How much is six times nine?
0b111111
[deleted]
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
371–380 of 757 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#372Sam, What would you say is the average amount of times a company applies before a. getting an interview at YC and b. actually getting in?
It is often on the first time. The 7th time is the highest count I know of. It's common for it to be on the second or third time. If we reject a company at interviews, we'll say what our objection is. If you reapply and that isn't fixed, you're unlikely to get in. More generally, fast progress is something we really look for when deciding to fund startups.
What if the feedback is 'we think the market is too small'. It seems the way to improve is drastically change the product (/pivoting), or is there another way?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#373Hi,
thanks for doing this!
Do you think VC money is viable option for long-term (e.g. 30 years) business models?
What would be your advice (if Bootstrapping is not an option)?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#374Had you not been accepted into YC, what was your plan of action?
I was going to work on my startup either way. I had a plan B investor that would have been not nearly as good.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#375An early stage startup will typically have the great majority of ownership in the hands of investors and 2-3 founders, with maybe 10% allocated to engineers at 1% max for any individual engineer. Do you see this ever changing where engineer #1-5, for example, wouldn't have a 1-to-20 or even 1-to-70 equity imbalance with the founders?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#376You 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 cos…
It's a personal choice for workers. If you're an engineer and you want a guaranteed $250k per year, go work for a financial firm. Nothing wrong with that decision. Everyone gets to make his or her own. Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain. It is indeed "maybe-someday" competition. When you work at a startup,…
>Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain.
Is $100k enough for a person to live without roommates within 20-30 minutes commute from said startup? Eat healthy food? Pay student loans? Have health insurance and build savings?
I'm not from the Bay Area- this is a serious question.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#377I think most of the YC funded startups have good ideas, but some of the more recent batches (past three years) seem to have a much smaller market than the earlier batches.
Has there been a conscious decision to move to more niche markets, or has that just been where the chips fell?
Also, why has the average age of the founders YC funded slowly been rising?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#378Sam, Have not seen YC investing on any Television/native Smart TV apps ...any thoughts on why?
Has YC funded any Roku/Chromecast apps before?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#379When applying to YC, if you have a four or five person start-up team, if one member isn't able to come to Silicon Valley, but the rest are (3/4 or 4/5), how much does that penalize you?
The big problem is a 4 or 5 person founding team. That's a high bar to get over (but possible, one startup I really like in this batch has 5 founders).
Be so good we can't ignore you.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#380Hi Sam,
Does YC take any position on founders in a long-term, personal relationship, e.g. married? Has YC funded companies with such founders? If so, can you say anything meaningful about these company's success or failure?
Note: I'm specifically thinking of companies with two founders.