25 ms·
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA
Applications for YC for Summer 2016 are due next Thursday 3/24.
People often have questions about YC, and I'm happy to answer those (or questions about anything else).
EDIT: Ok, I have to run. Thanks for the questions!
- swampthinker 11y agoDo you think that people will care more about energy efficiency if they saw how much energy a home might use on Zillow?
- joeblau 11y agoYou're always wearing running shoes... how often and far do you run each week?
- sama 11y agoI don't run that much. I do walk a lot, but mostly I just think running shoes are comfortable.
- boredatnight12 11y agoSo, what next?
- andreygrehov 11y agoRecommend 3 must-read books.
- mwpmaybe 11y agohttp://blog.shelfie.com/2015/10/20/24-good-books-to-read-heres-what-sam-altman-of-y-combinator-is-reading/ http://blog.shelfie.com/2015/10/20/24-good-books-to-read-her...
- andreygrehov 11y ago1. You are not Sam A. 2. I asked 3 must-read books, not just 24 good ones. 3. The article is published by Kamil Szybalski, rather than Sam A.
- mwpmaybe 11y agoSam has answered this question in various forms and fashions on several past occasions and I thought you would like to know what he said at those times. But feel free to be snarky and swear at us instead.
- andreygrehov 11y agoI don't really get the point of down votes. I was honestly interested in Sam's personal response and not the lmgtfy.
- caballo7 11y agoCheckout http://parrotread.com/yc http://parrotread.com/yc. It has book recommendations from all YC partners, including Sam.
- andreygrehov 11y agoGoddamnyoupeople! Thanks!
- pierzcham 11y agoYCR has published request for research in basic income recently. What plans do you have for future areas of reseach?
- sama 11y agoSo far we have supported AI and basic income research. We plan to do one more group soon, and then potentially one other later this year. We'll share more about them as we get closer--we advise startups not to pre-hype what they're going to do, and try to follow our own advice on that :)
- evc123 11y agosupport biogerontology/aging research
- RCra 11y agoHey Sam! We're disrupting a $3.2B information market, full of old slow tech. We've received encouragement from YC alum to apply and had help with our application, but warned that what we're doing might be too difficult for the average tech person to grasp and be vetted out for this reason. We have 11k in revenue from our first sales cycle and 200% mom user growth. Any recommendations on how we can make sure we get heard?
- rdl 11y agoAny interesting new verticals where you think YC will expand to the degree it has in hardware?
- sama 11y agoBiotech
- fantasticfears 11y agoP.R.China has a strong policy to control information and policy restriction. What do you think of the possible problems for YC to cooperate with Chinese companies? Does that impede the growth of a startup?
- contingencies 11y agoAlso interested in this... I am working on my second mainland Chinese startup right now. But honestly, there's easier sources of capital in the country than outside that sidestep this problem. In my previous experience, seeking foreign VC is difficult from China due to investor fear and unfamiliarity with the regulatory environment.
- animex 11y agoHi Sam, does age of the founders factor in much in an application? I'm an older developer (40+).
- chasecache 11y agoHello, Animex. I saw your question and I had this same question the other day. The average age of YC founders is about 29 (Source: https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/ https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/). I suggest you apply, what's the worst that could happen?
- kartayyar 11y agoWhat public companies have you invested in?
- sama 11y agoAAPL, AMZN, TSLA, GOOGL, INTC, FB, YELP, BOX. I like tech.
- w1ntermute 11y agoYou don't think TWTR is a good buy right now?
- jmcmahon443 11y agoWhat is the payback period YC looks for? i.e. How many years does it take for a home-run to become a home-run?
- sama 11y agoWe are happy if it takes 10+ years--those are the cases where you make the most money.
- samsherer 11y agoWhat are the main differences in your mind between Techstars and YC
- sama 11y agoI think YC helps your startup. I've never been through Techstars, though maybe they do too.
- lilrushi 11y agoHow can I get an internship at Y Combinator?
- sama 11y agoWe don't really do internships, but we've funded more than 1000 startups and many of them do. I'd suggest applying to internships at YC startups!
- kjcharles 11y agoWhat sort of growth would you look for in a social net applying to YC Fellowship & YC Core?
- janvdberg 11y agoHi Sam, I always wondered how someone so young could become president of YC (and do an awesome job at it). Or would you say it's actually a prerequisite?
- sama 11y agoLet's see how the next 10 years go before we call it an awesome job.
- halsharari 11y agocan I apply to YC alone or do I have to have a team?
- sama 11y agoYou can definitely apply alone, though we recommend having a cofounder. Startups are very hard, and very emotionally draining, and so it's really helpful to have someone else to share the workload with. That said, we fund solo founders every batch.
- saddington 11y ago>Startups are very hard, and very emotionally draining... ^^^ This cannot be communicated emphatically enough... most people have no idea how true and real these challenges are.......
- mkagenius 11y ago>Startups are very hard, and very emotionally draining... emotional draining is not that much but since you are alone, you do not know 'how' bad a situation is and you kind of overthink it and think its very bad and breakdown. While it really might not be that bad.
