How many applications are you guys expecting this year and what percentage do you expect to invite to interview?
As a very rough guess I'd say around 6000. I expect we will interview around 450 in person and video interviews with more.
I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#262And thank you for the Playbook. This, along with cs183, is among main materials of my life so far.
Thank you for telling me!
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#263I don't want to sound too arrogant but why should I apply if I think I can succeed on my own?
You should apply if you think the company will be worth ~7% more if you do YC that it would be worth if you do it on your own. If you could make a $10B company on your own, but doing YC could make it be a $20B company, then it would obviously be well worth it.
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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#264I want to transform the way we use checkins and turn them into awesome real world experiences.
I have the idea, a v1 design, portion of the API, and incomplete web app prototype... all built by me. I lack the business plan in paper however have pretty cool ideas on how I can eventually generate income.
Is this enough to be considered? Have companies come to you with less while still being accepted?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure if he has, but why would he ever do that? Unless it was not only production but also engineering/innovating in some sense.
Yep, well that would be interesting in the sense of how you could disrupt the music business by "manufacturing" beats. We've seen some similar progress around machine generated art (e.g. deep dreaming and the like).
I'd sooner expect strong AI than an AI that can actually produce good music purely autonomously.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#266Do you plan to allow future YC teams to attend the program remotely, or with a greatly reduced expectation of spending time in Mountain View?
I get that SV is a great place to start a startup, all things being equal. But there are a lot of great opportunities that are 8-12 time zones away. And leaving your customers alone for 3 months -- especially if you are trying to grow rapidly during those 3 months -- sounds very risky. Additionally, the money spent living in SV for three months could otherwise be spent on working capital; this is extra true in developing markets where costs are lower.
In the absence of a formal policy change re: moving to SV for 3 months, would you be willing to extend a bit more leeway for founders who really want to get their companies into YC but don't want to spend too much time away from the customers they're trying to please?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#267You've mentioned that you look for solo founders to show above all that they're effective - what would be a good metric for that? Is being able to push out an MVP and getting the first handful of users seen as being effective? Is the bar a lot higher?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#268Any tips/examples on trying to sell a product that provides ethical/moral benefits but very little/nothing financially? Some friends and I were throwing around ideas on how to eliminate scalping, a practice we get bitten by. We came up with some solutions that might work, but they don't provide any financial gain for event organisers so I couldn't see them going for it.
You eliminate scalping by charging market prices, so there's no opportunity. Charging less is just a gift to the middlemen. (If you want to give that gift to the people who actually come, charge more and give a rebate inside the event, so scalpers can't collect it.) Not sure how you're conceptualizing this that makes scalpers harmful, could you elaborate?
Couldn't you also eliminate scalping by imposing per-transaction limits (probably already done) and checking ID at entry, like airlines?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#269Are there ways to apply to HARC, or demo at HARC for people who have ideas that might fit within its remit?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#270Hi 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.
1. No 2. Definitely not!
Thanks Sam!