I know a lot of YC alumni, are endorsements about quality or quantity? Are they important?
Quality far above quantity.
A large number of weak endorsements really hurts your chances.
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#422Sam, Does every application submitted, before the deadline, get seen and on average by how many reviewers?
It at least gets seen by our alumni reviewers, and at least 3 of them. They pass about half the applications on to the YC partners.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#423Honest question on how profitable Y Combinator really is. What is Y Combinator's average portfolio return before management fees and carry?
We don't have outside investors, so there isn't fee or carry. Our returns are very good (triple digit IRR) but still mostly unrealized.
Thanks Sama.
This is something I've always been curious since VCs are an investment structure and measuring performance is critical when selecting the right VC.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#424Hey Sam, What is the problem/market that you think about most when you aren't at work?
Energy, existential risks to humanity, and wealth inequality.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#425What advice do you have for junior devs who want to work at an early stage startup?
Join a rocketship. (ideally one in the YC portfolio :) )
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
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,…
I interviewed for a company once that had different kinds of offers, ranging from low-salary/high-equity, to high-salary/low-equity. I thought that was an interesting idea :D They had 5 options total, and the middle option wasn't awful. I'd like to see more of this in the valley.
Any specifics on the amount of equity offered? That's an interesting concept.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#427Earlier quoted context omitted.
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,…
I interviewed for a company once that had different kinds of offers, ranging from low-salary/high-equity, to high-salary/low-equity. I thought that was an interesting idea :D They had 5 options total, and the middle option wasn't awful. I'd like to see more of this in the valley.
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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#428Some of the advice YC partners give seems harmful because of survivorship bias (Basic for the Altair -> Microsoft). I've seen some people criticise you for it, but I've never seen any of you address it directly. Do you mind doing so now?
Most startups don't work--everyone understands the odds are long. What makes it worth it is that when they work, they really, really work. So we try to give advice about how to maybe become a huge company.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#429We are a bootstrapped ~2.5yr old company that is doing $5M in Revenue and ~$2M in PBT. We have fallen into a bit of a funk in the past 6-12M or so growth-wise and basically flat-lined. We are talking to a few funds to raise a ~$10M round (mostly secondary) to bring the PBT down to 0 and really swing for the fences. We've thought about applying to YC but the 7% seems high for us at this stage. Is YC interested in co-investing the standard YC amount in such a round at the market valuation instead of standard YC valuation?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#430Possibly naive question:
I'm a married guy in his 30s working at a major investment bank in NYC (lead quantitative role). I have a graduate degree from a non-elite school. No experience at top tech firms (had offers but didn't go).
Now, I have some cool side projects that I believe could become great consumer apps given enough care and resources. Is there any reason for me to apply to YC, and any chance of getting seed funding from you, or am I completely out of your profile for typical candidates / startups?