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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

#391

Post by cperciva »

giarc wrote: post #345
cperciva wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver might be better. It has less of a tech sector, but frankly nowhere in Canada has enough of a tech sector to matter much; however Vancouver has the important advantages of being much closer to the bay area (2.5 hours flying time to SFO, 7 flights/day each way), being large enough to have a tech boom without completely unbalancing its economy, and actually being somewhere people want to live.

I beg to differ. On the issue of tech sector, U Waterloo obviously puts out many great students. UBC isn't really known for it's tech streams. In addition, there's likely many smart tech people from RIM looking for jobs in the KW area. As for the issue of where people want to live. Vancouver is likely even more costly to live than SV. KW (and southern Ontario in general) is a great place with warm weather 6 months pe…

On the issue of tech sector, U Waterloo obviously puts out many great students.

I absolutely agree. But YC doesn't need to be where the university is. I mean, people apply to YC from all over the world, not just from the bay area.

Vancouver is likely even more costly to live than SV.

Relative to average income, yes. But that's just because Vancouver doesn't have much in the way of high-wage industries. In an absolute sense, Vancouver is much cheaper than SV.

KW (and southern Ontario in general) is a great place with warm weather 6 months per year and access to the 3rd largest city in North America.

Assuming you mean Toronto, it's only 3rd if you take "North America" to mean Canada+USA and take "largest" to mean "population within city limits"... a definition which says that Vancouver is smaller than Winnipeg, and San Francisco is smaller than Jacksonville. Based on metropolitan populations Toronto ranks 8th, between Washington DC and Houston.

But I would say that Toronto would be my second choice out of Canadian cities. The size definitely helps; I don't think it compensates for being three time zones away and twice as hard to reach from SFO though.

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

#392

Post by chubot »

cperciva wrote: post #359

Is there a place for Tarsnap at YC? Applying for YC funding doesn't make sense for several reasons: 1. I want to be king, not rich; everything I hear tells me that YC pushes companies to grow fast and increase their valuations, and that's something I fundamentally don't care about. I know that I'm stubborn enough that this would just result in a lot of frustration on both sides. 2. Tarsnap doesn't need the money. It'…

I think YC is the wrong place for this, for all the reasons you say. I don't see any reason that Tarsnap fits in YC besides "community", and even then it would be more of an outlier than a peer. It seems like it would fit in a community of people that are interested in lower risk, slower growing, but more personally lucrative businesses.

YC companies do technically interesting things for sure, but a lot of the community is probably more about hiring, office space, fund raising, financials, and that sort of thing. These are all different for high risk startups.

I heard about this "Micropreneur" thing several years ago. This is something that interests me, and I've been working part time on projects in this vein. It seems to me that people who want slower growth and less personal risk are inherently a little less "collaborative". That describes me and there's nothing wrong with it. Still, I understand the need to bounce ideas off of others, quickly fill in gaps in your knowledge, etc.

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

#393

Post by jstoiko »

cperciva wrote: post #359

Is there a place for Tarsnap at YC? Applying for YC funding doesn't make sense for several reasons: 1. I want to be king, not rich; everything I hear tells me that YC pushes companies to grow fast and increase their valuations, and that's something I fundamentally don't care about. I know that I'm stubborn enough that this would just result in a lot of frustration on both sides. 2. Tarsnap doesn't need the money. It'…

did you hear about YC Research announced 2 days ago?

- the link: https://ycr.org - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10347821

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

#394

Post by philippnagel »

sama wrote: post #355
philippnagel wrote: post #344

Hi Sam, Any tips on balancing uni, research there (pre-doc) and a startup (co-founder, CTO)? Do you think it is necessary to give up one for another?

I don't think you can do all 3 well at the same time, nor should you try. Pick what you most want to excel at for now and focus on that.

Thought so too.

Right now I am more drawn towards the first two occupations I mentioned.

