There are two different business scenarios and I doubt PG has changed his views radically (and if he has, it's secret sauce anyway).
The question to which PG responded [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3893783] was along the lines of "Why not open up YC to crowd funding?" The answer was that there nothing for YC to gain by encouraging a rabble of investors jump into YC's pudding. In other words, PG believed that accepting crowd funding would be a distraction to YC companies (and implicitly therefore lower the value of YC's investment).
On the other hand, funding a startup through YC which makes money by providing services to people who think crowdfunding is a great idea (and perhaps solving some of the problems along the way), may be a profitable investment for YC.
In other words, PG didn't advocate crowdfunding as a better source of capital than the sources of capital YC has been using for YC companies . However, this does not mean that crowdfunding services are not a potentially sound investment for YC's partners.
Comments
There are two different business scenarios and I doubt PG has changed his views radically (and if he has, it's secret sauce anyway).
The question to which PG responded [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3893783] was along the lines of "Why not open up YC to crowd funding?" The answer was that there nothing for YC to gain by encouraging a rabble of investors jump into YC's pudding. In other words, PG believed that accepting crowd funding would be a distraction to YC companies (and implicitly therefore lower the value of YC's investment).
On the other hand, funding a startup through YC which makes money by providing services to people who think crowdfunding is a great idea (and perhaps solving some of the problems along the way), may be a profitable investment for YC.
In other words, PG didn't advocate crowdfunding as a better source of capital than the sources of capital YC has been using for YC companies . However, this does not mean that crowdfunding services are not a potentially sound investment for YC's partners.