Any interesting new verticals where you think YC will expand to the degree it has in hardware?
Biotech
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
411–420 of 768 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#412Hi Sam, I always wondered how someone so young could become president of YC (and do an awesome job at it). Or would you say it's actually a prerequisite?
Let's see how the next 10 years go before we call it an awesome job.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. There has been a dramatic change in economic and social climate in the Americas. Our vague "ancestors" entered Canada and the US in times where it might not have been so magnificent to immigrate, and as such they were presented with incentives to i…
> both Canada and the US have the right to protect their national interests The unstated premise is that the current structure of our immigration system serves any national interest. Let's set aside the fact that immigration creates more jobs for natives than it displaces (turns out immigrants buy things just like natives do),[0] and that there's near universal consensus among economists that restrictions on the move…
Yeah I'm with you. My argument was regarding the reasons behind why immigration policies might exist, and why I think it's ok for countries to say "sorry you can't just come in whenever" if they want.
The concept that immigration policies are usually very flawed is real, and also has been a source of frustration for me personally. I however do not expect things to change quickly at least in the US.
Worth noting that very conservative immigration policy seems to be the most "safe", the strict policy of "nobody can enter, ever" is very easy to understand, predict and monitor over time. I can imagine a situation where immigration policy is too lax, and yield unforeseen badness.
PS: thanks for being equally civil, and for a very relevant comment.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#414I'm working on a piece about universal basic income, and I have the following summary of the how I think that many tech people like yourself believe UBI is going to work: 1. 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…
You're missing alternative opportunities created by 1, 2, and 3. For example, wage insurance, a negative income tax, or state-funded retraining.
You're also missing other big upside to UBI. For example, if people can be more sure that they won't be reduced to destitution if the quit there 9-5 to work on a passion project, they will be more likely to do that. More people taking more bets on passion projects means more opportunities for explosively successful companies.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, mention it--that's fine with us.
Thank you Sam. By the way here is the link to YC's page on Comment https://comment.ws/us/y-combinator
Comment homepage https://comment.ws
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#416Hey 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
not personally familiar with the YC process in the least here, but in our short tenure with him so far he has been a tremendous coach and evangelist for us. he's certainly tough, but also balanced. we are lucky to have him onboard.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#417Obviously YC can't enter into NDAs with applicants but can you shed a little bit of light on what YC does to protect the applicants' business ideas? Some might be discouraged from applying because they fear if the idea is interesting (but not the team or there's another reason it's not accepted) that someone from within YC or a related ecosystem might just take the idea and look at the product so far and decide to ju…
Honestly, we are so busy, there are so many companies, and ideas are worth so little, that most of us don't think twice about a specific company once we move on to the next applications. The very best ideas usually don't seem worth stealing.
The concept of ideas being worth near to nothing is new to me, can you explain that thinking? Without monetary arguments this seems not right.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://blog.shelfie.com/2015/10/20/24-good-books-to-read-her...
1. You are not Sam A. 2. I asked 3 must-read books, not just 24 good ones. 3. The article is published by Kamil Szybalski, rather than Sam A.
I don't really get the point of down votes. I was honestly interested in Sam's personal response and not the lmgtfy.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#419When 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?
There is a real gap in the market and it is not limited to just hard tech. There are an enormous number of great businesses out there that can’t raise funds until they have a product and they can’t make a product without funds. The solution is actually pretty obvious - investors have to start investing in businesses that are nothing more than a good concept, especially those of outsiders or non-serial founders. This…
The issue is that the risk of investing in a startup is extremely high even if you do limit investment to serial founders or post-product, post-traction businesses. It's already very hard to generate a positive return even with those conditions, and impossible to tell with certainty which will work out.
Investing in random unproven founders with no product or traction (apparently) makes it practically impossible. Even fewer will work out than in the pre-screened batch, and the hit rate is already close to zero.
If it were at all possible, there would be no need for VCs at all. You'd just fill out some forms about your idea and then do an IPO.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#420How important to you is it that the founders of your companies have gone to college? Has your view about teenage entrepreneurs changed over time?