Edit: I Googled it and it was Michael Siebel that helped them get into YC. You can debate what "walked in" means but I think it's safe to say the story of Airbnb getting into YC is one of Winning Friends and Influencing People rather than any brilliant ideas or work they did on their actual startup, which is precisely what the blog post is saying. Edit2: just saw on Twitter that @paulg posted the email that got Airbnb an interview. It's hard to imagine a stronger attempt at walking them in than they received. They got very special treatment from friends with connections. mobile.twitter.com/paulg/status/1337011…

Right. Initial pitch to PG is that it is “basically couchsurfing.com for money.” twitter.com/paulg/status/13370116192688…

But.. they didn't apply like everybody else. pg made an /apply2 endpoint specifically for them: twitter.com/paulg/status/13370116192688… I doubt they were given special treatment afterwards. Their interview probably went like everyone else's. But how can it be true that there was no special treatment beforehand, when it was a special /apply2 endpoint? Of course talented-but-disadvantaged people have a shot. None of this is to say that they don't, and no one implied that special connections were a requirement. I know how hard YC works not to overlook those. My position is that there's nothing wrong with it being a special exception. Instacart seemed to be, too. But that's different than saying there was no exception.