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I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

news.ycombinator.com

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

#181

Post by delaneparnell »

sama wrote: post #153
delaneparnell wrote: post #16

What are your thoughts on teams applying pre-product (but in development) with an experienced/diverse team compared to teams with product/initial traction? Do you weigh them differently during application reviews?

It's hard to give a standard answer to this--it depends entirely on the specifics of each case.

Thanks for doing this AMA Sam.

As a follow-up, what would you recommend applicants who are in this position do before the end of next week to increase their chances of being interviewed/accepted? (i.e. get feedback from as many YC alum as possible, iterate on their video, etc). Obviously without specifics, I'm sure your answer may be similar to the above, but any general recommendations here?

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

#185

Post by sama »

annelutz wrote: post #57

If we get an interview but aren't accepted, will you still reimburse the traveling expenses for us poor people?

Yes, of course. We reimburse travel expenses for everyone who comes to interview with us, and I think it's shameful when other accelerators don't.

I probably would not have interviewed at YC if I had to pay for the trip--I was super poor at the time.

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

#187

Post by ssharp »

sama wrote: post #134
pyrrhotech wrote: post #119

I frequently see the stat that YC companies are worth 30 billion in total. While this is very impressive, it's still less than say Uber at 40 billion for a single company that's about the median age of the group--so it seems like a fair comparison, though an obvious outlier. For the Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. outlier startups, how much pure luck do you think plays into their success? AirBnB and Dropbox are…

We haven't updated our numbers in awhile. Current total is more than Uber. We'll update again at some point. It's not a perfect correlation, but the founders that build huge companies are extremely determined and smart, they have a very clear vision, they see things other people miss, etc etc. That said, there is definitely a luck multiplier for the humongous companies. You cannot have a clear plan to build a $200B c…

It may go without saying, but potential market has a lot to do with it as well.

A company like Uber is entering a huge transportation market; Airbnb a huge lodging market. They can be big fish in big ponds. I think there are lots of YC companies in smaller ponds.

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

#189

Post by jojopants »

sama wrote: post #69
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…

"There is no shortcut for the hard work of building a great product" yet Quality often takes time.. yet the longer something takes to build - the more negative points programs like this give (and tech culture in general)

It seems like speed trumps quality is the standard

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