They've been posting this job for several months in monthly "Who's hiring" thread (here's one from 227 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12628215)
I can't imagine that they're hiring 100s of people.
I also assume that people do apply because it's YC.
And yet, the position goes unfilled for months.
Either they have extremely unrealistic standards (a dna-spliced cross-breed of Carmack and Torvalds with business acumen of Steve Jobs) or there's something extremely unappealing about this job (after all it does seem like building CRUD apps in rails; you get to rub shoulders with Greatness Of Other People but there's curious absence of "competitive salary", or any salary, in the job description).
For example, the YC startup school MOOC was built by one engineer in 2 months. It's now had a major effect on over 10,000 companies who participated. That's pretty cool.
> We [...] don't hire people who want to work remotely.
Boo. Hiss.
Hmm. Is this seen (internally) as a problem that needs fixing?
> We offer standard startup benefits, including equity in YC. As a member of YC, you'll also have opportunities to get to know a lot of the best people in the startup world.
But no mention of a salary. In this particular case I'll make an exception to the rule that you should value your stock at $0.
To quote Paul Graham himself (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13784):
"Ordinarily a startup should be a C corp. It's cheaper to be an LLC, but if you plan to succeed, you may as well do things right from the start.
With an LLC profits don't get taxed twice like in a regular corporation. So it makes sense to be an LLC if you expect to have substantial profits, but don't expect to grant options, sell shares, or get bought. Consulting firms and law partnerships are often LLCs. YC is an LLC."
So the shares in YC are worth $0.
Hell, I work for a publicly traded company and have an "ok" RSU grant for which I value the unvested shares at $0.
Did they ask how much the job pays before signing on the dotted line or did they took the job, damn the ability to pay rent.
Or is it faux pas only if it's a lowly coding monkey dares to ask to be properly compensated by a successful (I assume) corporation (Y Combinator, LLC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Combinator_(company)) ?
The software team is too new (only about 2 years old) for people to have left to start YC companies yet, but I'm sure it will happen.
