151–160 of 559 posts
What would be the right time for an idea that involves some technical depth to apply to YC? In other words, hypothetically, if YC had existed during the 90s, at what stage should Google Guys have applied to YC (Between 1995-1998, A) when the idea struck (mid 1995) B) When it started crawling the web (around 1996), or C) when they bought the domain (1998). Thanks!
Sam, we've applied to YC Winter 2016 within the first five days, but thinking about making minor changes to the application. Does "editing" have a negative-effect? Do you read the whole application again or just the edits? Thanks in advance!
What was your first personal investment like?
It was /dev/finance, which became Stripe. (This was sort of funny years later, when I was sorting through my stock certificates. I momentarily forgot that Stripe was originally called something else, and put that stock cert in the "lost cause" pile.)
Based on the current performance of the first YC Fellowship, will you have future editions of this programme? You guys mention that it's for founders who haven't raised any money at all (although something such as a free-equity grant from a university is ok). If you do plan to invest in YC Fellows via an equity deal in the near future, how acceptable would a -very small- investment from FFF for exchange in equity wou…
I'm not sure what our ongoing stance on having already raised money will be, but likely there will be some sort of carveout for a very small amount of friends and family money.
I have a question relating to AI and YCR.
I remember your blog about AI mentioning how many of the best private companies are very secretive about their advances and research.
Was YCombinator Research heavily influenced by this secrecy in specifically the AI fields?
Is YCR going to have a focus on AI, at least initially?
Can you give any insight into the fields of research you are focusing on?
In your opinion, what is the greatest impediment to getting better software into government. Second, is there a market opportunity in alleviating this/these impediments?
What is your take on the value proposition for an older, experienced engineer (e.g. 10+ years) joining a startup as an early employee (e.g. non-founder)? I get the sense from what I read and hear that there is romance and then there is reality. Would love to get an honest take from someone with your perspective.
It totally depends on the company. Are you going to get as meaningful (i.e. more than 1%) equity grant and real responsibility? Do the founders seems good, and good to work with? Obviously if you can join the next Facebook as an early employee, that's really great :)