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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

#701

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

financedfuture wrote: post #556
sama wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Does YC take Jason and other early-stage investors as direct competitors?

I actually believe it's fine for folks to incubator hop -- Sam does not.

Sam's Post: http://blog.ycombinator.com/getting-into-y-combinator

my post: http://calacanis.com/2016/01/26/incubator-hopping-should-you...

99% of the investors out there agree with my position -- the 1% that don't work at YCombinator. :-)

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

#702

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

vogt wrote: post #312
carlisle_ wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jason is a bully. I've heard plenty of horror stories of people who have worked for him. I'm not surprised in the least and I'm extremely glad to see people standing up to him.

Just for what it's worth, as I know it isn't the same as working for someone - I interviewed for a position working directly for Jason and he was all class. I'm a designer and part of the interview process, as is often the case, was to complete a small design project. He flat out insisted on paying me for my time (nobody else in my career has ever even offered) and wouldn't take no for an answer, and was professional…

When I was broke I would sometimes ask folks "hey can you should me how you would tackle this problem?"

It was then up to them to do the spec work or not.

However, when I was able to afford to pay folks, I was like "well, if I pay three people $500 or $1,000 to do a project and pick the winner as my eventually designer, that's a good use of $1,500!"

Thanks for taking the time to share this story. I'm far from perfect, but I work really hard every day to help as many people I can.... because so many people helped me get to the top of the mountain!

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

#703

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

LifeAfterCubes wrote: post #407
adamdill wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked directly for Jason for about 3 years, as a direct report. I never once saw him bully anyone. He expects and pushes people to be their best. Additionally he doesn't allow people to waste his time, or the time of others in his organizations. Both of these are admirable qualities. Additionally after I left his employ, he was our first investor in a new venture, and relentlessly supported us along the way. Jason…

I also worked directly for Jason for nearly 3 years and have nearly an identical story as Adam. The entire Launch organization was built around Jason giving back to founders. All of his actions during my time working for him reflected this mission.

It was a pleasure to watch you grow into an awesome CEO yourself!

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

#704

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

redtri wrote: post #399
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #221

Hey 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 is the only investor I've worked with that treated me simply as a founder, not a "female founder." This alone is a reason that new YC entrepreneurs should have access to working with him. He sets an example of how entrepreneurs should be treated. Jason has seen me at my worst, when I was ready to throw in the towel and battling with my board and generally having a tough, tough time, and I left the meeting with…

You've fought really hard to get RedTri through some very rough times... I respect that a lot. It's been awesome to work with you JB!

If you have kids, I suggest checking out their SF page: http://redtri.com/san-francisco-kids/

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

#705

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

JeremyHoward wrote: post #593
nikcub wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are one of 7 brand new accounts created since this thread was posted who have left comments praising Jason: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=supergeek18 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=vincentc https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Clectasteve https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ericzli https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rushtix https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=redtri https://news.ycombinator.com/u…

Sam altman tweeted this thread to his 149,000 twitter followers some of which would have worked with Jason, and won't have HN accounts. Before Sam edited his comment, his comment implied that Jason had bullied founders, changed offers and shared founders confidential information. > 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 De…

I talked to Sam about his original comments and he said they were not fair and he corrected them.

Sam and I are actually, and I know this is hard to believe, fond of each other. We started as Sequoia scouts together and have both had great success being startup advocates.

It's nice that the companies I work with took the time to uncloak/create accounts to defend me. It's touching actually.

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

#706

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #601
nikcub wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are one of 7 brand new accounts created since this thread was posted who have left comments praising Jason: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=supergeek18 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=vincentc https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Clectasteve https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ericzli https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rushtix https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=redtri https://news.ycombinator.com/u…

> Rather obvious what is going on here - and it is pathetic Because having people create fake accounts just to leave positive comments is far more likely than thousands of people being exposed to this thread via Sam and Jason's tweeter feeds? I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions with no data to back up your assertions. For what it's worth, while I've never worked with Jason, I have met him once (briefly) and…

I responded to a bunch of the comments and included the URLs of the startups who came to my defense -- which is very touching to me.

... and because you should check out how awesome their startups are!

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

#707

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

knewter wrote: post #435
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #221

Hey 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 ext…

thanks pal.... I love what daily drip is doing in education and, yeah, pivots are scary -- but it's better to pivot than die!

We are going to have massive success together... can't wait to high five in seven years (or less)!

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

#708

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

falsestprophet wrote: post #308

Does this statement risk a tortious interference with business relationship suit? You have published a statement that could reasonably interpreted as Jason Calacanis mistreats founders by bullying them, changing offers, sharing their confidential info and other things. That intentionally obstructs Mr. Calcanis from entering into valuable business relationships with startup company founders. It seems very risky unless…

Sam changed his original statement. I forgive him for saying I did those things and believe it wasn't his intent to damage my reputation (which he is doing by banning me from YC -- it's a harsh move that I'm having to do a lot of reputation damage prevention on).

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

#709

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

apsec112 wrote: post #326
falsestprophet wrote: post #308

Does this statement risk a tortious interference with business relationship suit? You have published a statement that could reasonably interpreted as Jason Calacanis mistreats founders by bullying them, changing offers, sharing their confidential info and other things. That intentionally obstructs Mr. Calcanis from entering into valuable business relationships with startup company founders. It seems very risky unless…

No, sama is not obligated to censor his honest opinions about random people he doesn't like. The First Amendment (and in some states, SLAPP statutes) protect him from legal threats of censorship. Interference with business relationships is only a thing if (among other conditions) the two parties already have some type of agreement. It does not apply to investors approaching founders they don't even know yet. Slander/…

The issue here is that the way Sam originally wrote his response, he was clearly saying I leaked information and changed a deal on a startup -- two things I've never, ever done.

There really is no upside to leaking information on a startup if you're an investor (all these leaks come from employees typically).

On changing a deal, I'm really blunt about what I think a startup is worth... I just tell folks "I would value the company at X, if you can get 3X I suggest you go for it!" In fact, my candidness on this issue has kind of gotten me into this mess with YC to begin with (they haven't appreciated me saying stuff like "only an idiot would do an uncapped note" and "paying a $15m cap to a company with six weeks of data is just dumb." ).

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

#710

Post by jasonmcalacanis »

geoffclapp wrote: post #684
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #221

Hey 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

I'd be glad to answer any questions people have about Jason as an investor and share my experience. He was involved in my second startup - the first was very successful, the second was a failure. I had a great experience with Jason, even though the startup was shutdown. That shutdown was where Jason showed his true colors - he was always there, had great ideas, and was super supportive. When we did shut it down, the…

Thanks Geoff... I'm very proud of the work we did together.

Failure we is the precursor of success, so make sure I'm your first phone call when you have your next idea!

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