Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 559 posts

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#71

Post by akhilgupta82 »

sama wrote: post #55
akhilgupta82 wrote: post #35

Hi Sam, I was wondering how one can get involved in helping out at YC during the batches. Sort of a role where you can work and help out the companies with any questions / requests they have. Basically additional hands on deck for the YC partners.

One of the things that differentiates us from other programs is we don't have outsourced 'mentors'. The advice you get during YC is from the full-time partners and a small group of part-time partners. I think this is important to maintain--we give good advice largely because we think about advising startups all the time. Bringing people in and out to do it occasionally hasn't worked that well for us.

I appreciate the reply and why YC is structured as such! Thanks!

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#72

Post by sama »

superfx wrote: post #42

Couple questions regarding YCR: 1. Will the model be group-based where there's a head PI setting the research agenda for a group and researchers working under the PI? If so, what level of independence do you expect individual researchers within a group to have? I.e. is it more like the academic model with postdocs enjoying a fair degree of independence, or more akin to national labs where the research agenda is reaso…

1. Great question, we've spent a lot of time cycling on this. There will be a "PI" for each group, but the sort of PIs we will bring on will be people who will give large amounts of autonomy to their teams--ie, each group will have a goal, and everyone in that group will be directed to work towards that goal in whatever way they see fit. But given the quality of the PIs we are planning to bring on, if they think a particular direction is really unfruitful, it is likely worth considering.

2. Not very unless asked.

3. Whatever the researchers want.

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#73

Post by aakashnigam »

aakashnigam wrote: post #65

What would be the right time for an idea that involves some technical depth to apply to YC? In other words, hypothetically, if YC had existed during the 90s, at what stage should Google Guys have applied to YC (Between 1995-1998, A) when the idea struck (mid 1995) B) When it started crawling the web (around 1996), or C) when they bought the domain (1998). Thanks!

Some idea that is (a) technically complex enough to baffle most PhDs but (b) practical enough to constitute the core of an amazing demo.

An idea with technical depth, plus practical feasibility does provides an all-important barrier to entry, a shield against execution

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#74

Post by billconan »

sama wrote: post #21
billconan wrote: post #18

I'm currently on H1B, if we get accepted, will my working visa be a problem?

We will connect you to lawyers that can help, but it can be a real challenge unfortunately :(

sigh. I wish YC could become an umbrella company who can accept immigrants working on their startups on h1b under the name of YC employee.

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#75

Post by sama »

antognini wrote: post #67

Very broadly speaking, fundamental research can be divided into two categories: (1) developing techniques to accomplish some very difficult, but useful task; and (2) answering questions which are intrinsically interesting.* Research in fusion and developing self-driving cars are examples of the first category. Finding exoplanets and the Higgs boson are examples of the second. Will YC Research be funding research in b…

Honestly it will mostly be category 1 to start, but there is at least one category 2 project we want to pursue.

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#76

Post by cvinette »

Hi Sam, thanks for doing this!

Say you are working on a project that is really similar to another product that has been validated and successful in another part of the world. Would you see it as a good indicator, or does it mean nothing given the culture differences? What would be the best way to take advantage of that intel?

Thanks and have a good day!

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#77

Post by sama »

pavornyoh wrote: post #10

@Sama, So my question is about YC Research. You said in that earlier thread you will be hand picking the people. How exactly do you intend to do that if you don't me asking? Are you partnering with schools? Are they going to be recommended? Do you already have a database?

Mostly the algorithm was to ask very smart people "who are the top 3 smartest people you know in area X" and then go after the people whose names kept coming up.
Post reply on HN