Hey Michael, with getting rid of the Fellowship, and moving to the MOOC, does that mean YC will look at some of the early stage companies the Fellowship would have looked at thus expanding their scope, or is that the purpose of the MOOC?
Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
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Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#32How are companies in the program paired up with mentors? Do mentors specialize in specific business spaces? Do companies work with different mentors for different parts of the program, eg marketing/technical advice/fundraising?
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#33Hi Michael, is it a good idea to apply to YC to find quality co-founders? or in other words what is the right way for a single founder to apply? thanks.
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#34Should an application explain the founders' vision of how the startup is expected to scale or should it focus on the now?
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#35Hello Michael.
How would you characterize the effectiveness of the scaling that YC has done over the last few years? Meaning, the increase in partners coupled with broadening of the scope of markets, not to mention YC Research.
Too much too soon, going well as planned, could still do more...
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#36If founders have a product already deployed but have many future plans for it, do you recommend they focus on explaining what the product is currently, or what the plans are for the future state of the product? (for the question "What are you going to make?")
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#37How do you feel about non-profit startups developing pure Open Source software and services in exchange for donations, in the interests of bettering the ecosystem itself? Could a nascent Mozilla be a YC nonprofit?
Or perhaps they could pre-mine a coin they would be paid in: https://startupboy.com/2014/04/01/the-fifth-protocol/
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#38For early stage companies who don't have real metrics on their user acquisition channel, what is expected as an answer to the "How do you get users.." question?
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#39Do you think the startup ecosystem is too focused on the Bay Area? Is YCombinator funding startups that don't have a Bay Area presence?
Over 35% of the current batch is international (moved from outside of the US to participate in YC). Almost all of my startup friends from when I did YC came from outside of the Bay Area. One of the great things about YC (and why I'm a partner here) is that we run an open application process with no pre-requisites. You don't have to know anyone, come from some particular background, go to some specific school, or be from the Bay Area.
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#40Hey Michael, thanks for this - should be a real eye opener!
Q: What are some of the top weighing attributes you're looking at for companies applying today, and how heavy (1-10 scale) would you say they count towards an acceptance decision. I'm envisioning a "credit score" for application.