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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

#111

Post by pavornyoh »

tristanho wrote: post #47
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?

Not a complete answer at all, but it looks like the former CTO of stripe, Greg Brockman, is going to be involved[1]. I assume to start they're gonna look at people close to the YC network? [1] https://twitter.com/gdb/status/651825359340507136

@Tristanho, thanks for the answer and the link.

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

#112

Post by sama »

davidhhenu wrote: post #103

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…

That's ok; we understand.

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

#114

Post by steven2012 »

sama wrote: post #104
steven2012 wrote: post #38

What makes you qualified to run Ycombinator above any of the other partners?

I believe any of us could do it.

Thanks for the response. I'm just curious about what process pg went through to choose you, if you're privy to that. Obviously, he spent many years doing a lot of experimenting to get to his "finished product". And when he decided to leave, he chose you. Do you have any insight as to what in particular he felt you had that felt you would be the best choice?

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

#115

Post by susiwbkpagwjs »

Sam, what do you think about microexposure to artificial toxins such as pesticides and antibiotics in the modern American diet, which recent research has demonstrated to have significant effects on our health as compared to the diets of our grandparents?

We've mainly left this problem in the hands of the FDA. Is it time for a deeper quantitative investigation?

Is this an area YCResearxh might look into?

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

#116

Post by igravious »

grownseed wrote: post #85

Hi Sam, the YC Research announcement got me very excited, particularly as someone who experiences the pain points you described first hand on a daily basis. First question, would YC Research be limited to the US or would you consider other countries (e.g. Canada in my case)? Also, would you ever consider partnering with existing Public/Government institutions? There are lots of very good people already working on som…

A similar YC Research location related query so I'll file it here.

How about the EU?

The cynic in me would love to be proved wrong by YC Research. I don't agree that academia is as broken as many here contend but I am intrigued by the re-imagining.

What I think people overlook is that academia is a blend of education and research whereas YC Research and other research-only institutes don't have to worry about educating the next generation so it's apples and oranges folks. Still... I genuinely wish the venture well, very exciting move.

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

#117

Post by sama »

networked wrote: post #101

How relevant is the old RFS 5 (Development on Handhelds, http://old.ycombinator.com/rfs5.html ) today compared to 2009 when it was published?

Certainly hasn't happened yet. It may be that human/phone I/O is just too slow. It's not the area I'm most focused on, but would be interesting if it happened.

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

#118

Post by ivankirigin »

I was excited about the research announcement!

I've been thinking about this for a while:

  - small companies rarely fund university research
  - the grant application process is complex
  - grad students get paid so little compared to tech workers
  - hiring a PhD student before they finish means abandoning their research
Do you think universities and research can be changed to get more companies funding research? I can imagine startups can get some great work done efficiently while increasing private funding of research.

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

#119

Post by AngrySkillzz »

susiwbkpagwjs wrote: post #115

Sam, what do you think about microexposure to artificial toxins such as pesticides and antibiotics in the modern American diet, which recent research has demonstrated to have significant effects on our health as compared to the diets of our grandparents? We've mainly left this problem in the hands of the FDA. Is it time for a deeper quantitative investigation? Is this an area YCResearxh might look into?

what is a toxin
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