[staunch]

YC has said that Airbnb would have failed without their help. How could they not update their thinking? Being determined to succeed is necessary but insufficient. Every successful startup received a big helping hand early in its life. YC's business is to provide that opportunity to founders that otherwise wouldn't have it, such as Airbnb, which no other investor would back.

[ryanSrich]

What's more intriguing is how was YC able to see through what the other investors saw as an issue?

Even to this day I'm astonished that AirBnB exists and yet YC was able to see something in them years ago.

[HelloHN]

My understanding of the story was that YC was going to pass on Airbnb but then one of the cofounders mentioned the cereal box story and that changed PG's mind

[staunch]

YC also despised the idea, but invested because they liked the founders. But they also presumably liked the 600+ YC founders that failed, so you can see how much investors can really predict.

[T2_t2]

You mean at the series A? Their original idea was really different.