- tuilan10 11y agoHi, do you often invest on pure consumer product with no business model but great traction ? Thks
- MeherSom 11y agoApplications are only for an already developed product/prototype ? Or can we apply apply to present an idea ?
- sama 11y agoYou can apply with just an idea, but we have a bias towards people that get stuff done. The best founders usually build something early.
- m_mozafarian 11y agoWhat's the probability on acceptance for those who are applying the second time? Is it progress or right fit that you mostly look for?
- sama 11y agoWe've funded many companies on their second (or later) application. Dropbox is a well-known example. We do look at progress since the last application, but mostly because we like effective people. Great founders get stuff done.
- wj 11y agoI think I recall seeing something about the Fellowship and Summer programs being the same application but last I looked I couldn't find where that was mentioned. Is that still the case? I feel like I'm a bit between in that I have a product but haven't closed my first customer but hoping to real soon.
- sama 11y agoYes, it's the same application. I'd recommend applying for both.
- firehawk895 11y agoHi Sam. Ours is an education marketplace (Pyoopil), still looking for a product market fit. Any advice for us? -- now that you guys have acquired imagine-k12. Will there be a special focus on ed-tech startups?
- tejovanth 11y agoHey how do you talk about a culture-centric problem to a foreign investor/accelerator. By culture-centric I mean in terms of the festivities and celebrations that's localised to a place.
- iMuzz 11y agoYC has a giant application pool. This makes it very difficult for very early stage companies with no revenue / users to compete in the application pool. As a company with no revenue / users, How can we best stand out against those that do have growth / users? I understand that companies can apply for the fellowship. But what does a company lose by getting into the Fellowship over Core?
- sama 11y agoWe fund companies with no traction/revenue all the time, though the bar is higher. A really compelling idea is more important to us than traction or revenue. We understand how quickly exponential growth happens.
- danieltillett 11y agoSam given the huge volume of applications you guys have to go through and the limited time you have to look at each one do you think that you are in a position to accurately judge if an idea is compelling or not? You can judge traction quickly, but it takes much more time to judge the quality of a pure idea.
- malz 11y agoIt is interesting that on this AMA you say both "ideas are worth so little" and "a really compelling idea is more important to us than traction or revenue." Can you elaborate?
- _AllisonMobley 11y agoIdeas are worthless, except those that aren't.
- firethief 11y agoI think the compatibility of those statements hinges on the difference between an idea in the sense of something you could transfer in an elevator, and an idea in the sense of the culmination of an entire viewpoint on a topic, along with the mind(s) that developed that viewpoint.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- 8cellos 11y agoAre educational projects viewed mainly by IK12 or by all YC partners? What about hardware educational startups, do they stand a chance? IK12 only got software startups so far, so...
- MeherSom 11y agoI need a technical co-founder to build a platform and I don't know any developer, what can I do ? 1- Search for one ? Any recommendation for the steps to make in order to find the right man ? 2- Or ask a web/mobile development company to build the platform ? What do you think are the +/- of this case ?
- hashnsalt 11y agoHow do you see online education growing? Will there be more bootcamps or is it really possible to build a university entirely online?
- vral 11y agoHow do you personally figure out the difference between a petty problem vs. something actually worth solving?
- avelardi 11y agoDo you feel even though there is a massive influx of startups seeking funding, there is a lack of real innovation in the market?
- matt101589 11y agoHi Sam. How many of accepted startups are side-projects before entering YC?
- mlchild 11y agoI'm intrigued by your comments that you're interested in funding social networks—it seems like a new one launches on Product Hunt every day, but few are able to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem and achieve scale. What's your take on the best way to make the network useful on day one for a small number of users? What are you looking for in a YC app for a social network (with or without traction)?
- sama 11y agoThe thing we look for the most is a small number of users that are super, super engaged with the product. Most new social networks we see point to their top-level growth of new users. These usually eventually fade. What you want instead is something that starts with a small number of users that use it many times every day. Snapchat is a good recent example of this phenomenon.
- mahyarm 11y agoSame with - pinterest: some collection of moms in middle america - twitter: SF Tech & SXSW - facebook: ivy league colleges -> colleges -> high schools -> the world - snapchat: so-cal teenagers
- orky56 11y agoI recommend validating your market with a newsletter or some other channel that already has social engineering baked in. In the case of Product Hunt & Mattermark, this allowed them to demonstrate value with curation of highly valuable content for a particular group of people. Once you have validated it, creating the application seeded with those users will ensure you have the well in place. Spending time building the app without having the ability to iterate first on the differentiating aspect might be a waste or at least an inefficient use of early resources.
- MeherSom 11y agoCan you give us an idea of the number of applications you receive for every session and how many do you accept ?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tlawal87 11y agoEarlier this week, you listed your specific investment interests. If we are working on one of those tough problems in regulated environments, what is the best way to get a serious consideration from Y Combinator (apart from continuing to build as fast as we can & talking to our initial users)?
- jennykaypollock 11y agoWhat's the most impactful skill people should learn in their 20s?
- sama 11y agoHow to communicate well. How to think for yourself (and especially, what problems are worth solving that others are ignoring). How to build stuff (and especially, how to get things done instead of just talking about getting things done). How to learn new things quickly.
