I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

Post by bambang150 » Sun, Oct 11, 2015, 12:56 AM UTC

sama wrote: post #291

tkkk wrote: post #280

In 3 years I will move to US and apply to YC, but that's forever away. I want to start doing now. Is there a checklist, or a blueprint, or a list of topics, or a list of books that you can recommend that will cover the most important/basic/low-level aspects of building a company? What should I be thinking about? I'm looking for the backbone; I can work on figuring out the proper shape of what I'm building along the w…

I took a stab at this here: http://startupclass.samaltman.com I'm working on a sort of startup playbook. It's long but will hopefully be helpful.

Post by ajju » Sun, Oct 11, 2015, 11:38 PM UTC

sama wrote: post #59

bcjordan wrote: post #52

What are some of the biggest pain points you see early YC companies struggling with (esp. during batches)? Are there any unsolved problems for growing companies you wish someone would apply to solve?

The biggest problem is failing to make a product that some users love, but then thinking they will solve their problems by doing everything else well. The second-biggest problem is probably cofounder fallouts. Internal communication and management structure are always big problems for growing companies that I wish someone would solve.

Post by tylerhwillis » Tue, Oct 13, 2015, 3:52 AM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #539

te wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colin, given that you don't want to live in the Bay Area, how do you envision yourself being a part of the YC community? These propositions seem fundamentally at odds with one another. Given that restriction, however, here are some ideas: Could you arrange to go down to YC periodically and hold "office hours" to begin relationships with founders that are doing interesting things in your areas of expertise? Could thes…

Colin, given that you don't want to live in the Bay Area, how do you envision yourself being a part of the YC community? Well, you see, there's this thing called the "Internet" which allows people to communicate over large distances... Could you arrange to go down to YC periodically and hold "office hours" to begin relationships with founders that are doing interesting things in your areas of expertise? That's someth…

Post by jbernab » Tue, Oct 13, 2015, 4:59 AM UTC

sama wrote: post #19

berpasan wrote: post #7

Hi @sama, I'm From Brazil and CEO of an EdTech startup. We're profitable, with 60 employees and a lot consumer traction/revenue, but didn't raise a Series A yet. Questions: 1) What advice would you give to applicants from Brazil and other large countries (India, China, Russia), whose products initially target their local markets? 2) What advice would you give to post-Seed and pre-Series A applicants? When (if at all)…

1) No specific advice--we fund lots of companies whose products target far-away markets and are particularly interested in doing so. The only different question we might ask you is "How will you handle being away from your users for 3 months?" 2) We have funded companies that have raised more than $10 million, and they've said they still got a lot of value out of YC. If anything, it's usually the existing investors t…

Post by aliakhtar » Tue, Oct 13, 2015, 11:39 AM UTC

sama wrote: post #181

giis wrote: post #177

Considering the fact that we are more than 1-billion people with booming economy (some redtapes are there but..), do you have plans for purely India (/subcontinent) specific programmes in near future?

I'm coming to visit soon! We fund more and more Indian companies (they come here for 3 months and then go back to India).