I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA • Hacker News Board

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

#191

Post by jannotti » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:00 PM UTC

alexperezpaya wrote: post #168

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…

If your application came across at all like your post, it's pretty clear why it wasn't strongly considered.

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

#192

Post by berpasan » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

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…

I'm from Brazil, my startup has 60 employees, and I would gladly stay in SV for 3 months if approved... If nothing else, it acts as a filter of "will power" and dedication for the selected startups... They give you the money and they are flexible (I've read a story of a guy who took the red eye flight every week to attend dinners because he couldn't stay away from his company all week).

It's also a much richer experience for the startups. If you want to be a top of the class founder, you better visit the "startup founder meca" to learn from the best... If they opened a branch in São Paulo, I wouldn't care to attend...

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

#193

Post by sama » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

robotnoises wrote: post #158

Hi Sam, In your opinion, what is the greatest impediment to getting better software into government. Second, is there a market opportunity in alleviating this/these impediments?

Selling to government is just very slow, and the NIH problems are often intense.

I do think it's getting much better though. We've become very interested in startups producing software for government.

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

#194

Post by sama » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

pcmaffey wrote: post #190

With YC's network growing bigger and bigger, how do you keep alumni involved and engaged so you don't lose/dilute the benefits of that network? (arguably the best thing about YC...)

This seems to be getting better not worse...

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

#195

Post by sama » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:02 PM UTC

lhfaria wrote: post #178

Hi 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?

Every batch, we fund some people with just an idea. And lots and lots of people with just a prototype. The bar is higher but it's clearly possible.

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

#196

Post by powera » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:02 PM UTC

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 - I'm a person living in San Francisco who would only be interested in doing Y Combinator if it was in any location other than the Bay Area.

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

#197

Post by giis » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

sama wrote: post #181

giis wrote: post #177

Considering 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?

I'm coming to visit soon! We fund more and more Indian companies (they come here for 3 months and then go back to India).

nice! please do visit the 'Silicon Valley of India', Bangalore.

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

#198

Post by karlosferra » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

sama wrote: post #167

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 researcher…

I agree with 1. Especially in countries that don't have anything like this available.

I can speak from Cuba, since I am originally from there. Cuba has been closed for 50 years to America, but that is changing now. There are really smart people, that just don't have the necessary access to capital or good advice.

Creating a branch of YC there would have a tremendous impact for local economy and people in addition of being a great business venture in a market that has been closed for half a century and is finally open. It's also worth mentioning that given the current economic situation, funding a startup in Cuba would only take a small fraction of what it takes to fund it in the US, with a lot of potential ROI since almost every industry can be disrupted significantly.

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

#199

Post by anonymous1212 » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:04 PM UTC

I am a solo founder with strong technical and design chops. I am a high-level thinker, and I spend much of my time with big picture problems, establishing the vision, and figuring out a practical plan to get there from where we are now. But I can also execute on that vision, and build the entire system end-to-end. And I have an abnormally high level of standard. I strongly believe in quality software that just works.

I am torn about submitting an application. I have a list of 20+ customers waiting for the first beta release and who are actively asking about progress (and willing to post payment!) The idea and particular niche market has been churning in my mind for several years, and over the past 18 months, the vision has materialized into a real product. Market trends are pointing upwards, it is ripe for disruption and could be a winner takes all game.

I am weeks away from private-beta depending on my productivity (this has been a side project). I have a wife, 7 month old daughter, and a cushy full-time salary with little work demands. I have been in two long-term employer relationships (4 and 5 years) and at each made huge impacts on molding the product, despite not being hired for that. But I am bored and want the freedom and flexibility to work on my own ideas. But one thing I have always lacked is a talent network. Is this something being accepted into HN would help with? I honestly get the feeling that most applicants are searching for direction and help with flushing things out, things that I am already confident in. What do you make of a solo guy like me, with a solid product that is almost ready for market? I'm a proud guy, and there is that part of me that wants to just continue being a Lone Wolf.

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

#200

Post by dchichkov » Fri, Oct 09, 2015, 5:04 PM UTC

sama wrote: post #174

dchichkov wrote: post #169

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?)

For stock compensation, yes!

Thanks for the answer! I'm glad that YC is paying attention to that area.

I hope that any under-the-market-salary investments from employees would start getting the same treatment as any other investors money (e.g. dilution cap, not vesting cliff).