

Pando goes to, and is escorted out of, Y Combinator demo day - 24x7
https://pando.com/2015/08/19/pando-goes-and-escorted-out-y-combinator-demo-day/a165d4eeb37178c1acdd45c80fa06f9c80af2093/

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gkoberger
This title is clickbait. They were politely and apologetically asked to leave,
since they snuck in and didn't have a press pass.

As to why they didn't get a press pass, who knows. But they've been extremely
negative toward YC companies in the past. YC isn't running a White House press
conference; they're running an event with the unabashed goal of helping their
companies succeed. You wouldn't invite your bitter ex to your wedding.

As for why TC writes so much about YC companies: I know a bunch of YC
companies that didn't get a TC write-up, and I know some that had negative
writeups. Like it or not for Pando (or anyone else), it's mutually exclusive:
the launch of a YC company is news, and launching on TC is a Silicon Valley
rite of passage. TechCrunch wants YC startups, YC startups want TechCrunch.

(On a more personal note, being a founder is really fucking hard. It's the
hardest thing I've ever done. YC is the only organization in the valley I've
ever felt had my back 100%, and truly had my best interests in heart. VCs and
press may complain about Demo Day, but who cares: YC makes decisions based on
what's best for its companies, not the press or VCs. I can't thank YC enough
for everything they did to protect, help and nurture us as an early-stage
company.)

~~~
caminante
Reading your comment, I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony.

Here we have...a site with a paywall _COMPLAINING_ about access to
information.

This "journalist" hoped to skate in and get something worth "$10 a month" to
write about. After failing, he scrambled, spinning a conspiracy and making
himself the story.

------
tomasien
(serious question not trying to demean Pando): does Pando have enough
readership to warrant being included in the press section of an event with
competitive press entry? I've enjoyed a lot of the Pando articles I've read,
but I don't see them around very much and I pay a lot of attention to the tech
press. Plus, it's pay-walled for the most part right?

Even if they don't have the readership to support this it isn't a criticism of
it as a journalistic endeavor or business, but I'm just wondering if this
warrants such a complaint.

~~~
cpncrunch
Strange that your comment was downvoted. A quick bit of research on sites like
Alexa shows that Techcrunch has 10x as many visitors as Pando, so why should
they expect equal treatment?

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theshadowmonkey
Im in no way to related to YC, Techcrunch or Pando. But, I think in their
power and willingness, YC was very much justified in escorting Pando out of
the event. Would you let someone into a private event or party when they come
without an invitation and you dont want them there? They were very apologetic
and nice in escorting them politely and journalist mentions that. Why were
white men and women randomly thrown in the article as if to highlight them
when there is neither a need nor it adds any information to the story ? This
is plain clickbait. When it is my event, Im free to invite whoever I want.

------
hadeharian
I hate that he makes it sound like he had some responsibility to be there as
if by invitation. I'm sure everyone wants to report on this stuff, but
reporting has never worked that way. Reporters are often excluded for any and
every reason from conferences, for much the same reason that people don't
invite everyone to a party.

------
animefan
Really sickening how they throw in a jibe about the lack of women, just so
they can sound self righteous and distract from the immorality[0] of them
trespassing on YCombinator's event.

[0] Not that it's always immoral for journalists to trespass. Clearly they
play a special role in society and _sometimes_ this might involve going to
places they weren't invited. However to me this crosses the line because there
is no public interest angle. Everything in the article could have been read
about in (or extrapolated from) articles written by the invited journalists.

~~~
click170
Whats the back story behind this?

Does pando have a reputation for being disruptive?

Is y combinator demo day invite only?

I ask because I don't know.

~~~
biot
From the article:

    
    
      The closest I got to an on-the-record comment confirming that
      press access was based on favor, not fire code, was when a YC
      registration official rejected my request for a badge, for
      the final time: “It’s an invite-only event for investors, and
      only a few select press are invited.”

------
arielm
Tech journalism at its lowest. 1. Whining over something meaningless to get
page views. 2. Calling TechCrunch journalism...

------
vacri
YC is not a public entity; they don't owe you a seat. Just because you don't
get one doesn't mean they're in the wrong.

Besides, if this is the standard of investigative journalism ("waaah, I
couldn't get in! let's cast aspersions!"), I think that any group would be in
the right to reject the author on journalistic merit.

~~~
snake117
Yeah it seems that YC made the right choice by not letting them in. I can
imagine YC being a little picky about what press they would allow into Demo
Day because they only want positive news about their start-ups...and who can
blame them? I don't have anything against Pando, but I've never heard of them
until now, yet I've been familiar with TechCrunch for a long time. YC is
comfortable with them and this is there event, therefore, they have the final
say in who can attend...even if it only is TechCrunch.

~~~
bahahah
The only bad press is no press. Especially so when no one knows who you are.

And now you know who Pando is, mission accomplished. They just want to join in
riding the demo day media wave, but were denied access to actually write about
the demos.

------
quick_stix
I'm glad someone has finally went out of their way to point this out. Props to
Pando Daily.

I too have noticed that TechCrunch will publish anything with YC's name on it
- even from the outside, you can tell that the two parties have a really
curious direct relationship. Despite this odd arrangement, TechCrunch writers
still do not disclose it on their individual profiles (even though they may go
as far as disclosing who they are dating and what loose connection that
personal relationship might have to their excuse of "reporting"). By having a
strong hold on TC, Ycombinator can distort the public opinion around it even
if it has wronged someone.

Journalism should be free-thinking and not just morph into whatever opinion YC
likes best and that suits them. I wonder how many journalists Ycombinator has
strong armed into publishing stuff they like by denying them access to demo
day or "exclusives" on their companies.

It also frustrates me because I have friends who aren't in YC but constantly
grinding it out and working on their startups - how come they can't easily get
on TC as well? How many real, actual stories have we missed out on just
because a new YC company is entering the scene and feels compelled to occupy
the very self-entitled YC showcase that is TechCrunch?

~~~
dang
Why did you post this comment using the account that posted the story, then
delete it and post it with another account, then delete that and make a new
account to post it?

~~~
probably_wrong
Maybe (s)he is trying to get kicked out of HN too?

------
pen2l
You'll do your snooping work to find this stuff out, because you can. Sadly,
others can't do this to HN. Because HN software becomes increasingly opaque by
the day. Users are forced to take you at your word, all the while comment
score points are hidden, users are rankbanned without warning, users are
slowbanned, etc.

~~~
dang
Most of your statements about HN are false. Unfortunately, patiently answering
you for many months hasn't seemed to help. As I explained at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10071375](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10071375),
I'm not going to keep doing this. There are many HN users asking questions in
good faith. Given that we can't even answer all of those, much as I wish we
could, it's clear where our efforts should be focused.

I'm going to detach this subthread (from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10090025](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10090025))
now and mark it off topic.

------
SrslyJosh
Nothing proves their point better than admins killing this story on HN.

~~~
dang
No admin touched this story.

