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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

#761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm specifically thinking of an incident where he yelled at a dev until she cried in the middle of the open office at Mahalo.

I'd respect you sniping at people more if you did it whilst showing your true identity at the same time. If you're going to attack online from a hidden identity then that's just trolling.

+1

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

#762

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'm a 45 year old entrepreneur. Not famous, but have done 11 startups, built some cool things, made money, lost money. I say that to put context to the vast number of collaborators I've worked with in my career. (I'm sure many of you have the same experience.) My latest venture was lucky enough to get into Jason's Launch Incubator class 1. And I have to share that the experience of being able to work with Jason on a…

thanks Sonny! It's been a pleasure working with you as well... So nice to see so many founders give details of what it's like in the launchincubator.co

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

#763

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

Long time stalker. First time feeling a desire to post. Jason is an investor in my team's company www.zeroslant.com. We went through the LAUNCH Incubator. We went through a pivot. He has been a tireless supporter - no matter what. I'm not sure what caused him to be banned but I hope all the YC companies have access to him as an advocate.

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

#764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, that site is very difficult to understand. Just saying.

Thanks, what about homepage https://comment.ws ? What do you find difficult here? Would appreciate your or anyone else's feedback!

It's not like I'm thinking "Ah, just remove that thing over there, move this little thing down a bit and maybe make that thing bigger." I'm thinking "What the hell am I actually looking at?". That's what difficult.

Hope you don't get offended, just being honest. Too many people are spending energy on useless things instead of working on real solutions to real problems. That is a problem.

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

#765

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Eve…

Do you have any evidence that the hit rate would be close to zero if you invested in founders with just a concept?

Yes. Y Combinator, which (very unusually) funds people with no track records and just a concept, has had only two really big successes (AirBnB and DropBox) in 11+ years and close to a thousand companies in the program.

http://yclist.com/

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

#766

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

You investors need to stop shit talking one another. Jason is super helpful to me, even though I've never got a penny in investment out of him. And Sam you've helped to build an ecosystem that is unmatched by any accelerators. I am looking at you guys for ideas to help my new venture, Angeloop, to add the same value to the companies that don't get into the program. We are bridging the communication gap that exists between startup and their investors so they can help each other scale. I'm hoping you guys can work through your issues because when you guys fight, it contributes to our fragile system further deteriorate.

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

#767
Sam, I know I'm late, but what a pain it must have been to reply to those questions with so many messy comments with such crappy interface.

Don't you think the time has come to stop to fake advertising the success of simplicity and to build a proper HN interface? (Just looked at the sources to collapse all subcomments, and I found `` tags, OMG)

I understand the whole "it's simple but it works, people use it"-thing, but what's the point, when [dozen of developpers](https://www.google.fr/search?q=hacker+news+collapse+comments...) are willing to make it for you, even for free.

Not very inspiring for startup builders either.

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

#768

Hey Sam, we have attempted to apply a couple times showing steady progression. Does it hurt to re-apply with same idea. To be fair, I know if I have seen a resume for the third time, I am conflicted with the applicants passion and my initial decision. How would say this can differ with your team or is it the same?

They've always said that it's good to reapply, which makes sense to me personally, because they say they need founders who get things done. Having a previous application to compare your current application with must be one of the best ways to judge that.

Thanks!
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