Setting the record straight (Seth Levine's response)

Since he says he was misrepresented in the USA Today article, I took out the paragraph that linked to it. That has the side effect of making this post mysterious, so in case anyone is confused, the deleted paragraph read:<p>"Usually people who say we're a bad deal, like Seth Levine in this article, simply don't understand what we do. If all we did was write checks, YC would be a bad deal. But in fact the money is the least of what we do. No VC who has seen Demo Day first hand has ever said YC took too much equity."

Especially upon re-reading the article, it looks to me as though the reporter (no doubt trying to present 'both sides of the story') began a paragraph with "But the limits of Y Combinator's model remain unclear" and then shoehorned in Seth Levine's comments without much regard to what he was really saying.

Being a huge sports fan, I am used to people apologizing after the fact and blaming the media for "misrepresentation" and taking their comments "out of context." However, I do applaud Seth Levine for at least addressing the issue. While the context of the comment in the USAToday article was addressed at YC, it did seem strange that Seth would blast the same model for which he contributes via TechStars. <p>I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, since to me it does seem reasonable that his comments were taken out of context.

Email interviews are boring, and worthless. Sorry folks, but if you don't want to be misrepresented, do a better job interviewing. What you THINK you said, and what you said are very different.