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

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

#231

Post by sama » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:48 AM UTC

BillionaireBear wrote: post #217

Hey. 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?

The first thing I look at for people reapplying is still the video, but the second is what has changed since the last application.

Alumni recommendations are useful if they're strong, but neutral or slightly negative if they're weak. If someone isn't excited enough to give you an independent recommendation with you asking, it's probably not worth requesting.

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

#232

Post by wwwdonohue » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:48 AM UTC

How important do you think blog posts/videos/other forms of content are for startups coming out of YC?

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

#233

Post by foobarqux » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:48 AM UTC

Without mentioning what was actually discussed, do you think the Bilderberg conference results in significant actions/effects in the real world?

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

#234

Post by sama » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:49 AM UTC

ttam wrote: post #192

What is your opinion today on cryptocurrencies and how big was the decline in Bitcoin/Ethereum startup applications? Do you feel the YC partners are mainly bullish or bearish irt cryptocurrencies?

The decline has been pretty precipitous.

I'm still fairly bullish myself and hold a lot of bitcoin. I think this is a far, far better time to go long bitcoin or start a bitcoin company than 2014, for many reasons including that the hype is gone.

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

#235

Post by BillionaireBear » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:50 AM UTC

econnors wrote: post #228

What are the best ways for hardware startups to show traction pre-launch? We feel like we have a compelling prototype, but are worried that a lack of pre-sales/press/etc. will be a red flag.

Disclaimer: I'm just a random person.

Rigetti computing was accepted with no traction but the founder had significant market expertise.

That said, keen to hear what kind of milestones are expected of early stage hardware startups.

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

#236

Post by sama » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:50 AM UTC

rexreed wrote: post #157

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?

The East Coast is not the first place I'd go to find more people who want to focus on solving larger problems. If anything, I think I'd probably go further west...

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

#237

Post by sama » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:51 AM UTC

tmatthewj wrote: post #188

Most recent startups from India backed by YC seem to be solving problems within the country. Examples - Razorpay - Stripe for India, Kisan Network - Online Agriculture marketplace in India, Innov8 - Co-working spaces for Indian startups. Is that relevant when YC looks at an application that comes from an Indian startup / co-founders? We could generalise the question by replacing India with developing economies with g…

We'd be delighted to fund an Indian company trying to build something for the entire world.

My general criticism of non-US startups (this is very general and there are important exceptions) is that too many are building the > for >.

I think it's more exciting to build something brand new that someone in the US will copy.

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

#238

Post by Lordarminius » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:51 AM UTC

A delegation from YC was recently in Lagos, Nigeria. What data and/or considerations did you take into account that kindled your interest in Africa (instead of say, Brazil ?)

Do you have any particular industries in mind to invest in? where do you see the most potential?

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

#239

Post by nathcd » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:51 AM UTC

sama wrote: post #137

rojobuffalo wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a company (other than SpaceX) with a super long-term goal that you are excited about?

Here are 5 out of ~200 that fit this category: Helion Oklo Rigetti OpenAI Gingko Bioworks

Links:

- http://www.helionenergy.com/

- http://oklo.com/

- http://rigetti.com/

- https://openai.com

- http://www.ginkgobioworks.com/

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

#240

Post by sama » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:52 AM UTC

mazeway wrote: post #174

How do you evaluate more technical startups like the one you mentioned: Rigetti Quantum Computing. I assume one needs some theoretical quantum physics knowledge to evaluate it.

I generally have very broad but very shallow knowledge. It's helpful because I can screen a lot of different kinds of companies very quickly. If I feel out of my depth I usually know a smart person I can ask to go deep.

But one of the advantages of our model is mistakes of inclusion are cheap.