- MeherSom 11y agoWhat do you think are the right tools to get these skills ? Books ? (Which ones ?) University/Online courses ? (Any recommendation ?) Else ?
- caballo7 11y agoYou might find http://parrotread.com/yc http://parrotread.com/yc useful. It has book recommendations from all YC partners, including Sam.
- rrtigga 11y agoHow do you know when it's time to move on with your idea?
- sama 11y agoWhen a) it's not working and b) you are out of ideas on how to make it work.
- parisandmilo 11y agoWhat kind of security companies do you look out for? How much importance do you place on technical certifications when it comes to founders in security?
- sama 11y agoSecurity is one of the areas we're most interested in, but we leave it to founders to show us the most promising sub-areas. We don't care about technical certifications. I forget which company it was, but some large tech company found that the only negative predictor of success for its employees was technical certifications...
- parisandmilo 11y agoThank you! :) Are there any certain personalities you think excel the most in founding security startups?
- tptacek 11y agoI don't know who that was but will second it.
- burfog 11y agoWould this include companies that play offense, selling to government? If so, does it matter if they sell to many governments (as did Hacking Team and VUPEN, selling to places like Egypt and Sudan) or if they only sell in the USA to the NSA, CIA, DoD, etc.?
- jennykaypollock 11y agoWhat's the best way to find a cofounder if you've already graduated from college?
- sama 11y agoWork at a large tech company or a fast-growing startup.
- kasps 11y agoI haven't yet come across a YC partner I didn't like. How do you screen for niceness in an interview? Any heuristics?
- eganist 11y agoAny plans for YC to get into seed rounds e.g. both to support startups with high potential as well as to potentially offer some of the benefits of YC connections to those who might've gone through another incubator? (I know YC's policy on incubating startups which have already been through other incubators, which I believe if I recall correctly is a very data-driven "no." My question comes more from the standpoint of whether any YC benefits might be available to startups which already have some success but are still very much in the early stages)
- sama 11y agoNot right now--there are many things that might be interesting for us to do that we have to say no to so that we stay focused. This is one of them.
- eganist 11y agoThanks. There are plenty of others trying to apply the YC model in other more niche areas (Mach37 comes to mind here in DC), so it's neat seeing the direction you and the team will continue to take.
- 8piGTc2 11y agoHi, Sam! Don't you think that AR/VR is overvalued by large companies? Microsoft has not created Google, Wal-Mart has not created Amazon, Ford has not created Tesla.
- sbierwagen 11y agoA startup is best suited for new product categories/new business models. (Nobody does a startup to directly compete in an established market) VR is just "gaming, but more", and requires enormous piles of cash to spend on the hard technical challenges it poses. (1000dpi displays with kilohetez refresh rates) Big companies are fairly well suited to these "build me a faster horse" problems, I'd say.
- tdaltonc 11y agoAn enterprise software company (Microsoft) made the most popular video game console. A search company made the worlds most popular navigation and email tools. A consumer e-commerce company is the the biggest supplier of enterprise cloud services. There are more people working on 'x' outside of big companies then there are people working on 'x' inside of big companies. So really, it's surprising that big companies break in to new verticals as often as they do. Anything could happen.
- faraazn 11y agoWhat does a company lose by getting into YC Fellowship over YC Core?
- rachellaw 11y agoHow much is the bias against startups that have been to other accelerators? What are the benchmarks for progress in those cases?
- sama 11y agoSmall. In general, we just look for progress commensurate with resources. If you've raised more money and been working on the company for longer, we expect more progress than if you've just started.
- rachellaw 11y agothanks! We were wondering if it was worth applying. We went from zero revenue to generating revenue after our old accelerator and was looking into YC to grow now that we had a solid, validated product-market fit.
- siddarthvik1 11y agoIs YC interested in high altitude drones for high speed communications?
- sama 11y agoSure!
- ryderj 11y agoAre we any more/less likely to be accepted if our team is straight out of University?
- gmarx 11y agoDid you really get scurvy when you were in YC?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- benhamner 11y agoHow much traffic per day does hacker news typically get?
- sama 11y agoFrom dang, who runs HN: "about 310k daily uniques and about 10x that in page views"
- elliotec 11y agoThat's actually much less than I would've expected.
- rokhayakebe 11y agoEvery HN reader is an above decent potential founder or at the very least potential product starter/inventor/maker... That is 310,000 potential companies. I do not see anywhere else you could have that many of the same profile.
- riscy 11y agoPartly why I think we should call this place Startup News; often more business talk than true hacking ;)
- lioeters 11y agoI love how you put it: "Every HN reader is an above decent potential founder or at the very least potential product starter/inventor/maker." This whole thread has been inspiring and educational. Thanks for your comment, it was a perfect motivation to start the day.
- jennykaypollock 11y agoWhat would you be doing if you weren't running YC?
- sama 11y agoMaybe working on AI or energy? I'm not sure.
