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I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

news.ycombinator.com

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

#241

Post by sama »

mettamage wrote: post #230

Is it possible to apply with no idea? Assuming that the applicants are able to demonstrate: - they can build stuff - they're a good team fit (e.g. showing a small project from the past) - they can generate ideas which they're passionate about If not: do you have a tip for improving these nearly graduated* university applicants? * 80 hours of course work left

Wait until you have an idea.

We once tried funding companies with no idea. It didn't work. I'm not totally sure why. Perhaps the time pressure of YC is bad for coming up with a really good idea (the best ideas often start out seeming bad). Perhaps the best founders always have ideas.

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

#242

Post by [deleted] »

mettamage wrote: post #230

Is it possible to apply with no idea? Assuming that the applicants are able to demonstrate: - they can build stuff - they're a good team fit (e.g. showing a small project from the past) - they can generate ideas which they're passionate about If not: do you have a tip for improving these nearly graduated* university applicants? * 80 hours of course work left

[deleted]

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

#246

Post by dang »

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…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11314923 and marked it off-topic.

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

#248

Post by nbadg »

Hi Sam. Two questions:

1. I'm a little in the dark about what happens to applications that have already been seen (because they were submitted early) that are then edited pre-deadline. I've been putting off submission because I'm very close to having an MVP demo video, which I think would be strongly to my advantage to include, but I also know that early submissions face a strong advantage as well. Do you have any advice on the balance between the two, specific to the YC application process? Would it make sense to submit now and edit in the demo later?

2. Are you aware of any publicly available resources for founders to do their due-diligence on investors? I've met a couple of investors by chance (at bars, amusingly enough) that, after hanging out for a few hours, I knew would be a bad fit -- but it would be a waste of both the investors' time and my time if we didn't learn that until the first face-to-face meeting. Do you have any advice on how to maximize search utility (for both an investor and my company) when I'm building my list of potential investors?

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