Let me explain why YC is coming out with this now.
In the wake of the Zenefits scandal (which is only just beginning) there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on Y Combinator and the entitlement culture (and, hence, the cheating culture) that tends to emerge from an old-boy-network.
They're trying to put a good foot forward and distance themselves from the culture that created Zenefits and (more importantly, in the long term) from the appearance that YC is just a bunch of companies buying each others services at high prices, like artists who'd buy each others paintings at high levels (to bolster each others' reputations) while secretly settling the bill.
I don't fault YC for doing so, and I doubt that they had any official, direct responsibility for the Zenefits fiasco (although I certainly don't buy that Mr. Conrad acted alone.) It's just useful to be able to read between the lines and see what's going on. Y Combinator's PR wing is definitely going to be active as long as Zenefits is in the news.
In the wake of the Zenefits scandal (which is only just beginning) there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on Y Combinator and the entitlement culture (and, hence, the cheating culture) that tends to emerge from an old-boy-network.
They're trying to put a good foot forward and distance themselves from the culture that created Zenefits and (more importantly, in the long term) from the appearance that YC is just a bunch of companies buying each others services at high prices, like artists who'd buy each others paintings at high levels (to bolster each others' reputations) while secretly settling the bill.
I don't fault YC for doing so, and I doubt that they had any official, direct responsibility for the Zenefits fiasco (although I certainly don't buy that Mr. Conrad acted alone.) It's just useful to be able to read between the lines and see what's going on. Y Combinator's PR wing is definitely going to be active as long as Zenefits is in the news.