- MeherSom 11y agoI've been following you and @paulg as well as many other YC members for a long period and I'm quiet confident that you'll adhere to the vision/idea behind a project that I'm about to start this year. Do you recommend that I apply for YC really early, like now, just to present the idea ? Or should I develop it and apply with a prototype ? Or should I launch it and then apply ? In which case can YC help the idea to have bigger chances to succeed ? And in which case you do you most likely accept the application or at least give it a better chance ?
- stephensonsco 11y agoApply now. Then immediately resume working on it. If you don't get in now, then apply with your awesome prototype that you've built over 6 months to the next batch. :)
- DanBC 11y agoHow do you feel about #hnwatch?
- gyardley 11y agoAre you at all concerned that the compressed timetable leading up to Demo Day contributes to founder burnout and unhealthy lifestyles? How do you know the program isn't inadvertently damaging some of its participants?
- sama 11y agoYes, definitely. We do remind founders to sleep, eat well, and exercise, and we have recommended therapists available (and we tell founders this is one of things that it's good to spend money on), but it's definitely an intense program. We try to be upfront about that, and that it's not a good fit for everyone.
- lauraFontanari 11y agopreparations for any important event or presentations often lead to feeling exhausted, scared, uncertain... We passed through out day but we had Coachademy, on line coaching app! Professionals can help you to do your best and #begreat. Try it!
- rollinDyno 11y agoIn management school there's a lot of flexibility regarding the nature of a leader. In your experience grooming founders, what has been the most efficient style of leadership?
- sama 11y agoThe only universal job description of a CEO is to make sure the company wins. There are a lot of ways to do that. The one thing that doesn't work is trying to act in a way that isn't your natural style. If you can figure out what to do, make people care, and communicate clearly, and not be a jerk, you'll be a long way towards being a good leader.
- beeboop 11y agoDo you think YC would have been interested in something like Minecraft back in its infancy if you saw how fast user base was growing? Does YC have any interest at all in startups (if you can call them that) whose main product is a video game of some sort?
- sama 11y agoYes and yes.
- beeboop 11y agoWould you be looking for anything different in people who applied with a video game versus a more traditional startup service? Would you expect the game to be very different in some way from traditional games, or does genre/mechanic not really matter as long as a there's a small, passionate group of users growing quickly?
- foobarqux 11y agoMachine Zone (Game of War) is a YC company. I don't know why they never talk about it.
- beeboop 11y agoAddictive pay-to-win mobile games aren't exactly glamorous, and in some social circles are pretty heavily frowned upon. Maybe bad PR, not sure.
- canistr 11y agoWhat are your thoughts on working with the Ontario government to study UBI?
- superfx 11y agoAny news on what the next lab at YCR will be about?
- sama 11y agoWe're hoping to announce in a month or two :)
- tymekpavel 11y agoDo you think the recent cutbacks in startup workforces and VC funding will be sustained, or are just a temporary market correction?
- vit05 11y agoHi Sam, What do you think about Social Media Apps that do not use traditional "follow my profile" as a way to share photos, videos and texts? Do you believe that dividing the profit received from the ads, a model similar to YouTube -unlike Instagram, Facebook and Twitter where the company takes all; can be used to attract content creators in direct competition with these tools already established in the market ? This could be considered a Disruptive Innovation? tks
- steve19 11y agoThank you Sam! I know it is early days, but how is YC Research doing so far? Any plans on expanding it?
- trunx 11y agoI'm from a team of first time startup doing a hardware medical device company. We have computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering background but very little experience with medical devices. Is this a big red flag for you guys?
- thecourier 11y agoHope @sama answer this question. IMHO hurry up to get a prototype in the client's hands. there you will know how good your team is and if you stand a chance in the industry (afaik your team looks very good)
- trunx 11y agoThanks! Maybe if people upvote the question he will answer. ;)
- sama 11y agoIf you seem very hungry to learn, then no, the lack of domain expertise is ok.
- teej 11y agoThis is going to sound crass, but if a founder can't make the sacrifice to spend 3 months in SV for YC, are they really prepared to build the next billion dollar company?
- komali2 11y agoI see where you're coming from, but environment has many subtle factors that lead to, I believe, missed opportunities if they aren't taken advantage of. For example, what would a Houston Oil startup gain from spending a few months of critical startup time in a city with high rent, drastically different driving culture, little access to oil companies, services, equipment, fields and etc, and a completely different set of laws regarding their practice? Better to be spending their after-hours times mingling with the oil folks in Houston bars than the tech folks in SF bars.
- BillionaireBear 11y agoPrecisely. People need to be where their customers are.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoHow many YC company customers are in SF?
- BillionaireBear 11y agoHey :) Just to clarify my statement - for some companies, it makes complete sense to stay in their local territory (think a young Alibaba). For some others, it doesn't. It's case by case.
- omg_ketchup 11y agoAre you prepared to miss out on the next billion dollar company because they happen to have a family and a job while they're hacking away on a revolutionary project?
- vm 11y agoWhat are the biggest CEO lessons you learned from your roles at Loopt and YC?
- sama 11y agoIt's easy to do a good job running an organization that's winning, and very hard to go a good job running an organization that isn't winning. Takeway: if the company isn't doing well, figure out whatever short-term things you can do to get momentum. Ignore other management advice.
