Billionaire founder of Y Combinator shamed for haggling with 7-year-olds at charity bake sale: ‘Change for ?5’

Billionaire entrepreneur Paul Graham has come under fire for ‘haggling’ with a couple of children at a school bake sale. Graham, whose net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion, asked 7-year-olds to return change for 5 pounds at the charity bake sale, drawing the internet’s ire.

Graham posted about the incident himself on the social media platform X, where his post was met with disbelief and disdain.

Paul Graham’s post

Paul Graham is the founder of Y Combinator, one of the most influential startup accelerators in the world. Before founding Y Combinator in 2005, he co-founded Viaweb, one of the first web-based applications, which was later acquired by Yahoo for $49 million in 1998.

The English-American computer scientist was born in the UK and raised in the United States. Since 2016, however, he and his family have been living in England.

Given his successful career as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, his X followers were surprised to learn that he asked for change for ?5, and that too at a charity bake sale organised by schoolkids.

In his X post, Graham said he bought baked goods at the sale and asked the 7-year-old sellers to return his change. When they refused, he pointed to their “tub of coins” and was told that the change could not be returned as the money was for charity.

“At the school bake sale I bought a baked good of indeterminate type from a pair of 7 year olds. I asked if they could give me change for ?5. They said they couldn't. I pointed to their tub of coins, but they said they couldn't give me any of that, because it was for charity,” Graham posted on X on January 25.

Backlash over bake sale haggling

His post has gone viral with over 7.6 lakh views and a ton of critical reactions. Despite the high number of views, the post only received around 2,000 ‘likes’.

“If I were a billionaire I bet one of the ways I would enjoy that is never asking children for change,” wrote one X user in his criticism of Paul Graham.

“He’s a billionaire and he asked for change at the school bake sale,” another wrote in disbelief.

Some people were less shocked by Graham asking for change at a school bake sale than by his decision to share the incident publicly on social media for the world to see.

“If I were a literal billionaire who had haggled with 7 year olds at a bake sale over a couple bucks, you couldn’t waterboard that information out of me. Do tech guys just not have any shame?” a user asked.

“Billionaire denied change for ?5 at kids’ charity bake sale; whines to world of the injustice,” another added.