Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 317 posts

Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA

#121

Post by tyre »

refrigerator wrote: post #47

What do you think of teams that are working part-time (e.g. while in full time education/employment) on an idea with decent traction, but who are waiting for external validation (such as YC or other investment) before going full-time on it? Do you take it as a sign of low commitment?

You're basically asking YC to bet on you before you bet on yourself. If you aren't willing to go all in, what does that say?

Startups are really fucking hard. You have to have a serious belief and commitment to build a billion dollar business (which is what YC is investing in.) If you're unsure, that's totally fine, but you need to be the first to believe in your company and get used to being the only ones who believe in your company, in order to make it through the hard times.

Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA

#122

Post by healthenclave »

mwseibel wrote: post #106
healthenclave wrote: post #89

Hello Michael, Thanks for the AMA Question: Is there are more stringent criteria for accepting international founders and companies, focused on their local markets? The reason I am asking this is because most of the companies from India in the latest batch, seem to have a lot of traction and/or significant amount of funding before being accepted into YC. Most looks like good candidates for Series A. Vs other US based…

There isn't a higher bar for international founders or companies working on a non-US market. The number one reason why companies don't apply to YC is cause they don't think they can get in. I think this applies double for international founders and is why we have increased our international outreach. My best guess is that you are seeing more post launch international companies in YC cause they are more confident in a…

Thanks that makes a lot of sense.

Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA

#124

Post by johnhenry »

Hi Michael, I'm wondering if you can comment on how you think the current political comment will affect the startup scene?

For example, I remember reading (sorry, no source) that YC is starting to hold events in Canada in order to welcome those who may not be able to come to the U.S. due to the current administration's executive orders. It looks like this may push startups out of the United States.

I'm hoping you can comment on this action, and other actions that might affect the startups in America and around the world, including, but not limited to actions involving education, public funding, military spending.

Thanks!

Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA

#125

Post by thejohnhenry »

avaer wrote: post #25

How do you feel about non-profit startups developing pure Open Source software and services in exchange for donations, in the interests of bettering the ecosystem itself? Could a nascent Mozilla be a YC nonprofit?

I'm extremely interested in this, as the current funding model for startups restricts new technology to companies that are fiduciarily compelled to monopolize their market, siphoning user data and (potentially) damaging civic society in the process. Startups are still a very good vehicle for most problems, but for certain classes of problems, sometimes make things worse, and I'm curious if YCombinator is interested in helping out with those types of initiatives.

Re: Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA

#126

Post by mwseibel »

ianai wrote: post #12

Thank you for taking the time today. It's neat and rare to have a somewhat direct line to someone in your position. What's the "big thing" 10 years from now? Ie Are smartphones still the rage and hottest "endpoint"? Did security wind up being the highest demand/pay IT career path? Etc

Honestly, this is not how I think about YC. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about what is going to be "the rage". We are excited about funding great founders and some subset of what early stage founders are interested in today will become the rage 10 years from now.
Post reply on HN