Earlier quoted context omitted.
How long did it take for us (the West as a whole) to recognise the situation in Syria, and how many Syrians died in the meantime?
Very thought-provoking question but you've now completely diverged from the original topic.
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
311–320 of 768 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#312Hey Sam, Any comment regarding Jason Calacanis being banned from YC's upcoming demo day? Jason tweeted[1] his side but didn't know what the YC side of it was and was curious. [1] https://twitter.com/Jason/status/710176806184349696
Jason is a bully. I've heard plenty of horror stories of people who have worked for him. I'm not surprised in the least and I'm extremely glad to see people standing up to him.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#3131. Companies innovate by doing things more cheaply with automation than human workers can do them.
2. As a result of automation, the more efficient companies reap all the profits in a market as they drive the less efficient companies out of business (and the humans out of jobs).
3. This bonanza of profits that automation yields is taxed.
4. The taxes from the accumulated wealth of the winners -- wealth that, again, exists because the winning companies' machines were able to do things more efficiently than the losing companies' human laborers -- go toward paying the laid-off laborers a basic income.
Any I missing anything?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#314When doing a hard tech startup, how can you show traction/product-market-fit to investors before your product is being sold? The cost of going from crude prototype to sellable product can easily be in the 6-figure range, so how do you break this Catch 22?
You can usually find some intermediate milestone to prove to investors you're more than just a talker.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
How long did it take for us (the West as a whole) to recognise the situation in Syria, and how many Syrians died in the meantime?
> How long did it take for us (the West as a whole) to recognise the situation in Syria, and how many Syrians died in the meantime? Should probably recognize that civil wars, genocide, and humanitarian disasters are occurring all around the world, right now, and no nation is doing anything about it (nor does the average person even know about these). Nations of the world have no real obligation to do anything... whic…
That's the best euphemism for bombs and sponsoring what we would otherwise consider terrorist organisations I've ever heard.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#316Does this statement risk a tortious interference with business relationship suit? You have published a statement that could reasonably interpreted as Jason Calacanis mistreats founders by bullying them, changing offers, sharing their confidential info and other things. That intentionally obstructs Mr. Calcanis from entering into valuable business relationships with startup company founders. It seems very risky unless…
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#317Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#318Did any teams/projects from YC Hacks wind up going through YC?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#319This is going to sound crass, but if a founder can't make the sacrifice to spend 3 months in SV for YC, are they really prepared to build the next billion dollar company?
If that founder is a director of engineering/product in an enterprise software company in Atlanta, has a spouse, two kids and a mortgage, and the health insurance is dependent on her/his employer, then they will probably have a higher sacrifice than if they are a single Stanford grad living in SF with a year of saving after working at Google. They both need to make a sacrifice but it's not the same scale. If you make…