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I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

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

#541

Post by berpasan »

csentropy wrote: post #316
berpasan wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find something you can offer then and help them with... And be a hustler.

That's what I intended to ask, my question wasn't clear. Is there a way someone could contribute to the YC community as an outsider? Ideas welcome.

Look at what specific YC companies do, so you can infer what they might need... Lots of founders have blogs, Twitter, etc, and will speak their minds up out there. If you think you can create your own startup, you probably can do something of value to another, specially early stage ones... It can be as simple being an user of one of their products and offering feedback. I personally looked at YC company lists, saw ones that were on a similar space as mine, and, since I am from another country (Brazil), offered help. I ended up knowing a couple of YC founders that way.

Just remember to give first and always be nice... Startup founders usually have their hands full, won't always be able to help or even reply to you. And be resonable, don't think Drew Houston will become your best friend and take a bullet for you just because you sent him an email saying you like Dropbox...

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

#542

Post by berpasan »

mindcrime wrote: post #232
berpasan wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 experi…

If nothing else, it acts as a filter of "will power" and dedication for the selected startups... I keep hearing that, and I have never agreed with that sentiment and doubt I ever will. There are lots of good reasons for people to not want to go to SV for 3 months that in no way reflect on their commitment / will.

There is always a way... I have a wife, 4 dogs and a 60 employee company to take care of, in another continent, and would definitely take the opportunity without blinking...

The fact is: if you want to be on the world's best startup acelerator, you need to live 3 months in SV. Mostly because they can reproduce the experience anywhere else. But they a flexible in all possible ways... (your company can be based anywhere)

More severe commitments are required if you want to excel in other areas as well: if you want to play on the best soccer teams in the world you need to move to Europe; If you want to be a top actor you need to go to LA; If you want to be an MIT Engineer you need to live 5 years there; If you want to be the world's best tango dancer you need to move to Argentina...

But I'm sure that, wherever you are, there must be decent enough startup accelerators nearby. (There are a bunch in my country even).

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

#543

Post by berpasan »

waliurjs wrote: post #532

Can a 'yc interview invitation' be used in the embassy the same way a regular 'visa invitation from a relative living in US' to get a B1 visa?

I would get the Visa right away. I got a B1/B2 (tourism and business). I just showed my application form and the interview dates and it was enough. At least here (Brazil) the hole US VISA process takes much longer than the 2 weeks of head start YC gives the founders it invites to the interviews.

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

#544

Post by berpasan »

rrrichter wrote: post #437

As a CS student from Brazil, what opportunities do you think Brazil has in terms of startups that is different from silicon valley and which methods that work there would work here as well??

I'm not Sam, but I'm a Brazilian enterpreneur. The bad side of Brazil, compared to SV, is we have way less capital available to fund startups, specially earlier and more innovative ones. Our government doesn't help either, definitely way harder to be an Enterpreneur here (not only for startups, the same is true for small businesses as well). The good part is you don't have as much competition when doing a product that targets the local market. And there are much more unsolved problems and needs to be tackled here.

I believe most of YC's advice is universal and fits Brazil's startups well. Some are even more important here: try to make money from day one and spend as little as you can - you can't count on investors money here, no matter how good your KPIs are.

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

#546

Post by dome82 »

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…

About point 1.: What about Nordic countries like Norway or Sweden? :) About point 2.: Hope it is something related to genomics, renewable energies and cancer research

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

#548

Post by pforpineapple »

pforpineapple wrote: post #271

My startup is based in Paris, and it would be logistically tedious to move to SF (remote management, current customers ...) YC and the Bay area would be an immense deal to us : => Regardless of the product I'm building : Are the advantages of moving to SF enough to balance the immediate difficulties of leaving ? PS: We are building an AI (currently for students) that plugs into messaging apps. 150k messages exchanged…

Thank you Arthur, I will get in touch

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

#549

Post by rohit_goyal »

sama wrote: post #19
berpasan wrote: post #7

Hi @sama, I'm From Brazil and CEO of an EdTech startup. We're profitable, with 60 employees and a lot consumer traction/revenue, but didn't raise a Series A yet. Questions: 1) What advice would you give to applicants from Brazil and other large countries (India, China, Russia), whose products initially target their local markets? 2) What advice would you give to post-Seed and pre-Series A applicants? When (if at all)…

1) No specific advice--we fund lots of companies whose products target far-away markets and are particularly interested in doing so. The only different question we might ask you is "How will you handle being away from your users for 3 months?" 2) We have funded companies that have raised more than $10 million, and they've said they still got a lot of value out of YC. If anything, it's usually the existing investors t…

When are you visiting India? Which cities would you be visiting. I strongly recommend visiting Powai Valley(Mumbai). It is a very small area highly dense with great startups. The ecosystem is insane here as almost 90% of the start up are founded by IIT-Bombay alums (I am also one) which is just 2 km away from the area. Many people from SV who visited here have said this is better than SV in terms of eco-system.

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

#550

Post by trcollinson »

gull wrote: post #526
sama wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> why not charge on day 1? Some of the most successful companies, like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, didn't charge on day 1.

This is a pretty common fallacy of an argument.

Some of the most successful companies, like HP, Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe, changed on day 1.

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