- ikeboy 11y agoHow important are brilliant technical founders in non technical startups (by which I mean the main problem they're trying to solve is not a technical one)?
- faraazn 11y agoApproximately what percentage of projects that get accepted into YC are just in the idea stage?
- dilippkumar 11y agoI'd love to apply, but I'm on a H1-b visa and I'm basically in prison. How did the other international founders you worked with get around the immigration mess to start a company?
- sama 11y agoThere's a lot of information on the Internet about how to do this, but obviously you should talk to an immigration lawyer. It really sucks and I think it's a stupid system, but there will be far greater obstacles on your path to being a successful founder.
- aakashnigam 11y agoHi DilipKumar, Some unsolicited advice. Starting company = solving lots of problems (product, market, tech, hiring etc etc.) See Immigration as just one of these. Canada, with much easier immigration policies (Toronto/Vancouver) can be your base to build and validate your prototype and later move to valley. In the age of Internet, geographical boundaries cannot prevent good ideas/products from happening.
- TheSixCents 11y agoUmm Why are you acting like Canada is just Toronto and Vancouver? Montreal is a better place for startups than Vancouver.
- aakashnigam 11y agoSorry, my bad for missing it out. Montreal/Waterloo are equally great.
- semerda 11y agoFind a great lawyer and have them use your startup Delaware corp as sponsor for your H1B. It's like moving employers. You may need to move $$$ into the company to demonstrate there is enough money to meet your minimum wage category and few other hoops. Alternatively apply for an investors visa but this will mean more capital injection into your US entity and more of those hoops to jump. Happy to talk offline. I'm no lawyer but have been through few Visas and similar scenario to yours. PS. There is no prison ;-)
- kepano 11y agoWhat's the meaning of life?
- tosseraccount 11y agoWill your firm ever go public and trade on an exchange?
- emmasz 11y agoIt's easier to get into YC fellowship. - can you put it that way?
- d--b 11y agoHi Sam, when I applied to YC a while back (2014 I think), I noticed that the video I posted was looked at once after 12am, and the landing page on my website was opened at something like 1am for 10 seconds. With the amount of applications you guys receive that seems inevitable, but it also seems that you would miss a lot of stuff if the reviewers are checking things well into the night. Have you made some progress on that front since?
- sama 11y agoMany of us (myself included) go to a nice hideaway somewhere far from the bay area to read applications so we can concentrate. So I wouldn't pay much attention to the timestamp. That said, given the volume of applications we receive and the relatively small size of our partnership, we do have to spend a regrettably short amount of time on each application.
- pedalpete 11y agoI've heard similar results before, and as a judge for another incubator which doesn't get near the application numbers as YC, I'll give you my two cents. I wouldn't be to concerned on timestamps. I'd look more at time on site and time on video. The video has to get to the point quickly and present your ideas. If I'm 15-20 seconds in and you haven't clearly stated your business, and I didn't get an instant understanding of it from your application, I'll probably stop watching the video, assuming that I'm not going to get anything more out of it. If I decide to keep watching the video, I actually just listen to it while I'm reviewing the rest of the application. Then I'll go on to the website if there is one. First off judgement of website will again be - is it clear why this exists, will a new user/customer/target get why they are here. What am I looking to get from the website? Can I find it, can I get more info. I doubt I spend more than 30 seconds on an applicants website, but that isn't a dig, or even a negative. Go to any site like of a not yet publicly available product, try this test with google brillo https://developers.google.com/brillo/ https://developers.google.com/brillo/, set a watch and check out how much time you spend on the site. 30 seconds is a long time. 10 seconds is enough to get it and judge favorably or otherwise. I've applied for the latest round of YC and was very surprised to see my video was watched for the full 2-minutes. I went over time, but explained everything up front (I think). At the same time, it's possible the video just played in the background while the judge moved on to other things and ignored it...
- BrooklynRage 11y agoWhen doing a hard tech startup, how can you show traction/product-market-fit to investors before your product is being sold? The cost of going from crude prototype to sellable product can easily be in the 6-figure range, so how do you break this Catch 22?
- sama 11y agoYou can usually find some intermediate milestone to prove to investors you're more than just a talker.
- fooshint 11y agoDo you have any examples?
- petra 11y agoBuild a simulation(in some multiphysics simulation tool) that shows your concept may work and can be validated by a 3rd party.
- argonaut 11y agoThat not a great example. A better one is to build a v0.00000001 that actually works but is obviously not the final product nor even an MVP. E.g. a technical demonstration of some component.
- mkagenius 11y agoWould YC fund a weird startup idea if its just in the idea stage but the founder has a good track record?
- sama 11y agoYes! We've had great success with weird ideas.
- khalloud 11y agoSam if you are a semi technical founder (you have coded before but not recently enough to build your product) and you have to get a cofounder but have the choice between one you know and will be able to climb mountains with but has the same dilemma vs a technical cofounder/employee. Who would you choose to go with? The one you can figure it out with or the one who can basically do it for you?
- sama 11y agoThe one you know. Having a cofounder you don't know well is usually a very bad idea. It's much more important to trust someone and know they are great than to 'hire' for a specific skill.
