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I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

news.ycombinator.com

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

#351

Post by arm55 »

sama wrote: post #327
davemel37 wrote: post #310

It 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.

If there was a YC/HN supported cofounder matching program, I'm guessing it would have a lot more success than other attempts that have popped up. However, some important qualities of a good cofounder match are hard to quantify and require serious (and often confrontational) interaction.

Perhaps if YC let individuals apply without an idea to a loosely structured hackathon/conference, some good relationships would form. YC could fund the whole thing, and take a small stake in any resulting companies. Though, that's a little bit legally murky, so some consideration would need to be put into the means by which YC would benefit.

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

#352

Post by arm55 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #333
sama wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Perhaps YC could pay people to take a 4-12 week startup school, in which group projects were heavily encouraged. If a company was formed out of the school, YC would get the right to invest at the standard investment terms.

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

#353

Post by wildmusings »

danieltillett wrote: post #180
Jd wrote: post #171

Do you really think that financially incentivizing voting will create good downstream effects? Almost all ideas of civic duty are historically drawn from non-financial incentives and the idea of attaching some financial incentive to them potentially seems to further exacerbate a "pay to play" atmosphere that is one of the reasons people (like myself) don't find it particularly stimulating to participate in the presen…

Here in Australia we get a fine if we don’t turn up at the polling place and have our name crossed off the list on election day. Of course this creates a pool of voters (5-10%) who really don’t want to participate (these people typically spoil their ballot by doing things like drawing a penis on the ballot), but what this does do is keep a much larger section of the population engaged in the political process. What h…

If you don't care enough to vote, or are just tuning in for a couple of weeks before voting, then maybe it's better that you don't.

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

#355

Post by ajpgrealish »

w1ntermute wrote: post #333
sama wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

This sounds very similar to a programme in London called Entrepreneur First where they recruit individuals based on their technical skills and then form ideas and teams during the programme.

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

#356

Post by jomamaxx »

mieko wrote: post #175

I've been running an east-coast-but-middle-of-nowhere startup, primarily implemented by myself, and self-funded, with the occasional with help of random one-off contractors in the hospitality/IoT space for two years now. Basically during off-hours from a (pretty successful) day job in a non-tech company I started years ago. My choke point has always been finding another technical-minded parter that gets the industry.…

You have little to lose with applying to YC and getting rejected, nor do you have with investors.

If you fail to get a seed-round going after meeting with maybe 1/2 dozen VC's you will be significantly 'more ready' for the next time you meet. Once you've made more progress and reached more milestones, you can probably even circle back with investors who said 'no'. You might have more cred with them.

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

#357

Post by dgerges »

CardenB wrote: post #306
sama wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most important life skills is to get good at taking rejection and failure and then picking yourself back up and continuing. If you are going to run a big company, far, far worse things will come your way than a YC rejection. Try again. And again. And again. Giving up too early is one of the biggest causes of failure I know. In terms of the two models--it really depends on your company and market, and what…

Hey Sam, What's the difference between being persistent and wasting time? I'm curious as to where you draw the line.

wasting time is being persistent for bad reasons

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

#358

Post by bottled_poe »

sama wrote: post #244
cannabis_sam wrote: post #163

What is your view on income inequality? Do you think the start-up structure of running a business could increase or decrease income inequality (and what do you consider beneficial?)

I think it's a consequence of technology but a real challenge for society. I think the right goal is probably to eliminate poverty--conceptually, I like the idea of a guaranteed floor but no ceiling. I'm very interested in basic income and we're running a large experiment on it. If that doesn't work we have some other ideas.

> I like the idea of a guaranteed floor but no ceiling

Raising that floor seems like it would simply devalue the dollar. I'm not sure how having no ceiling helps the situation.

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

#359

Post by kriro »

Could you outline the exact reasoning why YC still believes SV is the place to be for a startup. I've never heard any explanation that went deeper than "well investors are there and network duh"

It seems very broken that IT specifically should be bound to a physical place. Are there any plans to innovate in this regard or any research YC is doing?

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