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Here's a question to PG:

I can imagine many reasons, but I'd be interested to hear from you why you chose to share these numbers at this time?

Possibly prompted by PG's interview with Charlie Rose last week on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt.

I was present, and a two things were clear from the interview:

1. Charlie Rose had a few wildly incorrect assumptions about YC. (e.g. "so, to date, you've invested, what, $100M?")

2. Paul Graham had not given a lot of thought to aggregate numbers. When asked, he about total the total value of the YC portfolio, he could only guess.

Edit: interview link http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14928956

Yes, the interview I mention in the first sentence of the post was the Charlie Rose interview. When he asked how we were doing, I quoted some numbers based on a back of the envelope calculation that turned out to be way off (an underestimate, fortunately).

BTW, I found that interview very enlightening.

I hadn't realized how nice you are. Your real-life persona completely contradicts the caricature I had developed in my mind after years of reading your essays.

I was expecting Vulcan (hyper-smart, non-sentimental), but instead got Camp Counselor (humble, encouraging).

You should do more on-stage stuff.

Seeming Vulcan is probably an artifact of conciseness.

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