- ztratar 11y agoI've heard a lot about the areas you're most passionate about and YC has the famous list of markets, but what areas are you least excited about and why?
- Simorgh 11y agoI wondered what your thoughts were on the apple / fbi situation ? How would you expect startups to act if they found themselves in a similar predicament?
- sama 11y ago#teamapple
- klunger 11y agoWould YC consider subsidising child care costs for participating founders? At present, the infamously high cost of child care in the Bay Area makes YC out of reach for most founders with young children.
- sama 11y agoWe used to give founders $20k. Part of the reason we upped it to $120k is so that founders with higher personal expense structures could do the program. But we're an investor, not a company. It's important to us founders run their own companies and make their own decisions, and so we try not to build too much of our own infrastructure.
- mattmaroon 11y agoI've wondered about this for awhile. Obviously it's been a bit since I've been involved, but you guys have such scale now that solving some obvious problems for founders might be beneficial. Housing being the big one. It was merely annoying back in '07, but now I feel like it'd be a significant distraction and expense for anyone not from the bay area to find a place to live there. Maybe an official Y-scraper would make economic sense! YC's done a lot to take the legal headache out of starting a company, raising funding, granting options, etc. I don't see how other things are philosophically any different.
- nostrademons 11y agoThis is also one of the big reasons why someone might choose to work for, say, Google X instead of found a startup. Google's famous for taking care of every detail of employees' lives - food, laundry, haircuts, oil changes, dry cleaning, gyms, social events, and child care are all available on-site, and it seems like they may soon offer housing soon. Many people who are highly proficient in their fields like to concentrate on their fields, rather than on extraneous details of their lives. When I've approached former coworkers about whether they'd be interested in founding a startup, usually the top answer is "I can have more impact at Google, because they take care of all the stuff I'm not good at so I can concentrate on what I am good at." Something to think about, particularly if you want to fund more hard-tech. For soft-tech founders (marketplaces, delivery startups, etc.), it's often good to do the routine chores of life yourself so you know where the pain points of potential customers are, but for hard-tech, you really want to be able to concentrate on the technology.
- Balgair 11y agoFavorite Beer? Why/not?
- matt_wulfeck 11y agoMr. Altman, can you tell us about your morning routine?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- davidgrenier 11y agoHas YC lost the love for functional programming or are founders on such a foundation well regarded?
- andreygrehov 11y agoHi Sam, two questions. 1). When do you wake up? 2). When do you go to bed?
- kiloreux 11y agoIn your personal opinion, what will be the next big thing in technology is it AI ? do you have other thoughts ? Thanks for your time.
- sama 11y agoI think there will be many, but yes I definitely think AI will be one of the most important.
- throwaway33912 11y agoWhat should we (smart, technical people) be doing to stop Trump if he makes it to the general election? While it might not be the best fit for YC, have you thought about adding this to your RFS page?
- sama 11y agoTech needs to run a candidate in the next election. I still am hopeful Trump will not win the general.
- zavi 11y ago#EricSchmidt2020
- throwaway33912 11y agoThanks, Sam! I'm hopeful too, but prediction markets still, distressingly, give Trump a 20% chance of winning it all. I'm sure there are a lot of people in CA who have skills that are in short supply (familiarity with stats, social networks, programming, etc. -- think Nate Silver), and who would want to volunteer on a part-time basis. It's not clear at the moment how they could put these skills to good use, other than by maybe volunteering for the Clinton campaign (which sounds to me like the non-profit equivalent of working for Microsoft). Probably there is room for small, technical non-profits with creative ideas.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- burfog 11y agoSome things are more important than political positioning. Even an incorrect belief that leaders are corrupt will influence culture, making corruption more acceptable to society. Laws can be changed back and forth, and walls can be torn down, but corruption is mighty hard to fix once it has solidly taken root in society.
- eldavido 11y ago
- jbob2000 11y agoHey Sam, YC companies seem to have a similar "look and feel" about them. Do you agree with that? Do you think this is a good or bad thing?
- Alupis 11y ago> I'm on a H1-b visa and I'm basically in prison I know this is an exaggeration, and I'm fully aware the current visa situation in the US could be better, but I really take issue with the sentiment of your statement. You're being afforded an enormous opportunity here, and should not compare it with being in a prison. Think about it -- you clearly decided your home country was not as conducive for building your future as the US may be, and therefore applied for (and accepted) a visa. Now it's up to you to prove value in allowing you to remain in the country. A visa is a privilege, not a right. Literally billions of folks around the world are never given this opportunity.
- DKnoll 11y agoThink about it -- you clearly decided your home country was not as conducive for building your future as the US may be Hi, as a Canadian, I also take issue with your statement. Your ancestors came here for the same reason as him, and with far less scrutiny, same as mine, and were provided many benefits not recieved today, including land grants. Why does a person migrating today deserve to be treated as second class?
- ConfuciusSay02 11y agoCall it second class is different than comparing it to being in prison. People in actual prison might take issue with your statement.
- DKnoll 11y agoPeople in prison would likely take issue with a lot of things unreasonably, which is likely why they're in prison to begin with.
