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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

#251

Post by ratpik »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #182
sama wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Never say never, but no current plans (and honestly, it might make more sense to do something outside the US next). The hardest part would be convincing some of our partners to move out there, or finding new ones we could train out here first. 2. Not ready to talk about specific areas, but I promise they are interesting ones :) It will be super super easy for our researchers to collaborate with outsider researcher…

1. Europe? :)

I know YC was actively exploring a set-up in India sometime early this year. Not sure what the current status is.

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

#252

Post by throwaway41597 »

How much love from the programmer for their language and stack do you recommend for a software-heavy product ? I mean should one launch a v1 ASAP in language X even though this clearly isn't a language they love or should they spend more time looking for something they want to work with in the long run because the product will require a lot of work.

Thank you for spending time on HN on a regular basis! Would love other partners to do the same.

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

#253

Post by aakashnigam »

sama wrote: post #151
aakashnigam wrote: post #65

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!

A or B.

Any advice on differentiating such idea in the YC application, from the herd, building services (an app/website where good design, paired with user traction stands out)?

Shall we focus on? A. Research side (the actual research ideas, tough to explain in 300 words, can be discussed in brainstorming session) B. The product it will enable. (UI based concept demo, with product/market fit that will it will enable)

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

#254

Post by misterbwong »

Hi Sam! Random question but I've read in a couple articles that your mom said by about 10, she would have been comfortable dropping you off alone in NYC.

As a new parent, I'm intrigued by this. What kinds of things did your parents do with/for you to foster this level of independence? What had the biggest effect on you, personally?

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

#255

Post by sama »

yongshin wrote: post #229

What are some qualities of a CEO that you wish to look for in a startup founder?

The only universal job description of a CEO is to make sure the company wins. We look for people who are going to make their company win--compelling vision, clear communication, determination, intelligence, "good at business", etc.

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

#256

Post by Noureddine »

Hi Sam, I am applying to the winter 2016 batch and I would like to ask you this:

- what is the exact purpose of the company description in the application, is it a mission statement?

- do you have examples of "something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered"

- is it important for the evaluation process if another company has already succeeded in another market but with a similar approach as the one we propose? Should we talk about it in the application?

Thank you for your help

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

#257

Post by dontmitch »

sama wrote: post #139
tmaly wrote: post #127

@sama I am about to launch a beta version of a service I find very useful in the food industry. I have spoken to a decent number of people during my customer development phase and everyone is excited about the service. However, I have not thought a lot about monetizing it. Right now I am just bootstrapping it and will release it as a free service. What is your take on free services and monetizing them?

It's ok as long as you have a plan to make money eventually (i.e. http://blog.samaltman.com/unit-economics ) However, why not charge on day 1? It sounds like something people should pay for. And charging always makes it clear if people really like your service or not.

Do you think charging on day 1 is typically the smarter route (e.g. to better validate the product, prove the unit economics, etc.)?

We've been struggling with the question of when to monetize since there are also some strong points in favor of waiting. Some of those include avoiding a local maximum by way of pigeonholing yourself early, making it easier to reach scale and get feedback from a broader market, etc.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

edit: To clarify, we have two monetization strategies that we think are especially viable—the question is when should a startup pull the trigger on their monetization strategy.

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

#260

Post by sama »

dshchung wrote: post #51

Hi Sam, you have previously mentioned in an interview that University of Waterloo comes to mind when you think of a school that produces great YC alums. As most of these founders were unproven and untested individuals at the time of applying to YC, what qualities do you feel has made the difference for them throughout the program?

They seem to get trained well to think of new ideas. They also get a very solid engineering education.
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