What is an ideal stage for a company to apply to YC?
We've gotten together an excellent team and partners, and are just starting to build out the value prop. However, we don't have any customers / traction yet. Should we wait to apply, or apply right now?
I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
331–340 of 458 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#332How much investment money is simply "transferred" to local landlords in the bay area? Any ideas how your 'YC cities' thing is going to look?
I shudder to imagine. It's a real problem with the system. Not yet.
This is also why retail is such a bad investment. As soon as an area is hot, the landlords capture all the value. (And why Kmart became a real estate play rather than retail)
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#333It seems half these questions are from Single Founders. Considering YC's interest in experimenting with who and what they fund... Has YC ever considered a class of only single founders and trying to solve the problems YC anticipates with single founder startups (i.e. emotional support, etc...) It seems to me that the demand is there, and the potential for single founders to succeed is certainly possible... why not ex…
What we've thought about the most is creating a better way for potential cofounders to meet each other.
Do you think it's usually possible for two potential cofounders who don't already know one another to sufficiently evaluate one another quickly enough to start a company together in the short term (say, less than 3 months)?
There seem to be similar challenges to creating a scalable solution for finding an SO/spouse (another unsolved problem).
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#334Two Questions:
1. Would YC consider a media/publishing company that is not really a tech startup short of leveraging tech to reach a broader audience. (it's more like investigative journalism to arm buyers with info. needed to negotiate better deals.)
2. The info. in these reports can capture value by being sold right away, but giving the info. away for free is more in line with the mission of eliminating information asymmetry (by selling we are just replacing one inbalance, with another)...so is it better to capture initial value...or try to build trust to the point of people going straight to you to research purchases...and monetize later on or with add-ons (i.e. outsourced negotiation.) or eventually becoming the defacto source for consumer research (which is bound to be monetizable one way or another)?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#335If we edit our application after we submit it, then are you notified? Or is there a chance you read our application before we edit it and you miss our edits?
Once you submit it we may read it away, so you shouldn't submit it until you'r ready.
Made that mistake once - nobody viewed the re-submitted video.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#336Has there been any graphic designer co-founders accepted into YC? If so, has there been anything noticeably different about that dynamic compared to usual co-founder teams of hackers? If not, are applicants that include graphic designer co-founders at all desirable at YC?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#337Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#338Hi, Sam, how do you think about the opportunity of technology in China, do you think China a good place for investing and developing? What the difference between the China market and USA market?
I think China is probably the second most interesting startup market to me in the world right now (after Silicon Valley).
Anywhere in particular in China?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA
#339It seems half these questions are from Single Founders. Considering YC's interest in experimenting with who and what they fund... Has YC ever considered a class of only single founders and trying to solve the problems YC anticipates with single founder startups (i.e. emotional support, etc...) It seems to me that the demand is there, and the potential for single founders to succeed is certainly possible... why not ex…
What we've thought about the most is creating a better way for potential cofounders to meet each other.
Thanks for answering.
Prehaps a batch of single founders is a great way to do this. (i.e. they all work on their own ideas, and at the end of the batch, they consolidate based on relationships they hit off, success of individual ideas, etc...)
I think YC would agree that people in the same YC class make some outstandingly strong friendships.