Mr. Altman, can you tell us about your morning routine?
:)
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
201–210 of 768 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#202Hey Sam, semi technical question here. NIPS, ran an experiments a few years ago where for 10% of the papers they had two completely independent teams of reviewers assess papers and score them - the agreement between the teams was very low: http://blog.mrtz.org/2014/12/15/the-nips-experiment.html (barely better than chance, actually). Would you consider doing something similar for YC? Obviously, you already have multi…
We have multiple people review each application (except the very good/very bad ones) and we look at the cases where the assessments are very different. Some of the best companies have the most disagreement, which is why we have implemented our "strong yes" policy--if any single partner wants to fund a company, we fund it. It's much more important to our returns that we fund the next Airbnb than if we mistakenly fund…
Who makes the first top-level judgement of "this is very good" or "this is very bad?"
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#203What is the payback period YC looks for? i.e. How many years does it take for a home-run to become a home-run?
We are happy if it takes 10+ years--those are the cases where you make the most money.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#204Hi Sam, I am an international founder. I want to join YC and incorporate in the US. But to avoid wasting time on visa things, I want to return to my home country (India) after YC. 1) Should I mention this in my application? 2) From YC's point of view, do you prefer international founders who want to stay on in the US or those who want to go back to their home country? Assuming they would kill it either way. (PS - My…
Sure, mention it--that's fine with us.
Thank you Sam. By the way here is the link to YC's page on Comment https://comment.ws/us/y-combinator
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#205> I'm on a H1-b visa and I'm basically in prison I know this is an exaggeration, and I'm fully aware the current visa situation in the US could be better, but I really take issue with the sentiment of your statement. You're being afforded an enormous opportunity here, and should not compare it with being in a prison. Think about it -- you clearly decided your home country was not as conducive for building your future…
I agree that with your sentiment about it being a privilege, not a right. As an immigrant right now, out of school, even getting an H1-B is so hard, that I'd do anything just for that visa. You can at least join a program like Unshackled or become a Global Entrepreneur in Residence at a University while working for you startup. However, the metaphor about it being a prison isn't so farfetched either. It's likes writing book in prison, vs writing it not in prison. You can still write the book - They are just different scenarios.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#206This is going to sound crass, but if a founder can't make the sacrifice to spend 3 months in SV for YC, are they really prepared to build the next billion dollar company?
That's quite a narrow view to take. Many billion dollar companies built outside the US. Alibaba the best example.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#207Sam, thank you for taking some time to answer our questions. Mark Suster and other VCs have recently expressed distaste for convertible notes and SAFEs. Are you still in favor of SAFEs? In general, what are your thoughts on seeking seed funding for super early stage startups when determining a valuation might be problematic?
I think SAFEs are good. I think uncapped SAFEs/convertible notes are very bad and misalign founders and investors--they punish early investors for helping the company to be worth more.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#208Hi Sam, you just replied to a question with this : "Having a cofounder you don't know well is usually a very bad idea. It's much more important to trust someone and know they are great than to 'hire' for a specific skill."
What do you recommend for someone who isn't a friend with a good developer ? Is it better to subcontract the development of the site/app to a good software development company ?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#209Is Peter Thiel still a part-time partner? Does he come around the office?
Yes.
No--he does office hours at his office.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#210Hi Sam How do you decide between putting a company in the fellowship vs YC core?
Honestly, we're still somewhat figuring that out.