Would YC fund a weird startup idea if its just in the idea stage but the founder has a good track record?
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#92Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#93Sam if you are a semi technical founder (you have coded before but not recently enough to build your product) and you have to get a cofounder but have the choice between one you know and will be able to climb mountains with but has the same dilemma vs a technical cofounder/employee. Who would you choose to go with? The one you can figure it out with or the one who can basically do it for you?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#94I've heard a lot about the areas you're most passionate about and YC has the famous list of markets, but what areas are you least excited about and why?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#95What are the biggest CEO lessons you learned from your roles at Loopt and YC?
It's easy to do a good job running an organization that's winning, and very hard to go a good job running an organization that isn't winning.
Takeway: if the company isn't doing well, figure out whatever short-term things you can do to get momentum. Ignore other management advice.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#96I wondered what your thoughts were on the apple / fbi situation ? How would you expect startups to act if they found themselves in a similar predicament?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#97Would YC consider subsidising child care costs for participating founders? At present, the infamously high cost of child care in the Bay Area makes YC out of reach for most founders with young children.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#98Favorite Beer? Why/not?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#99Mr. Altman, can you tell us about your morning routine?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#100Hi Sam, when I applied to YC a while back (2014 I think), I noticed that the video I posted was looked at once after 12am, and the landing page on my website was opened at something like 1am for 10 seconds. With the amount of applications you guys receive that seems inevitable, but it also seems that you would miss a lot of stuff if the reviewers are checking things well into the night. Have you made some progress on…
Many of us (myself included) go to a nice hideaway somewhere far from the bay area to read applications so we can concentrate. So I wouldn't pay much attention to the timestamp. That said, given the volume of applications we receive and the relatively small size of our partnership, we do have to spend a regrettably short amount of time on each application.