Any advice or observations regarding doing one's first startup in one's 30's and up?
Bezos did it, I believe.
To save anyone else the lookup: Bezos was born in '64 and Amazon was founded in '94.
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
431–440 of 768 posts
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#432Under what circumstances would you consider a company with:
- Solo founder
- No revenue yet
- 13-15k monthly active users and 1200-1500 daily active users
- Launched 6 months ago
Or is it not even worth trying yet?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#433Under what circumstances would you consider a consumer marketplace company with:
1) Solo founder,
2) No revenue yet,
3) 13-15k monthly active users and 1200-1500 daily active users,
4) Launched 6 months ago.
Or is it not even worth trying yet?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#434Has YC ever considered having a control group by randomly pre-accepting certain applicants into the program automatically? I'd be curious to see the stats on how successful that group would be versus the group that's actually picked by the committee.
Or another idea along these lines might be to have a checkbox on the application that says "Submit to audience choice if rejected" and, if they don't get in, those applications are opened to voting by HN users above a certain karma threshold. Pick the five highest ranked applications and bring them in as a normal YC company.
Aren't you afraid that something like that can be easily gamed? Or maybe voting can be limited to accounts that are 2-3+ years old and/or Karma greater than n.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#435Hey Sam, Any comment regarding Jason Calacanis being banned from YC's upcoming demo day? Jason tweeted[1] his side but didn't know what the YC side of it was and was curious. [1] https://twitter.com/Jason/status/710176806184349696
Jason's an investor in my company, http://dailydrip.com. we started out doing something entirely different. He told us from the beginning that he invests in founders. I got the chance to test that when a huge incumbent in our prior space released essentially our product at a better price, and we decided to pivot to dailydrip.
I was a bit worried about discussing it with him, honestly. I didn't need to be. He was extremely supportive, and our current business is doing fantastically; we're even more passionate about it. In addition, everyone I've met that ever had him as an investor seems to have the same experience: once he's in your court, he's ridiculously helpful.
Long story short, I maintain that getting into the launch incubator or getting Jason on your side as an investor is one of the best things an early stage startup can do. Have never met someone who had him as an investor who had a negative word to say.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#436I'm actively working on data-based civics projects that should hopefully have positive individual financial impact - particularly for lower income households. It's very fulfilling work that perhaps comes close in addressing localized economic problems (eg, neighborhoods). Problem with this sort of work is that it's generally incremental and has zero immediate effects. In other words, there's no way in hell anyone's g…
Applying for government grants?
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#437Hey Sam, Any comment regarding Jason Calacanis being banned from YC's upcoming demo day? Jason tweeted[1] his side but didn't know what the YC side of it was and was curious. [1] https://twitter.com/Jason/status/710176806184349696
To be clear, it has nothing to do with all the shit he talks about YC. Though that's annoying, it's fine. We collect feedback from YC founders on investors (we have a giant database of this). If you mistreat founders, we don't invite you to Demo Day. This isn't permanent--if you stop mistreating founders we start inviting you again. Also, it's possible that our founders are wrong in their assessment of how a particul…
This is not our experience. Actually, Jason is the most founder-friendly investor that I have ever worked with. He really cares about founders.
He was the very first investor that invested in us, and has become our biggest champion since our very early days.
Most investors look for traction and only decide to invest when you have traction. Jason sees the fire and the determination in us (first time founders), and decides to support us, and helps us grow as a person and as a company.
Some other investors just put in money and disappears. But Jason truly cares and whenever we need help, he's always there. He gives us frank feedback that we really need, he challenges us and pushes us to be better. He helps us with intros. He sends product feedback and recommendations without being asked.
I know dozens of other founders that Jason had invested in and I know that they all feel the same way I do about Jason.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#438Hey Sam, Any comment regarding Jason Calacanis being banned from YC's upcoming demo day? Jason tweeted[1] his side but didn't know what the YC side of it was and was curious. [1] https://twitter.com/Jason/status/710176806184349696
To be clear, it has nothing to do with all the shit he talks about YC. Though that's annoying, it's fine. We collect feedback from YC founders on investors (we have a giant database of this). If you mistreat founders, we don't invite you to Demo Day. This isn't permanent--if you stop mistreating founders we start inviting you again. Also, it's possible that our founders are wrong in their assessment of how a particul…
[deleted]
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, we are so busy, there are so many companies, and ideas are worth so little, that most of us don't think twice about a specific company once we move on to the next applications. The very best ideas usually don't seem worth stealing.
The concept of ideas being worth near to nothing is new to me, can you explain that thinking? Without monetary arguments this seems not right.
Ideas are cheap, it's the execution and the team that matter.
Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
#440I'd love to apply, but I'm on a H1-b visa and I'm basically in prison. How did the other international founders you worked with get around the immigration mess to start a company?
For one thing you can move for the three months program without visa :o