[sjtgraham]

Docs were finished, a "closing dinner" was had, a handshake was made on the deal, and then AirBnb backed out. If an investor pulled that on a YC company I'm sure they would be blackballed rather quickly.

[harryjo]

AirBnB has never been one to follow the rules, from the earliest days of Craigslist spamming and flouting lease agreements and hotel regulations.

You don't do handshake deals with people whose fundamental business model is "cutting corners wherever you can sneak away with it"

[philwelch]

One thing we can all learn from AirBnB: if any group of people you hire for any reason, even on a contract basis, do one bad thing on the Internet one time, haters on the Internet will never let you live it down. Hire carefully.

[j_s]

Yes, because no one ever passes the buck entirely. I believe this accountability is a good thing; see for example this discussion:

This is how Visa works https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4396414 (900+ points 3 years ago)

[HappyTypist]

To be fair, you'll also need to consider if there is a power imbalance with the company and the investor. Co-founder are the "smaller guys" here.

[andrewstuart]

You could equally say:

"Docs were finished, a "closing dinner" was had, a handshake was made on the deal, and then the investor didn't sign"

[mentat]

And we would be just as critical of that investor.

[carrotleads]

Are we.. I am not so sure..