I am currently applying to the summer batch and I was wondering about my setup. I came to the U.S. about four years ago and immediately built a marketing agency and after a year added software development services to it. We grew rapidly to a stable stage and now I am at the point where I can step back from taking care of the company and let my other partners manage it (We are four partners). My question is, I am applying as the only founder and was wondering if having a company already might be a deal-breaker, due to you thinking that I would not be able to invest 100% of my time into the startup? My reason for not having a co-founder yet, is because I want to make sure that I really add somebody that will 100% benefit the startup. I do have a pool of people available from my current company, but would also like to branch out first. Any thought from you would be really appreciated.
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#332Why are people so crafty ?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#333One thing which surprised me about the current YC batch was the average age of the founders. Have you seen a gradual increase in average founder age over the past several years?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#334I'm still working on building a prototype so I can earn a cofounder and future employees. I'd say I'm 2-3 months off from having the MVP done. Should I apply to YC?
You could, there's not much downside and you can reapply if you don't get it. But your chances sound significantly higher for the the next batch.
He meant the batch in 2015 2nd half, i guess.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#335As a long time reader, it seems like the content on Hacker News has been consistently trending towards "lighter" material (more articles about drugs, work flow, business concepts) and away from technical, actually "hacker" material. What are you thoughts on this trend? Is there anything we can (or should) do to prevent this forum from becoming reddit?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#336How do you factor in possible technological advancements that could render a company's business model obsolete?
For example, if someone develops a distributed web-of-trust/payment platform, a lot of the value of Uber and Airbnb goes away.
The basic model behind some of these sharing companies can be factored out into (network effects + domain knowledge + web of trust) = profitable monopoly. You can adjust how valuable you consider each of these, but to me it seems like most of the value isn't in the domain knowledge area. What if someone figures out a way to not have all of the value captured by a monolithic entity?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#337Do you think knowing YC alumni gives some teams an advantage in the application process and interview?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#338I know there was one aerospace startup in W15 but are space startups out of YC's scope?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#339Dunno if this has been asked already, ever think about doing a yc in in Dublin, Ireland?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#340You have suggested that Silicon Valley is successful, in part, because workers accept a notion of "long-term compensation" [1]. Long-term compensation, perhaps better called maybe-someday compensation, requires SV software engineers to work for relatively less (factoring in cost-of-living) than many other skilled professionals, with hopes that they'll be rewarded with a big windfall in the future.
With the rising cost of living in SF/SV, young engineers are expected to shoulder much the risk of startups while putting their long-term financial stability on the line. All in hopes of maybe-someday being compensated. And let's face it, the lion's share of these rewards will not be passed to these workers who put all their eggs in one basket, but to financially-secure VC's who have hedged their risk across many companies. If this is how SV works, do you truly believe this is a strong foundation for the industry? Obviously it's good for founders and VCs, but I'm considering the perspective of engineers.
We seem to be enjoying go-go years of investment and profits, everyone is starry eyed, and the system is working. What happens when the present-day strain on workers exceeds the allure of maybe-someday compensation? Also, why shouldn't talented workers move to an industry that provides guaranteed compensation for hard work in real time?
Of course, start-ups have a much different risk profile than banks, consulting agencies, large corporations, etc. And as a result, the long-term compensation model may be a necessity. But in the end, it sounds like SV works because there's a large supply of people willing to gamble on their future financial stability.