<story><title>YC and Founders Pledge</title><url>http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-and-founders-pledge</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cperciva</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d like to encourage founders who are participating in this to consider directing at least some of their pledges to support open source software.  I don&amp;#x27;t think there are &lt;i&gt;any&lt;/i&gt; YC companies which would have existed if it hadn&amp;#x27;t been for a large amount of open source software; if you want to maximize the impact of your donations, helping the projects which build tools the next generation of startups will rely on is a pretty good way to go.&lt;p&gt;(At Tarsnap, I mostly fund the FreeBSD Foundation and other BSD-related organizations, but that&amp;#x27;s primarily because those are the groups whose work I am most familiar with and can judge most effectively.  There are plenty of other organizations doing great work with open source software which can benefit from funding; but of course I&amp;#x27;d love to see everybody here supporting the FreeBSD Foundation too.)</text></comment>
<story><title>YC and Founders Pledge</title><url>http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-and-founders-pledge</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>BinaryIdiot</author><text>I understand giving to charity is great and all but what about employees 10, 35, 97? So someone works hard at a start-up but they weren&amp;#x27;t among the first dozen or so to join then they likely get next to nothing from an exit. So how about, instead of a pledge to give to charity, founders pledge to give more equity to later employees so only a small handful are not the only ones to profit.&lt;p&gt;Everyone takes a risk joining a start-up. Many times employees use the equity as part of their compensation (right or wrong many do this). If you&amp;#x27;re joining a start-up that has taken this pledge then you know going in you&amp;#x27;re likely not going to get as much as another start-up.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know this just feels like a way to neuter the company making it less attractive to future employees. How about, instead of counting our chickens before they hatch, we get founders who had a big exit to donate money to charity?</text></comment>