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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

#102

Post by bcjordan »

sama wrote: post #96
JJC1138 wrote: post #86

I'm considering applying for YC but I think my idea (a fairly simple time management app for smartwatches) might be a bit too modest. How small of an idea is too small?

We don't mind ideas that start off sounding modest if you have a great answer to how it could possibly develop into something huge. In fact, we like ideas like that.

From pg's How to Get Startup Ideas[0]:

> Just as trying to think up startup ideas tends to produce bad ones, working on things that could be dismissed as "toys" often produces good ones. When something is described as a toy, that means it has everything an idea needs except being important. It's cool; users love it; it just doesn't matter. But if you're living in the future and you build something cool that users love, it may matter more than outsiders think.

[0]: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#103

Post by davidhhenu »

Hello Sam, I am Honduran and applying for the winter 2016 batch with other two co founders. One of my co founders (Venezuelan) and I have student F-1 Visas. Since we cannot work yet until we are at OPT we won't be able to make any profits until January or February 2016. Beta for our platform is due tomorrow so we can have a demo but users won't be able to use it for now. Is this going to affect our application? If so, what would you recommend?

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#107

Post by mukulsud »

mukulsud wrote: post #5

Hey Sam, would it be okay to use third party links to prove our market exists? - would the software that you use to scan through apps create a hyperlink and allow the partner reading the app to click thru?

A follow up to this would be that if we use market numbers should we use attribution links to show where we got them from?

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#108

Post by pavornyoh »

sama wrote: post #77
pavornyoh wrote: post #10

@Sama, So my question is about YC Research. You said in that earlier thread you will be hand picking the people. How exactly do you intend to do that if you don't me asking? Are you partnering with schools? Are they going to be recommended? Do you already have a database?

Mostly the algorithm was to ask very smart people "who are the top 3 smartest people you know in area X" and then go after the people whose names kept coming up.

@Sama,thanks for the answer.

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#109

Post by sama »

wlamont wrote: post #3

Recently a plethora of startups working on new nuclear energy technology have been created: Transatomic power, Flibe, Helion and UPower (to name a few). These startups, respectively, have technology based on molten salt reactors (MSR), new fuels (Thorium), or new modalities (small distributed scale and fusion). Most of these startups face a huge challenge (and capital requirement) to go from idea/concept to pilot/dem…

I think they should just try to raise large amounts of money rather than partner with large companies for development. However, they will need to partner with utilities for pilot plants.

I can't speak to the other companies, but my hope is that UPower and Helion have prototypes in ~3-5 years.

Re: I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

#110

Post by mesimoniv »

Hi Sam,

Thanks for supporting us all with your time & insights.

Given the rise & success of things like Hack Reactor and Nano Degrees plus the YC RSF for Education.

1) Do you have any specific thoughts on innovations you would like to see in Secondary Education, specifically Jr. High and High School?

2) What about Elementary Education in the US?

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