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Well, it raises the question of whether it's legitimate to ask applicants to list the equity stakes in the first place.

Seems like YC is asking people to hold to that structure when it is in their interests, but ignore it when it is not.

To be clear, don't think this is terrible. Just, if you are going to claim the split means nothing, then why force applicants to create one in the first place?

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It's an application, not a legal document for creating a legal entity. They're asking the question because it's valuable to them as an indicator. If you have two do-nothings that own 90% and a PhD researcher who's the brains of the operation who owns 10%, that would be a red flag. Additionally it's important because there's a minimum equity stake required to join them in CA and they don't want you making it up after the fact.

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