[pc]

I already spend a lot of time talking to early stage startups (it's really important that we understand them well); this seemed like a good way to formalize that in a way that helps them too.

(That is, my hope is that this is good for Stripe, for YC, and for the startups.)

In general, I'm very leery of distracting time commitments, and I don't sit on any boards or anything like that. I think this is a (pretty rare) example of one that makes sense for all parties.

[far33d]

Good point - I hadn't thought about how early stage startups are your customers.