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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

#451

Post by nrahnemoon1 »

suyash wrote: post #381
sama wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest problem is that it's making housing totally unaffordable. I think it's critical SF fix this, and that the only real solution is more supply. Unfortunately, homeowners are the ones that vote, and they are loving the increase in home values and don't want to see a lot more supply get built.

The supply can't just be produced out of the blue. There isn't enough land in San Francisco to build a whole bunch of housing. The key is to expand out of city or create zones in city for affordable housing.

Or the opposite -- get rid of zoning restrictions. Laissez-faire.

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

#452

Post by sama »

swampthinker wrote: post #412

Hi Sam, I'm currently a highschool junior and the co - founder of EnerScore. I'm aware that YC has a semi-preference for younger founders as you said so yourself, but I wanted to know how YC might view me being this young. Will it count against me in my application, or is YC more focused on the product itself?

The only hard disqualifier is if no founders are 18 or older, because you can't sign contracts in that case.

I generally do not think it's a good life decision to start a company when you're 16 or 17, and I'd suggest waiting a couple of years.

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

#453

Post by jammess »

Hi Sam, what is a good growth / revenue / number of users to have before applying to YC? We are in a private beta for a kind of social network, 1 month with ~700 users and ~10% weekly growth, is it good or should we wait? We are also starting in another country (not in the US) because all our contacts are here

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

#454

Post by [deleted] »

eachro wrote: post #385
latj wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain. Is $100k enough for a person to live without roommates within 20-30 minutes commute from said startup? Eat healthy food? Pay student loans? Have health insurance and build savings? I'm not from the Bay Area- this is a serious question.

You probably won't be able to afford living without roommates. But the rest, is certainly feasible on a 100k+ salary.

[deleted]

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

#456

Post by Zak »

abeppu wrote: post #407
sama wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a personal choice for workers. If you're an engineer and you want a guaranteed $250k per year, go work for a financial firm. Nothing wrong with that decision. Everyone gets to make his or her own. Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain. It is indeed "maybe-someday" competition. When you work at a startup,…

> When you work at a startup, you're acting like an investor but investing your time instead of your money. True, except: (a) An employee can probably only work for one startup at a time, and begins vesting after a year. That's like asking an investor to bet on at most 1 company per year. (b) Employers tend to give substantially less detailed information about their business, financials, etc to prospective employees…

If after that point things go downhill, we're out on money, but also years of our careers.

Maybe if you're thinking about a career in terms of building seniority over a long period of time at a single company. Working at a startup usually involves a good bit of responsibility and a diverse set of technologies compared to working at a larger company. It seems to me that's going to look good to most prospective employers.

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

#457

Post by epicureanideal »

suyash wrote: post #381
sama wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest problem is that it's making housing totally unaffordable. I think it's critical SF fix this, and that the only real solution is more supply. Unfortunately, homeowners are the ones that vote, and they are loving the increase in home values and don't want to see a lot more supply get built.

The supply can't just be produced out of the blue. There isn't enough land in San Francisco to build a whole bunch of housing. The key is to expand out of city or create zones in city for affordable housing.

There's plenty of land if you build vertically instead of flat. There's a bunch of 2-4 story buildings that could be 10-20+ story buildings.

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

#458

Post by tashmahalic »

sama wrote: post #408
lsllc wrote: post #390

There's a well known theory that non-competes stifles innovation and in particular CA's ban on these has allowed SV to flourish. There have been moves afoot in MA to enact a similar ban, although recently it seems to have been somewhat defanged through lobbying by the likes EMC (despite still being protected by copyright, trade secrets and patents!). What are your thoughts on this; if MA is able to pass a ban on non-…

I think it'd be good to do this, but that the startup scene is really broken in Boston for many other reasons. I'm not very optimistic this would be enough to fix it.

How else is the startup scene broken in Boston?

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

#459

Post by trefn »

latj wrote: post #376
sama wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a personal choice for workers. If you're an engineer and you want a guaranteed $250k per year, go work for a financial firm. Nothing wrong with that decision. Everyone gets to make his or her own. Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain. It is indeed "maybe-someday" competition. When you work at a startup,…

>Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain. Is $100k enough for a person to live without roommates within 20-30 minutes commute from said startup? Eat healthy food? Pay student loans? Have health insurance and build savings? I'm not from the Bay Area- this is a serious question.

I have lived very comfortably in Oakland for the last year on a ~100K salary. 30 min commute door to door, eat out a lot, travel, etc. With a quite nice 1bed apartment with a view.

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

#460

Post by TheDong »

Does YC consider the potential of bad press to itself when funding a company? If a founder were to apply with a startup such as Bad Dragon (dildo manufacturer), abortion clinic-specific software platform, wikileaks-esque platform, or any other such controversial idea, would it reduce the founder's chance of being accepted?

Are there any startups that have been funded by YC that led to publicity fallout?

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