- ConfuciusSay02 11y agoYou think it's unreasonable to take issue with comparing someone on an h1b visa to being in prison?
- abhi3 11y agoIn your last AMA you mentioned something about doing a YC batch in a foreign country. Is that something you are still considering?
- sama 11y agoYes, we are considering doing something along these lines later this year, though we haven't made a final decision.
- emilwallner 11y agoYou should do it in Stockholm, we have produced more unicorns per capita than any other city in the world: http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/26/sweden-is-a-tech-superstar-from-the-north/ http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/26/sweden-is-a-tech-superstar-...
- namenotrequired 11y agoWhy should "per capita" matter to YC?
- tim333 11y agoShows there's something good about the culture?
- namenotrequired 11y agoI'd think the absolute numbers of successful startups and startups in general would be far more important to YC.
- wittedhaddock 11y agoWhere do you see YC in a decade? How will you know it's there?
- hodder 11y agoTwitter valuation given revenue growth... what say you? Buyer here?
- foobarqux 11y agoIs Peter Thiel still a part-time partner? Does he come around the office?
- sama 11y agoYes. No--he does office hours at his office.
- philippnagel 11y agoDo you have advice for people running agency-style businesses? What do you hate the most when working with such entities?
- jonmc12 11y agoWhat did you think was the most interesting feedback or update on OpenAI since announcing in Dec?
- sama 11y agoIt will still be months at least until we've made research breakthroughs, but we've had incredible success on the recruiting side. I think we're building one of the strongest teams in the field.
- jimrandomh 11y agoDid you read http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/17/should-ai-be-open/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/17/should-ai-be-open/ ?
- rjsparks3 11y agoHardware startup question / both yc programs: How many "devices" would you expect an applicant to have in the field w users falling in love for you to feel they had sufficiently demonstrated "customer love traction". Just asking in light of the complexities with small batch hardware. Thanks!
- mcphilip 11y agoRe: Hard Tech is Back >So, if you’re thinking about starting one, we’d like to talk. And we think we can help What's the preferred method of contact? I have connections to a "hard tech" startup in Austin and pointed the founders at your blog post.
- juxtreme 11y agoHow do you evaluate companies that are more technically ( hardware, computing) challenging? If two founders have been working on a hard problem for ~6 months, what are the things you look for since there isn't any revenue or growth?
- Kumzy30 11y agoHey Sam, is YC helping non-tech startups such as clothing industry?
- kartikkumar 11y agoIs it a strong criterion that applicants you admit into the program have a (clear) path to building billion-dollar companies? Or do you give more weight to solving important problems? In other words, does ROI trump problem-solving, and if so, are teams tackling niche problems at a disadvantage?
- sama 11y agoNo. One thing we like to do is help founders figure out that path.
- kartikkumar 11y agoOk great, thanks for clarifying!
- xiaoma 11y agoHow would you get enough initial users for a collaborative learning tool that requires multiple users to be able to offer value?
- smaili 11y agoI've submitted my application as a single founder - not because I want it that way but because none of my friends have the freedom for a venture. Does YC do match making (if they see a good fit) or this something you need to specifically request on the application?
- sama 11y agoWe don't. We think it's much better if cofounders have some sort of shared history together.
- neolefty 11y agoI think you should try grouping random individuals as an experiment. They should each already have a project, and be capable of implementing it, but obviously they'll have to choose one when they get together. My two most successful lab final projects in college were randoms. One of them won the annual award for best undergrad lab project, and the other won the in-course competition. These were late-course groupings, after as many as half of each class's starting participants had already dropped out, so it was already pretty selective. Bad: We didn't know each other ahead of time. There were always weaker and stronger participants. In one 4-person team, one teammate just completely flaked, but the rest of us stepped up. Good: We didn't have relationship baggage that could have come from partnering with friends on a very stressful project. I think it really helped us focus on the projects. We were thrilled with any success. I used to think it was just good luck finding outstanding teammates. But perhaps it was because they had already independently made it through the hard first half of the course without having close friends also enrolled in the class. As a counter-datapoint, another course had a lottery-based grouping, with no pre-harrowing, and my teammates and I never gelled.
- keithwhor 11y agoMy understanding (anecdote from a YC founder I spoke with) is that they tried this one year, and generally the outcomes weren't favorable. Startups are fucking hard. A lot harder than school projects. And they last way longer. There are millions of dollars on the line and people's livelihoods. The people who run them, by nature, have a level of intensity that acts as an amplifier for wins and losses. When you meet somebody, it can take a few months before they let their guard down and begin falling back into their "normal" behavioral patterns. Best case scenario, they were a pretty honest and secure person and not much changes (but maybe they're bad at remembering to clean their dishes). Worst case scenario, they miss a deadline, blame everyone around them and punch holes in walls. Likely somewhere in between the two extremes. "Emotional baggage" of past relationships is a good thing, because it equates to trust, as long as the people are willing to work together. You usually have baggage because you've seen somebody at their worst. If you're still willing to stick around, that's telling. It means you have a better chance of being able to get through the next thing, and the one after that... and so on.
- kartayyar 11y agoWhat do you see as the typical structure of a founding team of hardware companies?
