So, six months worth of rent is only $9600. I'd be hesitant to give up any amount of equity for such a small sum. YC gives small sums...but not that small, and, of course, YC gives a lot more than money.<p>Very clever marketing though, and seems like a pretty cool guy with an interesting background. But, I'll point out that it's not hard to find cool people with tech backgrounds to rent housing from here in the valley, if you opt to rent from individuals rather than big apartment mega-complexes. I ended up in a house owned by an early PayPal employee who now helps setup tech conferences; he's been very useful and pleasant to talk to.<p>Then again, there probably is something to be said for doing this in a made-to-flip company. Spend as little as possible, build as fast as possible, design your life around avoiding hassle during that period, make something great, make as many connections as you can, and get out rich. This would be pretty useful in such a case. A couple points in a company that you hope to sell for high hundreds of thousands or low millions wouldn't be a bad trade at all.
Here's some info on Freeman's profile: <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/freemanmurray" rel="nofollow">http://www.linkedin.com/in/freemanmurray</a>, you shouldn't be surprised he understands YC and the power of equity!
Equity is for life. It's a bum deal to trade equity in your company for a small amount of cash, unless whoever you're selling to is a real value-add investor or advisor who can contribute more than money for the LIFE of your company, not 6 months of petty cash.