What skills / traits are you looking for in nontechnical founders?
Propensity to/rate at which they are becoming technical?
Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
71–80 of 317 posts
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#72Hey 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.
The top 5 things I look for in an application are (in no particular order): 1) Can the team clearly communicate what they are working on? 2) Does the team have the technical talent to build and grow the v1 of their product? 3) Is the team moving quickly or are they waiting for approval from YC? 4) Did the founders have a personal or professional relationship before deciding to start the company together? 5) Does the…
> Does the team have the technical talent to build and grow the v1 of their product?
This means they can join YC without a v1? But I guess you should have validated your hypothesis in any other way, right?
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#73What do you think of teams that are working part-time (e.g. while in full time education/employment) on an idea with decent traction, but who are waiting for external validation (such as YC or other investment) before going full-time on it? Do you take it as a sign of low commitment?
Expanding, what do you think about team that are working part-time while working to develop MRR that would make them ramen profitable? How negative of a signal is that?
I think that if you are bootstrapping cause you need to in order to pay the bills then that is totally fine. If you can work full-time on your startup and your are aren't - you should ask yourself why.
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#74currently thriving in the UK urban scene with our platform and we want to introduce products that help artists generate revenue. What advice would you have for niche in accomplishing this?
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
(edited for tone) PG and Jessica are currently on sabbatical in the UK - after running YC for 10+ years they are taking a little break spend more time with their kids
> after running YC for 10+ years they deserve a little break no? With all due respect what is so special about running YC that means you deserve a sabbatical? They are taking a sabbatical not because they deserve it but because they can afford to do so financially and have left their organization in what they feel are very capable hands. It is actually atypical in most professions in the US (at least outside of teach…
Surely he just means a break from YC. And running YC was a job that required always being "on-call" in the early days.
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#76Hi Michael!
What advice do you have for technical solo founders who have also been doing user acquisition at a reasonable high conversion rate, applying to YC S2017? (besides go find a co-founder)
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#77Hi Michael,
What advice do you have for some who is happy with their current trajectory, but might want to start their own business in say 10 years?
Thanks!
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#78What are the current in-between steps for YC? What normally happens after application submitted but before acceptance e.g. in person interviews, video interviews? What other steps are involved and what's the reason for them?
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#79What do you think of teams that are working part-time (e.g. while in full time education/employment) on an idea with decent traction, but who are waiting for external validation (such as YC or other investment) before going full-time on it? Do you take it as a sign of low commitment?
To get a better understanding of YC's approach consider the following: there are a limited number of slots, they get substantially more good applicants than there are slots. What this means is that the question shouldn't be "am I good enough for YC?" the question is "am I better than 95% of other companies applying this batch?".
Now if you're YC and you see 2 identical companies and one set of founders is full-time and the other set of founders are part-time, it's safe to say that the full time founders will be given preference because they are more committed, etc.
On the flip side if you had phenomenal founders/company (at an extreme think if Mark Zuckerberg started a new company and applied to YC) being part time is not a big deal.
Unfortunately for you you don't have visibility into your competition for this batch, but you can use previous batch companies as a rough guide.
Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA
#80How does the $120k get allocated to the startup? Can cofounders take a tiny piece as a monthly income?
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