Hi @sama, you've been outspoken about the potential long term side effects of prolonged 0% interest rates. What do you think will be the worst side effect? Do you have any general advice for individuals to avoid the bad effects?
I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
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Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#172Two 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…
All good investors know it goes under, thats where the market is.
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#173Looking at who you accept now and some of YCs biggest hits, its seeming like your earlier investments (Dropbox, airbnb) probably wouldn't make it through today's YC filter. Do you guys think this is an issue, if so how are you working to correct it?
Disagree. No one at YC could interview the Airbnb guys and not fund them. I didn't know Drew back then but I expect it would have been the same thing for him.
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#174It 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?)
For stock compensation, yes!
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#175@sama I am about to launch a beta version of a service I find very useful in the food industry. I have spoken to a decent number of people during my customer development phase and everyone is excited about the service. However, I have not thought a lot about monetizing it. Right now I am just bootstrapping it and will release it as a free service. What is your take on free services and monetizing them?
It's ok as long as you have a plan to make money eventually (i.e. http://blog.samaltman.com/unit-economics ) However, why not charge on day 1? It sounds like something people should pay for. And charging always makes it clear if people really like your service or not.
@sama thanks, I will have to give it some thought as to how to monetize it.
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#176Hi Sam, the YC Research announcement got me very excited, particularly as someone who experiences the pain points you described first hand on a daily basis. First question, would YC Research be limited to the US or would you consider other countries (e.g. Canada in my case)? Also, would you ever consider partnering with existing Public/Government institutions? There are lots of very good people already working on som…
Limited to the US for now but maybe not forever. Someone in Canada should start something similar!
Yes, very happy to collaborate with outside orgs.
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#177Considering the fact that we are more than 1-billion people with booming economy (some redtapes are there but..), do you have plans for purely India (/subcontinent) specific programmes in near future?
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#178Hi Sam, I read a post of you guys saying that a lot of founders think they're too early to apply to YC. That's my case. We're just in our first thousands of dollars in revenue, and honestly when I think of YC - no matter how much confident we are with our business - I believe we don't really stand a change against other applicants. Any specific advice/thoughts on this?
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#179Hi 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 t…
The best things you can do there are meet great potential cofounders, and get better at writing software.
Also don't get sucked into living an expensive lifestyle when you get that high-paying job--this has killed many people's once-promising futures.
Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
#180I was excited about the research announcement! I've been thinking about this for a while: - small companies rarely fund university research - the grant application process is complex - grad students get paid so little compared to tech workers - hiring a PhD student before they finish means abandoning their research Do you think universities and research can be changed to get more companies funding research? I can ima…
Maybe, but I'm not sure small companies are the best funders for this. One of the nicest surprises about the YCR announcement was how many very rich people and large organizations reached out saying they wanted to give money. It seems there is a lot of potential energy here that's been looking for something to do.
That's awesome.
They want to give money outside any specific research initiative? That YC brand is strong!