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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

#501

Post by pavornyoh »

Paul_S wrote: post #461
sama wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last two books I read were Sapiens and The Supermen (given to be by @dang). Highly recommend both.

Please, you have to also tell us the authors if you really want to recommend them.

@Paul_S, I may be wrong and if it the same book I am thinking then see below. I hope this helps.

1)Sapiens (A brief history of humankind). The book authored by Yuri Noah Harari

2)TheSupermen (The story of seymour cray and the technical wizards behind the supercomputer). The book authored by Charles J. Murray.

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

#502

Post by MrKristopher »

slantedview wrote: post #322
sama wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best things you can do there are meet great potential cofounders, and get better at writing software. Also don't get sucked into living an expensive lifestyle when you get that high-paying job--this has killed many people's once-promising futures.

Which begs the question - how does one avoid living an expensive lifestyle in the bay/SF?

Rent first: maybe SF doesn't have any places with cheap rent, but the South Bay does. There are outliers in the market: $800/mo for a room or $1200/mo for a studio.

Car second: if you get an old car then the repairs + depreciation can be ~$500 / yr.

Services third: look at your most expensive purchases (Are there things that could be bought cheaper?) and your monthly bills (Do I need Netflix and Comcast cable? Do I need Costco and Amazon Prime? Do I need that EC2 instance? Do I need the deluxe laundry service?).

Food fourth: budget $5-$20 / day, leverage free food from your employer if possible.

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

#503

Post by nostrademons »

tcdent wrote: post #496
nostrademons wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 stevekl…

You're talking about where his company is. I'm not saying he's not already doing great - he says it himself above. My point is, if you're creative, directions to grow your company are not scarce. Resources to do-so are. If he is actually flush with cash, and doesn't know what to do with it, that's a fundamental problem.

It's not always a good idea to grow your company outwards - if you're good at what you do, it's better to do it even better than to start doing other stuff you're not good at. Oftentimes, bigger teams and more resources don't help with that.

History is full of companies (eg. Lotus, Evernote, Clinkle) that lost focus and floundered because they had too many resources available, and also of ones (eg. Apple after Steve Jobs's return) that took off after they cut their product lines and laid off people.

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

#504

Post by chubot »

wslh wrote: post #457
chubot wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 commun…

> It seems to me that people who want slower growth and less personal risk are inherently a little less "collaborative". Could you please expand on this? I am in the same vein as cperciva but it doesn't have any relationship with collaboration. Sometimes you have a relatively successful company where more capital and fast growth would cause more harm than good BUT because right now you can't see a path for growth.

It wasn't a very important comment, but I would say that there are some people who get a "high" from collaborating with many people on problems (working really hard with a small team), and some people who get a "high" from learning things on their own and applying them, with the help of experts.

One person you could take as an example is the Pinboard founder. If you read all his blog posts, I wouldn't call him a "collaborative" person. Is he a highly intelligent, productive, and respected member of society? Yes. Collaborative? No.

My impression is that cperciva is like this, but I could be wrong. I'm more like this too, as mentioned. But you still need community if you're in this camp.

I think there is potential for higher overall growth when you have the right team, simply because there are too many things for one person to do, requiring many different types of expertise. Though there is not necessarily higher "per capita" return.

But growth compounds, so that explains why YC prefers co-founders over solo founders. But YC also acknowledges that there is a big downside to working with teams: co-founder disputes are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, reason for startups failing!

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

#505

Post by hollaur »

tmalsburg2 wrote: post #298

I think you mentioned somewhere that you are aiming for early-career researchers, not so much for established group leaders. Being an early-career researcher myself (postdoc), my first thought was that your program could easily turn out to be a trap. At first, it looks like a fantastic opportunity because freedom and independence, etc. However, I'm sure that you are looking for high risk / high reward projects. So th…

This kind of got me fired up because academia is a hot mess. Instead of getting into a heated debate, I'll leave you with a quote...

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you are fed, clothed and given medical care. The only thing lacking...is freedom.”

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

#506

Post by hollaur »

tlb wrote: post #409
tmalsburg2 wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The world would be a better place if more people took career risks. The evidence is that the majority of interesting stuff was created by people taking big career risks, even though they're a minority of all researchers. So people who take career risks are more likely to create something great. It sucks to lose at a career gamble but, at least in Silicon Valley, most people who fail but keep trying, end up doing pret…

Amen.

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

#507

Post by edc117 »

aswanson wrote: post #186
FlyingLawnmower wrote: post #162

Hi Sam, I'm a graduating college senior, and I've accepted a job at a very big company in the tech industry. Right now, it makes the most financial sense for me to join a big company and pay off my debt quickly, but at some point in the future I'd love to scratch that entrepreneurial itch and apply to YC. How do I maximize my time at a big company to gain relevant skills to keep the possibility of a startup open in t…

Im not Sam but I was similar to you (planwise) when I graduated. I would urge you to be very careful if that is your long-term plan, it is very easy to develop a lifestyle around a comfortable low-risk paycheck and say, "I'll do it down the line". 5-10 years can fly by very quickly in those situations, still at the same place doing the same thing. You will never have as much free time as you do right now, and if you…

Speaking as someone who has watched those 10 years fly by, this is excellent advice. It can be very tempting to get comfortable; you have plenty of time for that later in life. Struggle while you're still at your peak, take risks now. And for the people in my shoes...don't let those 10 years stop you anyway, we're dead when we're dead.

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

#508

Post by cperciva »

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,…

You don't want a top-notch dev team?

I think I already have one. ;-)

You don't have dreams to reach more enterprise customers? You don't want a world-class marketing campaign?

Hell no. Those sound like a lot of work.

You don't want a research team dedicated to the "next big thing"?

Not really. I mean, research is great, but Tarsnap is a backup service. It shouldn't be a backup service which also dabbles in self-driving cars, or a backup service which also hosts minecraft servers. If I decide I want to do something new, it will be something new, not part of Tarsnap.

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

#509

Post by markkat »

btilly wrote: post #489
markkat wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, p…

I can see that. More options are always good. Industry has long been a lucrative option. However, I see the OP's concern relating to certain types of research that are largely supported in academia alone. Sam suggest that YCR is an alternative to academic research. Personally, I think YCR will represent another option more than a replacement. Which is fine. However, I don't imagine they can afford the waste needed for academic curiosity and the benefits it brings.

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

#510

Post by qunicorn »

ramkumarceg wrote: post #388

like we have mentioned here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10360682 we have curated the AMA at http://www.askmeanything.me/brands/ycombinator

While the link has * Many other Q&As related to YCombinator at one place

The Q&A for this thread itself can be found in a separate tab on the page labeled as "Winter 2015 Application" on the link http://www.askmeanything.me/brands/ycombinator

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