I believe the same offering as 2005 from YC is still fair. There is no magical formula to weigh the mentoring and quality of advice received with equity. The track record of YC companies however is a clear metric to judge this proposition as being fair. With so many more years of experience nurturing startups, the value proposition of YC’s mentoring and the alumni community seems clearly much higher than it was in 2005. So the deal doesn’t get worse each year as the article states, but gets better and justifies keeping the same offer as 2005.