And no, you don't pay taxes on a free trip. Please explain how that would ever happen. We book the flights, we pay for the food. Developers just show up. This isn't a lotto prize or a reimbursement scenario. To be frank, you don't know what you're talking about.

You just described the trip as free. According to the IRS website:

What is considered a gift? Any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money's worth) is not received in return.

Since you're classifying the trip as free (and other stuff as freebies), this means nothing is owed to you in return for the trip. There are other contingencies around whether this gets taxed, but it does at the very least counts towards an annual exclusion amount and it is, for taxable purposes, a gift. Frankly, you have obviously put very little research and planning into this and I am not sure how you expect your tone and response here to do anything other than discourage people from applying. You didn't even manage to get your terms finalized before posting this.

Again, we aren't comparing this to YC.

I know you aren't, but everyone who is applying would be. You're exchanging stuff of monetary value in exchange for equity in, despite whatever you want to call it, a business. It frankly sounds like you're interested in taking advantage of people who don't understand their own value or the value of what they create.

Maybe consider the fact that you can't maintain a non-confrontational discussion with a random person on the internet with your idea, and the fact that you are being downvoted all throughout the comments on this entry, and try to realize that you're coming across as a douchebag who is taking advantage of others with a really shitty deal that is just about as good as the idiots who post "looking for technical founder to make the next Facebook, no pay, offering 5% equity for 2000 hours of work".