Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 559 posts

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

#481

Post by tcdent »

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'…

If you don't know what you'd do with seed capital, then I'm not convinced you know where your company is going.

You don't want a top-notch dev team? You don't have dreams to reach more enterprise customers? You don't want a world-class marketing campaign? You don't want a research team dedicated to the "next big thing"? There are tons of ways you can improve your offering.

Stubbornness is a desire to remain the same, persistence is the willingness to constantly change.

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

#482

Post by OopsCriticality »

mej10 wrote: post #436
OopsCriticality wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Publications and grants are the currency of academia: if one doesn't have a recent publication record, a hiring committee doesn't have a way to gauge one's performance and capabilities as an academic; if one doesn't have a history of getting grants, a hiring committee will be (rightfully) skeptical of one's ability to bring in money. Excepting teaching schools, one is hired for one's abilities as an academic research…

What separates YCR from a thing like Bell Labs? Bell Labs has produced a lot of great research and many researchers have had fruitful careers there and after. Why can't YCR be the same?

Track record of results, corporate memory, facilities, and the collective wisdom and experience of the fellows.

YCR could be the same, one day. Nevertheless, it's a very long and perilous road from YCR the proposal, to Bell Labs 2.0.

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

#483

Post by jkaunisv1 »

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?

Not a YC applicant or alum, but as a Waterloo CS grad - the co-op program was invaluable. 4 months study alternating with 4 months work in a real job = 6 different workplaces to learn from, and coming out of the degree with 2 years real experience. A lot of students, especially on the CS side, are getting jobs at startups for their co-op terms.

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

#484

Post by hugh4 »

shamino wrote: post #406
mej10 wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think that people who signed up for YCR are looking for alternatives, and who will themselves be part of a biased group. In other words, it might be people who have struggled to find tenure-track positions in academia. I think I'm mainly echoing the opinion that it's a little quick to say Academia is "fucked up", since with all it's flaws, there are still great virtues, and a more thoughtful response would probably…

Nobody is quicker to criticise academia than academics. Mind you, nobody is quicker to defend academia when criticised by outsiders than academics too.

Academia has misplaced incentives here and there and can certainly be unfair at times, but I've never actually run into any large system which didn't have those properties.

Still, let's not exaggerate how screwed the incentives are. Ultimately the best way to succeed in academic science is to do good work. (Also, do a lot of it, and be good at writing about how good your work is and why it should be given lots of money.)

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

#485

Post by jayzalowitz »

baristaGeek wrote: post #264
sama wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. No one at YC could interview the Airbnb guys and not fund them. I didn't know Drew back then but I expect it would have been the same thing for him.

I think he is not referring to the interview process, but rather to the "skimming through the application" process.

Yeah, I am sure having met them they would have gotten in, im talking purely getting to interview.

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

#487

Post by nostrademons »

OopsCriticality wrote: post #421
lectrick wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(disclaimer: I am a programmer who works for startups, but I've always admired scientists and researchers and have often contemplated a career switch to biotech.) How can an entire discipline that is supposedly based on rational evidence-finding be such a cliquey clusterfuck? You're basically saying that if you don't follow the community rules, which more or less boil down to "hazing," you'll be excommunicated. Sound…

Publications and grants are the currency of academia: if one doesn't have a recent publication record, a hiring committee doesn't have a way to gauge one's performance and capabilities as an academic; if one doesn't have a history of getting grants, a hiring committee will be (rightfully) skeptical of one's ability to bring in money. Excepting teaching schools, one is hired for one's abilities as an academic research…

Reading between the lines in sama's comment - I think his objective is to replace academia, such that in 20 years, nobody will either attend or work for a university. Except he can't say that, because a.) he'd be laughed off this thread and b.) it's not to YC's advantage to alert competitors that they are, in fact, a threat.

The way it'd work out is the same way YC itself started: attract talented, smart people who have no patience for academia's politics. Let them make their own decisions. Build a brand on the discoveries they make, which attracts more people. Change public opinion about how research should be done. Eventually, the "top academic talent" realizes they've made a horrible mistake, and scrambles to join the new system that's replaced the old.

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

#488

Post by cperciva »

sama wrote: post #474
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'…

None of our current programs sound like a good fit. We're considering doing something for later-stage companies that might be a good fit, though we haven't sorted out details about the bay area for example. If it does end up as a 'go', we'd probably do it next year. It's also possible in future iterations of the fellowship we'll be open to companies that are further along. Hope we figure something out at some point!

Thanks for coming back and replying! Sorry I was a bit late with my question.

Great to hear that there may be routes opening up in the future -- I'll keep my eyes open.

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

#489

Post by btilly »

markkat wrote: post #386
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.

Speaking as a researcher, IMO you might be belittling the OP's concern. While the YC initiative is noble, it has yet to be tested. I have worked in research and tech startups, and in very many ways the two couldn't be more different. Some of the best biotech research comes from incremental and ponderous study of minutiae, not 'ends driven' processes. From the perspective of a biotech researcher in the US, the funding…

Speaking as a researcher, IMO you might be belittling the OP's concern.

Speaking as someone who left academia close to two decades ago, sama hit the nail on the head.

The kinds of people that sama is targeting are ones who in the current system are going to wind up in postdocs or teaching adjuncts. With the way that universities are structured, all incentives are to have as many of these as possible doing teaching, pay them as little as possible, string them along on as long as possible, and reward as few as possible with the golden apple of tenure. These incentives have been taken to an outrageous extent. If you are a young researcher and are concerned that YCR is too risky, then you're not being honest about your own prospects.

Increased funding for research does not solve this problem. The university system structurally creates more PhDs than it can create jobs for unless the university system is growing rapidly. This was last true in the 1950s and 1960s, but has not worked out for most grad students since. Shrinking is admittedly worse than steady, but both are bad.

Therefore the YCR opportunity gives researchers a chance to do research that might or might not be better than a regular postdoc, and significantly improved job prospects if it doesn't. The best way to address that issue is to be honest about it.

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

#490

Post by nostrademons »

tcdent wrote: post #481
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'…

If you don't know what you'd do with seed capital, then I'm not convinced you know where your company is going. You don't want a top-notch dev team? You don't have dreams to reach more enterprise customers? You don't want a world-class marketing campaign? You don't want a research team dedicated to the "next big thing"? There are tons of ways you can improve your offering. Stubbornness is a desire to remain the same,…

I think - based on his posting history, which dates back all the way to the beginning of HN - that Colin knows exactly where his company is going. He has very specific opinions about how security should be done, the expertise to back that up, and a customer base that's (mostly) on board with those choices. Tarsnap's used by a number of prominent companies and individuals here, notably Stripe [1], patio11, and steveklabnik [2].

It may not be what the rest of us want, but remember that there are some companies that simply know what they're good at and want to own that particular niche.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7514618

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7523953

Post reply on HN