[tptacek]

Yes, but I had the same thought; along the lines of "does YC really have to do a dinner where someone comes in and tell the batch's founders not to try to make examples of customers/users that are annoying them, because they will look ridiculous at best and, as in cases like this, actively malignant at worst"? Is that really a lesson YC needs to teach?

[DanBC]

It doesn't need to be a dinner, but a nice blog post would possibly help. It's not as if this is the first boneheaded response from a YC funded company, and it's YC's name that gets linked to this sub-optimal behaviour.

That "break the rules" post got around. Maybe there needs to be a "but don't be a massive jerk to ex customers" follow up post.

[tedunangst]

I thought there was already a "no asshole" rule? But maybe it's one of the rules you're supposed to break.

[krapp]

At the very least, I would expect Y Combinator to try to invest in founders who don't need to be told that.

[tptacek]

People have crazy unrealistic expectations of YC in this regard. They invest in 30-40 teams per batch, based on an application and a very short interview. That's a good thing for founders, and whatever else you might think of them, YC is the probably the most founder-positive force in the entire technology industry.

They're investors, not chaperons.