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I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

news.ycombinator.com

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161–170 of 559 posts

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

#161

Post by Jemaclus »

Two questions:

* Would you consider investing in a company that invents a toilet paper holder where the TP can only be inserted in the OVER position? This is a huge problem world-wide that should be solved immediately. The market is huge! B2B, B2C, you name it, there's toilet paper!

* All seriousness aside, do you have any advice for building an app that has no clear money-making potential? I've had this idea brewing for years, but no matter how much I think about, I have no idea how to monetize it.

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

#162

Post by FlyingLawnmower »

Hi Sam,

I'm a graduating college senior, and I've accepted a job at a very big company in the tech industry. Right now, it makes the most financial sense for me to join a big company and pay off my debt quickly, but at some point in the future I'd love to scratch that entrepreneurial itch and apply to YC.

How do I maximize my time at a big company to gain relevant skills to keep the possibility of a startup open in the future?

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

#163

Post by pcmaffey »

kohanz wrote: post #131

What is your take on the value proposition for an older, experienced engineer (e.g. 10+ years) joining a startup as an early employee (e.g. non-founder)? I get the sense from what I read and hear that there is romance and then there is reality. Would love to get an honest take from someone with your perspective.

To add to Sam's take, I'd say the real benefit of joining a startup is the opportunity to work closely on a problem that you care about. Do you want to expand your POV and learn new skills? Do you want a high-degree of personal responsibility for your work? Your role will change every 6 months, as the company's priorities do.

Compensation and relationship dynamics are crucial, of course, but your success and experience will be largely determined by how much you want to take ownership for your work.

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

#166

Post by mwpmaybe »

mindcrime wrote: post #121

1. Would / will you ever consider opening an East Coast branch? I understand all the "stuff" about why SV is great for startups, but there will always be people who can't /won't get up and travel completely to the other side of the country for an extended period of time. And while the EC might not be the startup hotbed that SV area is, it's quite clear that there is a LOT of startup activity and some great startups b…

Or in the midwest (Chicago)?

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

#167

Post by sama »

mindcrime wrote: post #121

1. Would / will you ever consider opening an East Coast branch? I understand all the "stuff" about why SV is great for startups, but there will always be people who can't /won't get up and travel completely to the other side of the country for an extended period of time. And while the EC might not be the startup hotbed that SV area is, it's quite clear that there is a LOT of startup activity and some great startups b…

1. Never say never, but no current plans (and honestly, it might make more sense to do something outside the US next). The hardest part would be convincing some of our partners to move out there, or finding new ones we could train out here first.

2. Not ready to talk about specific areas, but I promise they are interesting ones :)

It will be super super easy for our researchers to collaborate with outsider researchers because of our IP stance!

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

#168

Post by alexperezpaya »

Do you have anything against Spaniards?

I have seen lot of Spaniards applying to YC and they got rejected/ignored with awesome projects.

Do you even read all applications? Posted applications with all urls tracked and we saw 0 clicks... How can you judge our product without testing it? Did you even watched our pitch?

But in the other hand, I saw a lot of stupid companies backed by YC (Uber for X, Airbnb for X, Tinder for X, Y for X startups) I don't mind about it, it's your money, just asking for solid reasons.

This is going to blacklist me for YC but I don't care.

Kind regards, Alex.

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

#169

Post by dchichkov »

It seems like YC had done a great job on standartizing YC startup documents that protect both founders and investors from each other and promote cooperation. Are there any plans to do the same thing to standardize contracts for early employees?

(i.e. shouldn't early employess, investing their under-market salary/time receive the same conditions/protection of their investments as VCs?)

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

#170

Post by bakztfuture »

Hey Sam!

Just wanted to ask:

1) how does being a single founder eventually impact the dynamics of a company?

2) any heuristics for finding the one metric that matters to optimize on?

3) any tips for projects less iterative and more focused on a "complex coordination" modality

Thanks!

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