

The YC Board of Overseers - hglaser
http://blog.ycombinator.com/the-yc-board-of-overseers

======
keithwarren
What is the technical difference between board of directors and board of
overseers?

~~~
sama
board of directors has fiduciary responsibility over an organization, usually
approves management plans, determines ceo compensation, etc.

our board of overseers is modeled after what universities do. it should be
much lighter touch than a board of directors.

~~~
taroth
the board of overseers has a lighter touch perhaps but also the executive
guillotine. even if the latter power is exercised rarely, the will of the
overseers is final authority. to be sure the current overseers deserve no
doubt in their moral commitment to YC, but as YC grows in influence, wealth,
prestige and power, so too do its overseers, and the shadow of moral hazard
darkens. actions impossible yesterday become intolerable today and invisible
tomorrow.

as someone who cares about the future of YC, i am glad that a mechanism is in
place to guard the integrity of the YC president, and i wonder mechanisms are
in place to guard the integrity the YC board.

~~~
BryanB55
"but as YC grows in influence, wealth, prestige and power, so too do its
overseers, and the shadow of moral hazard darkens. actions impossible
yesterday become intolerable today and invisible tomorrow."

I feel like that should be a quote from a Harry Potter novel.

~~~
taroth
i only posted it here because JK Rowling still blocks my emails.

------
presty
Interesting that this board seems to be constitued by the founders of some of
the most successful YC startups (Airbnb, Homejoy, Stripe, Dropbox, Weebly,
Twitch)

~~~
mathattack
This is similar to universities, where most of the trustees are extremely
successful former alumni. I think that's the model they're trying to follow.

~~~
jacquesm
Success does not equate being a good trustee. Trustees should be picked for
their ethics rather than their success.

~~~
mathattack
True. I'm just identifying the model. They also need not be mutually
exclusive. You want the intersection of helpful, ethical and successful. If
you're missing on any of them, you probably won't be helpful. I think
financially minded organizations tend to lean more on the success since it's
easier to measure.

------
greattypo
Very awesome. This seems like a healthy step in a direction I'm personally
excited about: YC as a university (vs. YC as a mini VC).

~~~
larrys
"I'm personally excited about: YC as a university"

YC isn't a university (today) and I don't see a particular reason it should
try to model itself in that fashion so as to draw comparisons. It's a
different entity in itself and should try to foster that new category rather
than try to compete in an existing category for attention and/or respect.

~~~
mbesto
It's worth noting that YC's characteristics are slowly creeping into
university territory. Facets and characteristics that make YC and universities
successful:

\- Strong alumni endowment (both capital and mentoring)

\- Reliant heavily on personal networks and connections to vet at scale

\- Critical of personal merit on application process

\- Application process are almost identical (mostly criticized on paper,
followed by a very short interview)

Couple all of this with the reality that:

\- Many famous tech entrepreneurs are known for dropping out of school (Zuck,
Gates, etc)

\- Peter Thiel (and the PayPal mafia) are on a mission to fund children and
have them skip uni

\- pg's view of university life as a model for allowing smart people the time
and freedom to create innovative new products.

I don't disagree that they are different entities, but in perhaps viewing
through a particular lens, one could argue that there is little that separates
how they behave at scale.

Food for thought -- let's negate the application process for a second -- if
you're a parent, would you send your child to a university that will cost
$150k with no guarantee (but high likelihood) of a job afterward or would you
rather drop $150k into your son/daughter's startup to then be advised by some
of the most successful modern day business people. I mean, life isn't all
about working, but, well, it is.

~~~
argonaut
Interviews generally play a negligible role in college admissions, whereas the
YC interviews are _the_ deciding factor in admission.

------
sofia_
Interesting that PG is not there.

~~~
outside1234
He retired, for some definition of retired. He's letting the new team run the
ship. That said, I'm sure he's still virtually on the board of directors and
if he really felt passionate about something that it would get done.

~~~
arfliw
He's clearly above this board and could get rid of all of them if he wanted
to. I think all involved know and understand that, and hope it never has to
happen.

------
jnks
Why not call it "Board of Directors"? The word "overseer" still pretty much
only refers to the middle-managers of slave plantations.

~~~
tlb
It's common in academic institutions. [http://www.harvard.edu/board-
overseers](http://www.harvard.edu/board-overseers)

~~~
jnks
Fair. I like UC's "Board of Regents"
[http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/](http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/)

~~~
privong
At Univ of Virginia we have a "Board of Visitors"
[http://www.virginia.edu/bov/](http://www.virginia.edu/bov/) :)

------
minimaxir
Wait, Sam Altman is both the YC president and on the Board of Overseers. If
the board is responsible for both hiring/firing the president, how does that
work?

~~~
sofia_
There are 9 people, I guess they vote, but there could be a split board about
the President, hopefully that will not happen anytime soon.

~~~
larrys
Hard to imagine that PG doesn't have sway over what the board decides if he
should so desire. Obviously. But he can defer to the board in day to day and
use it to his advantage. (Remember Godfather 1 "Michael's in charge now".) So
playing the card will be a rare occurrence but possible.

------
orky56
Just curious if there is any visibly transparent process in place to
add/remove members to the Board of Overseers?

