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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

#681

Post by baron816 »

lmm wrote: post #652
baron816 wrote: post #225

My company Krewe ( https://www.gokrewe.com ) is aimed at helping people make a new group of close friends in their neighborhood that they can see every day and build a strong local community. I only have a couple hundred sign ups (after about three weeks) so I don't know for sure that the concept will work. I also don't have a cofounder. Should I apply to YC now, or potentially wait for the next batch when I would (h…

What is it you'd want from YC? The businesses they most want to work with are those that are in a position to get the most out of it.

Connections, advice, mentorship, funding, credibility, etc. I hope I can make it without their help, but they would certainly give me a big boost.

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

#682

Post by helloscout »

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

If anybody has questions about what it's like to have Jason as an investor, feel free to message me. Jason was our first investor and I have ton of respect for him. Here's how Jason has been founder friendly for us: * He always has your back — he'll encourage you even when times are hard * He responds to your updates with thoughtful questions and suggestions * He's happy to make intros and use his network on your behalf

Most importantly he's an entrepreneur and investor — and he knows about the hard times entrepreneurs go through. He'll always encourage you and you always leave a meeting with Jason feeling more positive than you did beforehand. He doesn't believe he knows the answer to every question, but he'll give you his advice. It's hard to over-state how important this is.

Again, I'm happy to jump on the phone if any founders have questions about Jason. Message me.

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

#683

Post by baron816 »

askafriend wrote: post #612
baron816 wrote: post #225

My company Krewe ( https://www.gokrewe.com ) is aimed at helping people make a new group of close friends in their neighborhood that they can see every day and build a strong local community. I only have a couple hundred sign ups (after about three weeks) so I don't know for sure that the concept will work. I also don't have a cofounder. Should I apply to YC now, or potentially wait for the next batch when I would (h…

Have you checked out Nextdoor.com? They're squarely in the same space and they've raised nearly $211m.

I have. I guess my model is the opposite of theirs. They place you in a big group with all your neighbors and I guess they hope you go to events and start meeting people. I put you in a small group, encourage you to do stuff together in a comfortable setting a couple times to establish familiarity, and then let you grow the group from there. Bottom up vs top down.

My neighborhood has 60,000 people living in it with ~600 people in the Nextdoor group. There's very little activity in the group, so I don't think people are really using it. I don't know what it's like in other neighborhoods so it may be that my neighborhood just isn't good for it, but if I had 600 users on Krewe from my neighborhood, there would definitely be a lot of activity.

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

#684

Post by geoffclapp »

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

I'd be glad to answer any questions people have about Jason as an investor and share my experience. He was involved in my second startup - the first was very successful, the second was a failure.

I had a great experience with Jason, even though the startup was shutdown. That shutdown was where Jason showed his true colors - he was always there, had great ideas, and was super supportive. When we did shut it down, the first phone call I got was from Jason, checking in. I still have the message in my voicemail.

After that, he continued to keep in touch and keep me "in the family". He had 100's of investments he could have been spending time on, but he never forgot. The idea that he is not founder-friendly boggles my mind. He's incredibly human.

I'm sure when you invest as much as he has, he has some things in the past he'd like to take back - hell, I know I do as an entrepreneur - but I can say he's on the list of people who I'd love to work with again and again.

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

#685

Post by zafka »

trunx wrote: post #665
zafka wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embedded software at Medical device company here. Would love to talk to you.

Sure. Where can I find your contact info? What kind of medical devices do you work on?

contact info is in HN info, or jkasper at username dot com -controllers for surgical saws

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

#686

Post by geofft »

nailer wrote: post #659
geofft wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems reasonable if (and only if!) people who match you on sex and skin color are unfairly overrepresented, and if the meaning is to fire those who aren't qualified, not to indiscriminately fire to meet a quota. I read both of those things as implied by that tweet and its context, but I can see how they're not obvious. Without that context, I admit the sentence is racist and sexist, but in context, it seems like…

> This seems reasonable if (and only if!) people who match you on sex and skin color are unfairly overrepresented Asian people are more overrepresented in tech than Europeans. If Shanley said to "fire some fuckin asian guys to get it done", would you support this comment? Why / why not?

Well, I think the context was management, where IIRC Asians are if anything underrepresented. And I anecdotally don't think I've seen as many underqualified Asian people (relative to the number of Asians) as white people -- but that anecdata feels very iffy to me, so if there's reason to believe that that's wrong, sure, I'd think that comment was reasonable. (It also gets more complicated if they're on H1-Bs or something; however disruptive firing a citizen is, firing someone on a work visa is a hundred times worse. And they have fewer options for finding a job that fits their skill level than people not constrained by a work visa.)

I would absolutely stand behind "fire some men to get it done". Or a simple "fire some people to get it done", if I didn't have strong reason to believe that tech's performance-evaluation practices are unduly harsh on women. (Which is, incidentally, why I think I see unqualified women so rarely.)

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

#688

Post by _AllisonMobley »

malz wrote: post #608
sama wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We fund companies with no traction/revenue all the time, though the bar is higher. A really compelling idea is more important to us than traction or revenue. We understand how quickly exponential growth happens.

It is interesting that on this AMA you say both "ideas are worth so little" and "a really compelling idea is more important to us than traction or revenue." Can you elaborate?

Ideas are worthless, except those that aren't.

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

#689

Post by ScottBurson »

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…

YC does have a nonprofit track -- is that something you would consider?

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

#690

Post by ScottBurson »

theoracle101 wrote: post #573
tdaltonc wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why haven't you told them you have a side project/ are interested in starting your own company?

I want to finish what I started first. I think I owe that to them

I think that's a good attitude -- to a point. Wait until the right moment, okay, but don't give up your own dreams completely.

I think you should go ahead and tell your founders about your aspirations. They may very well be supportive; I've definitely read that many YC founders encourage their employees to do their own startups. Telling them will give you and them a chance to work out a plan for what you should get done before you start applying to YC or other accelerators in earnest.

And if they're not supportive, well, maybe they weren't so deserving of your consideration as you thought. I find this hard to imagine, though. It's not like you're quitting outright.

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