Not a startup, but I was going to shut Go Report Card (http://goreportcard.com/) down because I didn't want to pay for it myself anymore, and I reached out to Digital Ocean and was given some credits to keep it running. Thanks.

+1 Thanks for commenting, and the offer too!

Many thanks for commenting, Andrew, and for the direction.

The underlying feeling remains – I feel DO ought to offer the terms of the YC deal to startups attached to other qualified incubators.

Whether that is practical or possible is a non-trivial discussion.

Nevertheless, I believe that outcome would feel fair, and it would right what feels wrong here.

(Incidentally, we are not at this time attached to any incubators.)

So just make the offer to all startups.

If your company employs less than three people then $X amount of service provided per month.

In some way these guys are "investing" in these YC companies' future, hoping that when they grow they will stick with DO. YC has good track record so it's relatively a good bet, whereas if they did it with any rando startup, they'll probably lose tons of money (statistically 99% of the startups die). Remember this is a company not a charity.

Really? If I want to discuss pricing, a sales guy is exactly who I want to talk to.

As a founder, I've got sales guys cold calling and emailing me all day long. They are usually new, and completely disconnected from the realities that a startup founder faces. They also generally lack the authority to make decisions, so the call always ends up as a waste of time.

Who do you want to talk to then? Unless you're a big customer, the founder or VP of the company selling to you is probably (understandably) too busy to talk to you. If they really want your business, the sales person will escalate it appropriately. If they don't want it bad enough ... they won't get it.

Don't wanna work for the company you're founding with that attitude

I don't recall asking you to do so.