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If YC partners are on the board as YC rather than as individuals, then YC as a whole has a Duty of Loyalty to that company and could not sit the other board or invest as a Major Investor. There are scenarios though where the individual at YC is on a board as themselves, and YC invests in another company where unrelated group partners are the ones working on the investment and that is fine.

Disclosure: not a lawyer, YC is a Major Investor in my startup.

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> unrelated group partners

That is simple and neat solution. After all, there are ~89 people to choose from. Thank you for your reply.

ycombinator.com/people lists 66 employees, 14 group partners, 5 visiting group partners and 4 founders.

Yes. Also, keep in mind, YC investing as a fund without taking a board seat has no Duty of Loyalty at all, they could fund every company in an industry and so long as the founders were cool with it there's no issue. So it specifically relates to board seats, which investors and YC tend to be prudent about.

This was exactly the reason for my confusion. I mistook angel investment with board membership.

Bootstrapped founder here, hence the mistake.

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