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Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

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Re: Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

#2

Post by pen2l »

Sam: Any reason why you couldn't set your phone down in a stable position, or just tell someone to hold it steadily for you?

edit: I don't mean it in a mean way, just curious.

Re: Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

#3

Post by pen2l »

> We don't have a PR firm. I do think YC paid for an ad once in 2006 in the Stanford college newspaper, but we don't really do marketing. The thing we rely on most of all is founders we fund telling other people about our program.

Really? That answer seems somewhat misleading, I don't know if intentionally. YC's biggest place to advertise is HN. In fact, look below right now -- 'Apply to YC'. In addition to reminders of when the applications are due showing up in frontpage, etc.

Re: Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

#4

Post by firloop »

pen2l wrote: post #3

> We don't have a PR firm. I do think YC paid for an ad once in 2006 in the Stanford college newspaper, but we don't really do marketing. The thing we rely on most of all is founders we fund telling other people about our program. Really? That answer seems somewhat misleading, I don't know if intentionally. YC's biggest place to advertise is HN. In fact, look below right now -- 'Apply to YC'. In addition to reminders…

Exactly. Y Combinator's marketing appears to be Hacker News, Startup School, the Female Founders Conference, Open Office Hours, and touring colleges -- essentially everything YC does more or less for "free" that serve to promote its main programs.

Re: Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

#5

Post by holyjaw »

pen2l wrote: post #3

> We don't have a PR firm. I do think YC paid for an ad once in 2006 in the Stanford college newspaper, but we don't really do marketing. The thing we rely on most of all is founders we fund telling other people about our program. Really? That answer seems somewhat misleading, I don't know if intentionally. YC's biggest place to advertise is HN. In fact, look below right now -- 'Apply to YC'. In addition to reminders…

Putting a link to your product on your own non-commercial website isn't paid advertising though, and it's certainly not proof-positive of a PR firm.

Re: Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

#8

Post by pavornyoh »

pen2l wrote: post #3

> We don't have a PR firm. I do think YC paid for an ad once in 2006 in the Stanford college newspaper, but we don't really do marketing. The thing we rely on most of all is founders we fund telling other people about our program. Really? That answer seems somewhat misleading, I don't know if intentionally. YC's biggest place to advertise is HN. In fact, look below right now -- 'Apply to YC'. In addition to reminders…

>Really? That answer seems somewhat misleading, I don't know if intentionally. YC's biggest place to advertise is HN. In fact, look below right now -- 'Apply to YC'. In addition to reminders of when the applications are due showing up in frontpage, etc.

That answer is not misleading IMHO. Apart from their own website such as this, they don't market through other venues such as radio, tv etc.. Never heard of YC until I was doing research through the web and found hacker news.

Re: Sam Altman's Twitter AMA

#9

Post by seiji »

firloop wrote: post #4
pen2l wrote: post #3

> We don't have a PR firm. I do think YC paid for an ad once in 2006 in the Stanford college newspaper, but we don't really do marketing. The thing we rely on most of all is founders we fund telling other people about our program. Really? That answer seems somewhat misleading, I don't know if intentionally. YC's biggest place to advertise is HN. In fact, look below right now -- 'Apply to YC'. In addition to reminders…

Exactly. Y Combinator's marketing appears to be Hacker News, Startup School, the Female Founders Conference, Open Office Hours, and touring colleges -- essentially everything YC does more or less for "free" that serve to promote its main programs.

Well, YC was bootstrapped (marketing-wise) by the goodwill of pg's personal website too. That had plenty of same-minded exposure in the beginning.

Ten years later, people now see YC as "we can give you a better future/make you rich/famous/etc if you work hard and receive our magic touch."

It's a very word-of-mouth spreading meme. "This company makes you rich, be one of us, shub shub."

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