Turning Down Money on Principle

So our first fund was. Ended up being 1.2 million. And I mean, it was so hard earned. You know, it was brick by brick by brick. And we needed that last bit of it to close it out because we had companies in queue that we had chosen as 2% of what we had seen. So we really needed it just to keep going, too. And so this company, this person who is very wealthy came in. Their people got in touch with me and said, you know, we're interested in doing this. They want to be anonymous publicly. So you wouldn't say who it was, this, this and that. So I knew who it was. And the stuff started happening with Trump getting, you know, getting he was going to be the nominee and he was the nominee and he was going to do all this. And then these tapes come out of him saying things about grabbing women and sexual assault, him admitting to that. And the same kind of time period Peter was a partner at or like a visiting partner at Y Combinator. Now, I just told you earlier that Sam Altman is a friend of mine and helped me before. That did not stop the fact that I felt it was wrong for. For Peter to still be there and enjoy that, that privilege of being there. So I called that out on Twitter. I said, I'm no longer going to be sending companies that way. They. I'm not stopping them from going there. Not saying you're bad if you go there. I personally will not continue to send the deal flow that I have been helping YC with until he's gone. That was just my personal decision. And when I said that out loud, it became this whole thing. It was picked up in all of these, at all this press. And Sam got in touch with me and Michael got in touch with me. It was this whole thing. And at the same time, I was like, wait a minute, I know that this other person is so, like, entrenched in that Peter Till world. Let's just see what they're saying online about it. Like, doesn't mean that they're a bad person because Sam's not a bad person. Right. And they're good friends. Let's just see what they're saying. And I go over to their social media and they are just defending Thill. I should say that Till, I'm sorry, I forgot to make the connection. He, during that same time, announced, or it was announced, that he put another million dollars behind Trump. Now, if. Let me tell you this, if Thill had run for president himself on like a conservative or libertarian or conservative ticket, I wouldn't have agreed with him for a moment, but I would have respected the hell out of him. What I did not respect was him saying, you know what? He's saying this about people of color. He's saying this about, like, very specifically about Mexican people. He's saying this about immigrants. He's saying this about women. He's done these things to women. Some of it he's admitted to. Some of it he's been accused of. That's horrible. He's also doing all these things that are going to affect us. It's not like we're talking about freedom of speech to, you know, say what you want to say on fox. We're talking about someone who could become the president, and you're speaking with your dollars that you want this in office. And I said, how could I, in good faith say this thing on Twitter about not sending people and really almost losing a friendship with Sam and then go behind anonymously and take the money? I just felt like I couldn't live with myself. No one would have ever known, but I would have known. And it just didn't make any sense to me. So I said, yeah. So I said to the. To the. To the people that were vetting it, I said, you know, this is a really hard decision, and I thank them for doing this and that. The thing was, it was actually half a million because they were going to have someone else in their portfolio come in as well. I said, I just can't take the money.