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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

#391

Post by galistoca »

joshmanders wrote: post #355
galistoca wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't bet on a founder who is not willing to take on risks. I am not being judgmental, I'm just saying whoever complains about this should face the reality--The reality is that there are tons of other people who are as qualified as this person who ARE willing to take that kind of risks. All things equal, there's no reason why VCs should fund people who don't want to take risks.

Leaving your area for three months isn't taking on risks. I'm sure YC would be foaming at the mouth to take basecamp and if they could start over with the ability to apply to YC I'm sure DHH and Jason would still turn it down if they were required to go to SF.

If you think you have enough knowledge and insight to criticize me, criticize my main point instead of trying to take things out of context to make your point. My main point was "There are tons of other qualified people who are as old as you and has as many children and wives as you, who are also tied with as many obligations as you. AND they ALL are willing to spend that 3 months in the bay area. Why would an investor choose someone who's NOT willing to do that over someone who is?"

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

#392

Post by throwaway_xx9 »

markdown wrote: post #316
falsestprophet wrote: post #308

Does 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…

Truth is an absolute defence for libel.

> Truth is an absolute defence for libel.

In the USA. In the UK, the opposite.

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

#393

Post by RCra »

dilippkumar wrote: post #79

I'd love to apply, but I'm on a H1-b visa and I'm basically in prison. How did the other international founders you worked with get around the immigration mess to start a company?

Hey DK,

Just another entrepreneur here, but I'm a Canadian citizen and also need a VISA.

I've received excellent help from Julie Pearl's firm: https://www.immigrationlaw.com/

They work with plenty of startup founders and I was recommended her through fellow immigrant founders. :) Hope this helps!

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

#395

Post by contingencies »

fantasticfears wrote: post #172

P.R.China has a strong policy to control information and policy restriction. What do you think of the possible problems for YC to cooperate with Chinese companies? Does that impede the growth of a startup?

Also interested in this... I am working on my second mainland Chinese startup right now. But honestly, there's easier sources of capital in the country than outside that sidestep this problem. In my previous experience, seeking foreign VC is difficult from China due to investor fear and unfamiliarity with the regulatory environment.

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

#396

Post by sama »

nbadg wrote: post #248

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 ad…

1. Some partners may read the earlier version of your application. The advantage to submitting earlier is not so big, it just means you might get more reads. I'd for sure wait to submit until you have your demo.

2. We have an internal DB for this, but I'm not aware of a good publicly available one :(

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

#397

Post by jey »

w1ntermute wrote: post #345
Jommi wrote: post #268

Hi Sam! We here in Finland have been slowly developing a startup ecosystem. The effort started 5-years ago and now finally, thanks to the amazing bunch of volunteers, we have stuff like Slush and Startup Saunato show for it. What would be your advice in rocketing the finnish startup ecosystem to the next level? P.S. You should visit us sometime, we'd love to host you at Startup Sauna!

Not sama, but one suggestion: cut down on the sauna references (Startup Sauna, Silicon Sauna, etc.). It runs the risk of sounding too silly/humorous.

I bet we have things that sound equally silly in American English when interpreted literally. Sadly, they're so invisible to me right now that I can't think of one easily...

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

#398

Post by w1ntermute »

nostrademons wrote: post #347
w1ntermute wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some counterexamples? I wasn't suggesting that you should only fund founders from top schools, but that you should select for it (which it sounds like you already do). The pedigrees of some of YC's most successful founders, for anyone who's curious: * Twitch: Yale, MIT * Cruise: MIT, Claremont McKenna * OMGPOP: Princeton * Heroku: UCSD * Airbnb: RISD, Harvard * Dropbox: MIT * Zenefits: Harvard It's interesti…

Reddit was UVA, which is a pretty good school but not really what people think of as "elite". Instacart was Waterloo, also a very good school but not a huge name outside of tech. RethinkDB was Stony Brook University. Mixpanel was an Arizona State dropout.

Thanks for the additions. Don't know much about RethinkDB, but as for the others:

Reddit is a great example of founders without pedigree. Although it hasn't been too successful as a company, it's created phenomenal value for its users. I definitely spend more time on Reddit than Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/Twitter combined.

I'd say Waterloo is elite in the tech sense, and Apoorva worked at Amazon in fulfillment, so it made a lot of sense in the specific case of Instacart.

Mixpanel was being advised by Max Levchin from before they applied to YC. He became their first big customer and helped them with every funding round, and probably put in a good word with YC when they applied[0]. Another YC alum, Amplitude, which is founded by MIT grads, is now giving Mixpanel a run for their money[1,2]. I don't know Suhail or Tim, but I can't imagine the average ASU dropout's experience would be anything like theirs.

0: http://www.businessinsider.com/mixpanel-ceo-suhail-doshi-and...

1: https://amplitude.com/blog/2016/01/07/mixpanel-power-user-am...

2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10869419

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

#399

Post by redtri »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #221

Hey 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 the only investor I've worked with that treated me simply as a founder, not a "female founder." This alone is a reason that new YC entrepreneurs should have access to working with him. He sets an example of how entrepreneurs should be treated.

Jason has seen me at my worst, when I was ready to throw in the towel and battling with my board and generally having a tough, tough time, and I left the meeting with hom feeling like a rockstar, that I COULD handle it, and could go on to succeed (which I am doing today).

He is such a founder advocate I would take $25k from Jason over $250k from a bigger VC, because when the going gets tough (and it will) Jason will ALWAYS have your back.

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