I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA • Hacker News Board

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#151

Post by pritianka » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:10 AM UTC

ta11 wrote: post #145

sama wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doesn't work about our process for this?

I have applied again and again and have been rejected each time. I honestly don't mean to be vague but have found that it is very difficult to convey in words. It's a graphical technology that takes just a very brief chat for people to understand. It's a large horizontal departure with wide possibilities. That makes it difficult to explain as a single targeted product

It sounds like you could benefit from technical friends in the space who have more experience with technical writing/documentation, etc. Another option would be to try and attend some of the office hours YC and other VCs hold. Ofc, they tend to be localized in the SF Bay Area.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#152

Post by no_protocol » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:11 AM UTC

Do you prefer startups from a certain level on Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#153

Post by danieltillett » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:12 AM UTC

ta11 wrote: post #123

I have applied many times . I now have a patent for a technology that I believe is a disruptor of enormous proportion. I have asked repeatedly to get a few minutes with someone to discuss this technology, because your application process doesn't seem to work for this.

Do you have a patent or just a patent application? If you have a patent post the patent number so we can all look at it.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#154

Post by santoshimz » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:17 AM UTC

With so many companies like General Assembly offering part time bootcamps without one leaving the job can't YC follow the same approach where one can work on a startup without having to leave the job. This will bring in more ideas and products by people who don't want to quit their day-to-day job.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#155

Post by dmux » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:19 AM UTC

r0naa wrote: post #141

sama wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) This is where effectively all of our returns come from. 2) These companies are the most fun to work with. 3) It turns out that it's harder than it sounds to capture the full value of a smaller market for a bunch of reasons, and so the failure rate is much higher than expected. I think the payoff, at least in our case, is well worth it.

>3) It turns out that it's harder than it sounds to capture the full value of a smaller market for a bunch of reasons, and so the failure rate is much higher than expected. What kind of reasons? Direct me to some resources if there are too many to enumerate

I'm interested in this as well. Doesn't this go against Rob Walling's advice in "Start Small Stay Small" as well as Peter Thiel's advice in "Zero to One"?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#156

Post by pg_is_a_butt » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:21 AM UTC

why?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#157

Post by rexreed » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:23 AM UTC

Given YC's increasing more social and larger-world problem solving focus, is being Silicon Valley-centric still a core goal of YC? Are you planning on coming back to the East Coast?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#158

Post by pritianka » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:24 AM UTC

sama wrote: post #138

andy_ppp wrote: post #97

Can you be clearer about minimum requirements? I have an incomplete prototype but I get the impression you want more? It'll probably have a few security issues right now that I need to iron out too. When to put this on the Internet to show you guys and how much should I have. Working on this in my spare time is very difficult to get to a point I'm happy with. Maybe I should quit my job? Be good to be super clear on t…

An incomplete prototype is ok. Obviously more is better, but we've funded companies with no prototype at all. You have little to lose by applying.

Would you say that someone who applies in the early ideas stage a few times gets dinged in future applications for having been rejected a few times before?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#159

Post by turnip1979 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:24 AM UTC

santoshimz wrote: post #154

With so many companies like General Assembly offering part time bootcamps without one leaving the job can't YC follow the same approach where one can work on a startup without having to leave the job. This will bring in more ideas and products by people who don't want to quit their day-to-day job.

You know .. this is a quirky but interesting idea. PG started YC because of his experiences/challenges as a tech founder. Maybe someone can address this niche. Obviously, the funding terms would be different. There are legal issues having to do with existing employer contracts .. this could be a rathole. I am not sure doing a startup as a side project is at all useful .. but I might be wrong.

One comment I have to make .. risk is the name of the start up game. Maybe business in general. You cannot completely de-risk it and still call it a business.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#160

Post by jbpetersen » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:24 AM UTC

charlesyost wrote: post #61

My partner and I think search engines will look and feel completely different in the future, thus we're working on this next generation. Do you agree with this? How do see these evolving?

What direction are you predicting they'll go? I've got the same sentiment.