I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA • Hacker News Board

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#61

Post by as2fadf123 » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

What do you think of the bitcoin blockchain? Do you believe in it's hype?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#62

Post by baristaGeek » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

Independent of the fact that there's currently a tech bubble or not. If it hypothetically exploded, would Y Combinator stop its investment activities?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#63

Post by S4M » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

Hi Sama,

Is YC a good fit for someone targets a lifestyle business, as opposite to having great ambitions like becoming the next Google/Facebook?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#64

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#65

Post by sanketsaurav » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

Hey Sam,

I have a product which is a direct competitor of one of YC11 companies. We have pretty decent traction, and we are solving the same problem significantly different from them. What are our chances? Does YC accept competing companies?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#66

Post by goykasi » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

Are there any one or two questions that really stick out as most important to the YC partners?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#67

Post by waiquoo » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

What stage would be ideal for considering moving a project from research (at the graduate university level) to a startup? In this case I'm referring to a project that is based on custom nanoscale hardware components that rely on some pretty groovy physics. The applications are pretty immediate and the market already exists in the biotech/healthcare field.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#68

Post by benologist » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

How would you spend this week if you were applying?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#69

Post by sama » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

atroyn wrote: post #33

What's something common that partners have to repeat over and over until founders 'get it' ?

The most common thing is getting founders to focus on the right thing. At this stage, nothing but building a product that users love matters. Founders want to focus on anything else, and have wonderfully detailed excuses for why whatever it is is so important.

"Write code and talk to users" is not sexy, but it's the road to success. Seeing your name in the press is sexy, but unfortunately has nothing to do whatsoever with actual success.

There is no shortcut for the hard work of building a great product.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#70

Post by atroyn » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

sama wrote: post #60

atroyn wrote: post #49

Do you think if Zuck applied to YC today with Facebook as it was in 2005 he'd make it in? (Assuming the 'social network' landscape still looked like it had in 2005).

Yes. There are certain people that you cannot sit across from and let yourself not invest. He is one of them, for sure. He also had great growth. (Zuck comes to speak to the YC batch every year or so. PG used to say that when he talked to Zuck he'd find himself saying "whoa, we should really fund this guy". I had the same experience last time he came to YC.)

What's something he said or did to cause the 'whoa' reaction? Any kind of anecdote you can share?