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Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

We've thought of it. Unfortunately insurance cos don't have any provision for investors wanting to do this. They'd only talk to us if we made all the founders YC employees, which would mess up things for future investors, acquirers, etc.

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My employer offers health insurance and other benefits through Administaff, a company that specializes in HR outsourcing. Perhaps if YC arranged for Administaff to handle all of the companies it invested in, it could get some kind of volume discount.

I've worked for a company that used Administaff too, and it would work out well for a company that needs HR outsourcing. But how many YC startups need HR, much less need to outsource it? We're talking about companies with essentially no payroll, which is the first function of HR that you outsource.

And YC contracting to have Administaff carry founders as W-2 workers has many of the same problems as making the founders straight-up YC employees.

It is a benefit that YC being a fairly large entity, can provide to their founders to reduce some of the stress and worry.

What about employees who own their business - would that still mess things up for them vis-a-vis VCs?

YC would be a loose umbrella of organizations.

Will the Massachusetts health-insurance mandate have an impact on SFP '08 founders? If they're considered MA residents, as individuals they're going to have to get health insurance or pay a monthly fine. That maybe wouldn't a big deal financially, but it'd be yet another procedural pain to deal with.

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