[deleted]
I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
211–220 of 458 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
The scheme I described above leads to affordable tickets, it's basically a way of enforcing nontransferability. But at its core, disgust with scalpers implies preference for a non Kaldor Hicks optimal world. If someone is willing to pay $X for a ticket, and you're only willing to pay $Y There's no way around that fundamental fact. At some point, if there are more people who want tickets than tickets, some process nee…
I don't understand how your suggestion enforces non-transferability. If the scalper pay $100 for a ticket and the ticket holder receives a $50 rebate at the event, the scalper just adds $50 to the price they resell at. Like I said, I understand the problem exists because of the economics. But there's nothing to stop us from building a system that enforces non-transferability (through identification), and preventing r…
You need to show id to redeem the rebate, but not to get in. Effectively enforcing a fee for transferring that's equal to the subsidy.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#213Earlier 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
If I can make a recommendation, you should try making a video instead.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#214How important is technical defensibility? On one extreme I could have a technically sophisticated product with a poor user experience. On the other, an off the shelf software catalog with great user experience. Ideally you have both... Realistically it is difficult given time constraints. Where does one settle for success?
What's important to us is business defensibility.
Sometimes the way to get that is with a user experience. Sometimes with technology. Often it's something else entirely. It really depends on the company.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#215Hi Sam, in interview with Elon Musk, you asked him 'Do you think people that want to be useful today should get PhDs?' Elon: Mostly not.
Here are my questions:
1. Do you think people need to get a PhD degree to become useful research scientist in AI industry?
2. Do you think people need to get a PhD degree to become Member of Technical Staff (Machine Learning) in Open AI?
Thank you.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#216Two related questions.
It's known YC prefers teams. Do you have a preferred shape or size for the team (2 tech, 1 marketing, or 1 tech, 1 web, 1 marketing and business etc); is any combination shown to be more likely to succeed within YC?
How do you view teams too heavy on tech? It's common for a group of tech people to have the idea, but as a team have some gaps on say the marketing side, and probably other areas.
A startup I was involved in, years ago, lacked much depth in sales and marketing. Filling that gap was a nightmare. Candidates would happily talk out of their hat, claim allsorts they didn't have, and those we trialled failed hard then invent no end of "reasons" why it's working perfectly. Suddenly recruiting programmers was easy!
Even people we've known in this area suffered from at least some of these habits, sometimes meaning it's a case of "nice guy, don't trust him as co founder". Made it hard to resolve, so the least worst techie got stuck with site copy etc.
No surprise, I've learnt much more about online marketing since those days. :)
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#217Hey. We received an email saying to reapply because we were in the top 10% for the last cycle. In this case, what order do you look at the application? How useful are alumni recommendations?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#218What do you think of the women in tech movement, and other diversity initiatives?
I'm supportive, obviously.
I think in some ways diversity in tech is very bad (e.g. very many, or perhaps nearly all, of the CEOs of 'unicorns' are white men).
I think YC has made good but not great progress here. I don't pretend to know all the answers. About 11% of the founders that apply to YC are women, and I've heard that's a fair bit higher than what other investors see.
We fund women (and Black and Latino founders) at very nearly the rate they apply. In addition to a pipeline problem, I think there are further problems once women and underrepresented minorities start companies that make it unwelcoming.
I also think the conversation has become so polarized by the extremes on both sides that I feel uneasy participating, and I know other people feel the same way. But I'll certainly keep doing whatever I can do to get YC to help.
We're always open to advice about what to do here.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#219If you went back in time and did Loopt again, what would you differently?