Woah there, comment-space. Let's hold our rage-horses.
This looks like YC is playing host to the president of the United States, who happens to be a Democrat.
Edit: As Sam said, it's even less dramatic: They're not even hosting, they're just lending the space.
Plenty of apolitical institutions with space do the same thing. (Museums, botanical gardens, etc).
In another year they may do it again with a president who happens to be a Republican, or Lizardman, etc, etc.
While the tickets do amount to donations, I think it's an error to see this as an endorsement of anybody on YC's part. In a few years they could just as well do the same thing with the RNC and a different president.
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.
It 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?
YC 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.
I 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.
The "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.
It looks like a standard fundraiser for the Democratic Party. Notice how all the tickets are political contributions. That's completely different than an event the President attends, like a college graduation, etc.
This looks like YC is playing host to the president of the United States, who happens to be a Democrat.
Edit: As Sam said, it's even less dramatic: They're not even hosting, they're just lending the space.
Plenty of apolitical institutions with space do the same thing. (Museums, botanical gardens, etc).
In another year they may do it again with a president who happens to be a Republican, or Lizardman, etc, etc.
While the tickets do amount to donations, I think it's an error to see this as an endorsement of anybody on YC's part. In a few years they could just as well do the same thing with the RNC and a different president.