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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

#161

Post by ConfuciusSay02 »

DKnoll wrote: post #151
Alupis wrote: post #112

> I'm on a H1-b visa and I'm basically in prison I know this is an exaggeration, and I'm fully aware the current visa situation in the US could be better, but I really take issue with the sentiment of your statement. You're being afforded an enormous opportunity here, and should not compare it with being in a prison. Think about it -- you clearly decided your home country was not as conducive for building your future…

Think about it -- you clearly decided your home country was not as conducive for building your future as the US may be Hi, as a Canadian, I also take issue with your statement. Your ancestors came here for the same reason as him, and with far less scrutiny, same as mine, and were provided many benefits not recieved today, including land grants. Why does a person migrating today deserve to be treated as second class?

Call it second class is different than comparing it to being in prison.

People in actual prison might take issue with your statement.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#163

Post by eganist »

Any plans for YC to get into seed rounds e.g. both to support startups with high potential as well as to potentially offer some of the benefits of YC connections to those who might've gone through another incubator?

(I know YC's policy on incubating startups which have already been through other incubators, which I believe if I recall correctly is a very data-driven "no." My question comes more from the standpoint of whether any YC benefits might be available to startups which already have some success but are still very much in the early stages)

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#165

Post by rachellaw »

sama wrote: post #51
rachellaw wrote: post #44

How much is the bias against startups that have been to other accelerators? What are the benchmarks for progress in those cases?

Small. In general, we just look for progress commensurate with resources. If you've raised more money and been working on the company for longer, we expect more progress than if you've just started.

thanks! We were wondering if it was worth applying.

We went from zero revenue to generating revenue after our old accelerator and was looking into YC to grow now that we had a solid, validated product-market fit.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#167

Post by sama »

spike021 wrote: post #145

Education-wise, are you able to describe the percentages of applicants with backgrounds coming from top schools versus lower-tier schools? Being in the Bay Area, I know that Stanford and UC Berkeley tend to have a decent amount of relatively successful launches/founders, but on the other hand I can't say I hear nearly as much about people who went to San Francisco State or San Jose State (or any other lower-tier scho…

We looked at our data here last year--we fund founders from a very wide variety of schools, and no school at all, but many of our most successful founders went to 'top schools' and thus it's easy to get the mistaken impression we select for that.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#168

Post by mattmaroon »

sama wrote: post #113
klunger wrote: post #97

Would 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.

We used to give founders $20k. Part of the reason we upped it to $120k is so that founders with higher personal expense structures could do the program. But we're an investor, not a company. It's important to us founders run their own companies and make their own decisions, and so we try not to build too much of our own infrastructure.

I've wondered about this for awhile. Obviously it's been a bit since I've been involved, but you guys have such scale now that solving some obvious problems for founders might be beneficial. Housing being the big one. It was merely annoying back in '07, but now I feel like it'd be a significant distraction and expense for anyone not from the bay area to find a place to live there. Maybe an official Y-scraper would make economic sense!

YC's done a lot to take the legal headache out of starting a company, raising funding, granting options, etc. I don't see how other things are philosophically any different.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#169

Post by sama »

eranation wrote: post #144

Hi Sam. Will you consider a batch in other US locations? (For example in Atlanta). It can increase the applicant base due to lower cost of living and will allow a different flavor of founders to apply in my opinion. I think the next billion $ enterprise startup will be more likely to come from such a batch. People who face enterprise software problems are not always in a stage in life that allows them to move to SF f…

The YC Fellowship funds companies anywhere! Kevin does remote office hours.

And yes, I think they're well-represented.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#170

Post by gist »

sama wrote: post #139
gmarx wrote: post #47

Did you really get scurvy when you were in YC?

I never got tested but I think so. I had extreme lethargy, sore legs, and bleeding gums that got a better in a few hours after having a bunch of orange juice.

Hah! Enjoy being able to drink orange juice while you are still young!
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