The startup involves a very interesting business model. However it is technically not very challenging (B2B marketplace). It just seems to be very hard to wind down my engagement there.

My main interest lies within AI (Philosophy/CS student). My thirst for knowledge hasn't been fulfilled yet and so far I really enjoy the academic atmosphere.

I really have to set priorities now. Thanks for your quick response.

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

#395

Post by byoung2 »

sama wrote: post #63
qrasi wrote: post #50

@sama - Based on my friends who have previously applied to YC .. it seems as if applications submitted in the last 3-4 days before the deadline, don't really get reviewed. When submitted early, they would notice YC related views to their website and Youtube video. Unfortunately, when submitted close to the deadline, there were no views.

The YouTube counter has never seemed to work well with our reviewing software, so I'd ignore that. That said we do get to spend more time on applications that get submitted early (as we've always said) so there is a slight advantage to submitting early.

We submitted early for last winter, and we noticed 4 complete views of our video, which was comforting.

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

#396

Post by alain94040 »

aakashnigam wrote: post #326
ratpik wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hope YC India is real some day!

By the way, you don't have to wait for someone else to do it for you. The whole point of the startup ethos is that you don't need permission to start. No YC where you are? Pool like-minded local entrepreneurs and make your own. It won't be as good at first, but so what? You'd be surprised how much you can achieve.

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

#397

Post by mej10 »

shamino wrote: post #372
sama wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's fucked up about academia. All the more reason to create alternatives. Do you really want to be part of a system that does not allow for failure? At a minimum, I expect YCR researchers to be turning down job offers from YC companies all the time.

With all due respect to Sam Altman and everything he's accomplished, this is a pretty snarky comment that does not spend the time to thoughtfully answer the very real concern that OP presented. It's a huge risk to leave academia to participate in the possibly career-destroying alternative that currently exists. Academia isn't perfect with respect to career opportunities, but it does produce results. There are many in…

Do you think the people that have signed up for YCR haven't considered the career risks?

It seems like anyone seriously interested in being a career researcher would know how unforgiving and competitive mainstream academia is.

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

#398

Post by S4M »

tmalsburg2 wrote: post #370
sama wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's fucked up about academia. All the more reason to create alternatives. Do you really want to be part of a system that does not allow for failure? At a minimum, I expect YCR researchers to be turning down job offers from YC companies all the time.

I fully agree with your analysis of the shortcomings of the academic system, but that's really a lame response and suggests that you didn't think this through. We're not talking about people in their early twenties who can invest some years in crazy experiments without fearing the consequences. Researchers at that stage have invested a substantial chunk of their lives in their careers and many of them have families t…

Not sama here, not affiliated with YC, but my guess is that a talented researcher who spent some time on a bad track at YCR could keep working for YC as a scientific advisor or work for one of the YC companies that might need his/her skills, if he/she can't go back to academia.

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

#399

Post by cperciva »

jstoiko wrote: post #393
cperciva wrote: post #359

Is there a place for Tarsnap at YC? Applying for YC funding doesn't make sense for several reasons: 1. I want to be king, not rich; everything I hear tells me that YC pushes companies to grow fast and increase their valuations, and that's something I fundamentally don't care about. I know that I'm stubborn enough that this would just result in a lot of frustration on both sides. 2. Tarsnap doesn't need the money. It'…

did you hear about YC Research announced 2 days ago? - the link: https://ycr.org - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10347821

I mentioned YCR at the end of my comment. :-)

Based on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10361472 it sounds like that's limited to the US for now too.

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

#400

Post by tibbon »

sama wrote: post #167
mindcrime wrote: post #121

1. Would / will you ever consider opening an East Coast branch? I understand all the "stuff" about why SV is great for startups, but there will always be people who can't /won't get up and travel completely to the other side of the country for an extended period of time. And while the EC might not be the startup hotbed that SV area is, it's quite clear that there is a LOT of startup activity and some great startups b…

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…

Perhaps Boston (it made sense at one point right?)
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