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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

#481

Post by nikcub »

vogt wrote: post #312
carlisle_ wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just for what it's worth, as I know it isn't the same as working for someone - I interviewed for a position working directly for Jason and he was all class. I'm a designer and part of the interview process, as is often the case, was to complete a small design project. He flat out insisted on paying me for my time (nobody else in my career has ever even offered) and wouldn't take no for an answer, and was professional…

and i'll give a counterexample - Jason yelling down and belittling an entrepreneur and his team during prep for a conference presentation, for a totally unrelated reason and then cancelling their appearance because he was mad at something else. I have never seen anything like it.

Assholes are manipulative, it's how they get away with it.

The problem is silicon valley is self-reinforcing with positive feedback, nobody rocks the boat and speaks ill (the subject of Jason's abuse above would never come out and say it) of others.

It is 100x harder to give a negative public view of someone than it is to give a positive.

Investors have more power than most of your employees and they will freely speak about you, associate with you in good times, many will run away in bad.

You should run extensive due diligence across all of them, and with people who worked with them - not the type of Silicon Valley 'good friends' that involve spending 5 minutes in a conference hallway with someone 3 times a year, or having dinner twice a year.

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

#482

Post by n00b101 »

junto wrote: post #307
jdavis703 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn't a director have enough money saved up to support their family for at least three months? And I knew Navy folks who were away from their families for months at a time, so it is definitely possible (if not fun) to do this. But if you're becoming an entrepreneur for the fun, it's time to question your motives.

I'm guessing you don't have a wife and children. It isn't about the money, it's about not seeing them. You are also forgetting that it isn't just your sacrifice in terms of the time you are giving up with your wife and children for three months, but also that you are forcibly restricting them from being able to see you too. They didn't choose that. Once you have a family you have a bunch of responsibilities and you'v…

> You are also forgetting that it isn't just your sacrifice in terms of the time you are giving up with your wife and children for three months, but also that you are forcibly restricting them from being able to see you too. They didn't choose that.

“He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”

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

#483

Post by dfabulich »

eranation wrote: post #216
teej wrote: post #175

This 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…

Can anybody name a few successful high-growth startups that were started by people with these kinds of family obligations?

If it has happened before, that's evidence that it can happen again, but if it's never happened before, that's evidence that it may be harder or impossible to form a high-growth startup under obligations like those.

(Disclaimer: high-growth startups are not the only kind of business worth forming. The director of engineering of a slow-growth enterprise software company may have a higher quality of life than a co-founder at an unprofitable unicorn.)

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

#484

Post by wwwdonohue »

galistoca wrote: post #391
joshmanders wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 invest…

Because funding a diverse set of companies and founders is how you tap into really new ideas.

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

#485

Post by sama »

trunx wrote: post #174

I'm from a team of first time startup doing a hardware medical device company. We have computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering background but very little experience with medical devices. Is this a big red flag for you guys?

If you seem very hungry to learn, then no, the lack of domain expertise is ok.

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

#487

Post by bpchaps »

tdaltonc wrote: post #436
bpchaps wrote: post #367

I'm actively working on data-based civics projects that should hopefully have positive individual financial impact - particularly for lower income households. It's very fulfilling work that perhaps comes close in addressing localized economic problems (eg, neighborhoods). Problem with this sort of work is that it's generally incremental and has zero immediate effects. In other words, there's no way in hell anyone's g…

Applying for government grants?

Never thought of that, honestly - I'll look into it.

I've had surprising amount of folk ask in seriousness why I'm trying to take money away from the budget starved city, though.. That mindset might push back. Still worth a shot! ;)

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

#488

Post by ryandrake »

_ll5a wrote: post #304

Has YC ever considered having a control group by randomly pre-accepting certain applicants into the program automatically? I'd be curious to see the stats on how successful that group would be versus the group that's actually picked by the committee.

If the thought is that randomly selected start-ups might possibly outperform hand-picked ones, then I suppose anyone with a few million $$$ laying around is free to test that hypothesis. If true you could make bank!

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

#489

Post by semerda »

miracle_code wrote: post #417
sama wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Execution > Ideas. Most startups end up being famous for something else than the original idea. Read Founders at Work to get a glimpse of this.
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