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There are a few YC technical founders who were fired by their non-tech co-founders for rather flimsy culture reasons. So far YC was pretty hands-off. What makes YC think it can be effective at managing researchers? Wouldn't that be much more a function of the YC director(s) of research than the program?
These people will actually be part of the YC organization.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bell Labs had an annual budget of over 3 billion since the 80s.
You are making a wrong correlation. Putting more money won't necessarily drive research forward. Most breakthrough researches and inventions were done with little money.
Helping YC startups succeed might not be the primary goal, but it's silly to say the project isn't also aimed to help YC startups. Having access to a top quality research team can absolutely help startups succeed, so this is either disingenuous or surprisingly unimaginative.
I like the idea of YC funding research. Bias free and politics free research can go a long way. A couple of questions though for @sama: 1. Where will the research be based? Is YC providing space to setup lab? 2. One of the problems I see with this is lack of fellow researches present on site making casual collaboration harder (compared to a research university campus). Have you thought of that? 3. Are you planning on…
2. Yes, eventually we'd like to have multiple groups in the same space just for this reason--I always think the interdisciplinary stuff is underrated.
3. Some of both, probably, but mostly we want to support people that the existing system does not support (e.g. people that are not yet famous)
There are a few YC technical founders who were fired by their non-tech co-founders for rather flimsy culture reasons. So far YC was pretty hands-off. What makes YC think it can be effective at managing researchers? Wouldn't that be much more a function of the YC director(s) of research than the program?
Is the reverse Zuckerberg a thing now? Can you share perhaps one example?
There are a few YC technical founders who were fired by their non-tech co-founders for rather flimsy culture reasons. So far YC was pretty hands-off. What makes YC think it can be effective at managing researchers? Wouldn't that be much more a function of the YC director(s) of research than the program?
I have seen some difficult divorces between founders (with various combinations of technical and non-technical), and although some might suggest that YC should arbitrate those disputes more proactively, I think their policy of being willing to talk things through but not vote their shares is the right balance for their relationship with the companies.
But YC's success at fostering a positive, supportive culture between companies makes me quite optimistic that they can create a great environment when it's their responsibility.
@sama - since you mention that startups aren't good at solving certain types of problems, is this something you've always believed, or is it a realisation through your work at YC?
Also was it inspired by the Shuttleworh Fundation in any way?