specific policy viewpoints. It's using a commercial or other relationship to try to pressure for politics. "sf.citi" was supposed to be focused on pro-business SF local politics, which is sort of reasonable. Gun control is literally orthogonal to technology.
- bifrost 13y agoI feel similarly, especially when the politics don't reflect the science. It was very frustrating to say the least.