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I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#231
post #173

Hi Sam, does age of the founders factor in much in an application? I'm an older developer (40+).

Hello, Animex. I saw your question and I had this same question the other day. The average age of YC founders is about 29 (Source: https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/). I suggest you apply, what's the worst that could happen?

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#233
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We looked at our data here last year--we fund founders from a very wide variety of schools, and no school at all, but many of our most successful founders went to 'top schools' and thus it's easy to get the mistaken impression we select for that.

If your most successful founders did go to top schools, why don't you select for that?

In a way we do, in that it's one (of many) examples for someone doing something impressive in the past. We definitely look for founders who have shown some evidence of doing something impressive (and we try to adjust for whatever life circumstances people were born into).

But the main reason we don't is that there are important counterexamples in our portfolio, and if we said "we're only going to fund founders from top schools" we'd miss out on some big successes.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#234
post #57

Do you think YC would have been interested in something like Minecraft back in its infancy if you saw how fast user base was growing? Does YC have any interest at all in startups (if you can call them that) whose main product is a video game of some sort?

Machine Zone (Game of War) is a YC company. I don't know why they never talk about it.

Addictive pay-to-win mobile games aren't exactly glamorous, and in some social circles are pretty heavily frowned upon. Maybe bad PR, not sure.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#235
post #75

YCR has published request for research in basic income recently. What plans do you have for future areas of reseach?

So far we have supported AI and basic income research. We plan to do one more group soon, and then potentially one other later this year. We'll share more about them as we get closer--we advise startups not to pre-hype what they're going to do, and try to follow our own advice on that :)

support biogerontology/aging research

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#236
post #151
post #112

> 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…

Think about it -- you clearly decided your home country was not as conducive for building your future as the US may be Hi, as a Canadian, I also take issue with your statement. Your ancestors came here for the same reason as him, and with far less scrutiny, same as mine, and were provided many benefits not recieved today, including land grants. Why does a person migrating today deserve to be treated as second class?

> Why does a person migrating today deserve to be treated as second class?

You don't go into someone else's home and then expect to be treated like family. I don't think immigration policy is really centered around morality or what people "deserve" but, like with most government policy, looking out for the interests of the country.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA

#239

Last March, you mentioned on twitter that you are a customer of/financially support Shanley Kane's organization, Model View Culture. Since since then (and before then too), she has made a variety of racially and sexually charged statements, such as, "fire some fuckin white guys to get it done" ( https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KtAdEv... ). Do you or Y-Combinator still patronize or support Model…

Is this really the place/time to ask such questions? Or are you hoping for an answer because you feel Sam is trapped into answering here?
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