- Fede_V 11y agoHey Sam, semi technical question here. NIPS, ran an experiments a few years ago where for 10% of the papers they had two completely independent teams of reviewers assess papers and score them - the agreement between the teams was very low: http://blog.mrtz.org/2014/12/15/the-nips-experiment.html http://blog.mrtz.org/2014/12/15/the-nips-experiment.html (barely better than chance, actually). Would you consider doing something similar for YC? Obviously, you already have multiple people looking at websites/applications, but I'd be really curious to see what the agreement is like - and you have some absolutely exception AI/data scientists people at openAI who could crunch all the numbers.
- sama 11y agoWe have multiple people review each application (except the very good/very bad ones) and we look at the cases where the assessments are very different. Some of the best companies have the most disagreement, which is why we have implemented our "strong yes" policy--if any single partner wants to fund a company, we fund it. It's much more important to our returns that we fund the next Airbnb than if we mistakenly fund one more bad company.
- jackpirate 11y agoThis is a really uninformative answer. Every peer reviewed conference/journal also does this. The NIPS study was special because they did more. They ran a controlled experiment to determine the exact variance in acceptance rates and then published the results. The GP was asking you to repeat the NIPS experiment.
- andkon 11y agoIf any partner can unilaterally say yes to any application, it makes the NIPS study irrelevant to their problem.
- namenotrequired 11y agoThey're in different business. NIPS needs to minimise the amount of really bad papers they accept. YC needs to maximise the amount of really good companies they fund.
- chasecache 11y agoI don't live in the Bay Area, so I don't have many connections within the YC network. How big of a role do referrals play in the application process?
- sama 11y agoMost companies we fund don't have a referral.
- comment 11y agoHi Sam, I am an international founder. I want to join YC and incorporate in the US. But to avoid wasting time on visa things, I want to return to my home country (India) after YC. 1) Should I mention this in my application? 2) From YC's point of view, do you prefer international founders who want to stay on in the US or those who want to go back to their home country? Assuming they would kill it either way. (PS - My startup is COMMENT.ws whereas YTERMINATOR.com, UNICOCK.com are light hearted hacks to get YC's attention)
- sama 11y agoSure, mention it--that's fine with us.
- comment 11y agoThank you Sam. By the way here is the link to YC's page on Comment https://comment.ws/us/y-combinator https://comment.ws/us/y-combinator
- eric001 11y agoDude, that site is very difficult to understand. Just saying.
- comment 11y agoThanks, what about homepage https://comment.ws https://comment.ws? What do you find difficult here? Would appreciate your or anyone else's feedback!
- beeboop 11y agoYour website seemingly doesn't load at all for me. Firefox on Win7 with uBlock Origin and Disconnect plugins. Just shows a search bar that doesn't work and the rest of the page is blank.
- kartayyar 11y agoWhat are some of the biggest mistakes you have seen founders make when validating startup ideas and what can be done to avoid them?
- eranation 11y agoHi Sam. Will you consider a batch in other US locations? (For example in Atlanta). It can increase the applicant base due to lower cost of living and will allow a different flavor of founders to apply in my opinion. I think the next billion $ enterprise startup will be more likely to come from such a batch. People who face enterprise software problems are not always in a stage in life that allows them to move to SF for a few months. YC might be missing out a large cohort of founders who work in enterprise software, outside of the Bay Area, and would disrupt their industry given the chance but are less flexible in moving to SF. There are many "old tech" hubs outside SF that can generate great new startups. medical IT, medical devices, mechanical and aviation industry, enterprise software etc. Are Enterprise software ideas and founders with years of enterprise software experience adequately represented at YC?
- spike021 11y agoEducation-wise, are you able to describe the percentages of applicants with backgrounds coming from top schools versus lower-tier schools? Being in the Bay Area, I know that Stanford and UC Berkeley tend to have a decent amount of relatively successful launches/founders, but on the other hand I can't say I hear nearly as much about people who went to San Francisco State or San Jose State (or any other lower-tier schools that are not just located in SF Bay Area). If there is a large enough discrepancy, do you have any ideas of ways to jumpstart or spark other educational communities to have a greater focus on trying out ideas, especially with YC (or other programs)? Personally, I'm finishing studying at San Jose State and while there is an Entrepreneurship Club, the focus for that side of things (at least from what I've seen) tends to stay purely on the Business college end, rather than other potential high-impact areas (aside from the occasional mobile app here and there).
- sama 11y agoWe looked at our data here last year--we fund founders from a very wide variety of schools, and no school at all, but many of our most successful founders went to 'top schools' and thus it's easy to get the mistaken impression we select for that.
- w1ntermute 11y agoIf your most successful founders did go to top schools, why don't you select for that?
- chillydawg 11y agoBad PR
- sama 11y agoIn a way we do, in that it's one (of many) examples for someone doing something impressive in the past. We definitely look for founders who have shown some evidence of doing something impressive (and we try to adjust for whatever life circumstances people were born into). But the main reason we don't is that there are important counterexamples in our portfolio, and if we said "we're only going to fund founders from top schools" we'd miss out on some big successes.
- gusgordon 11y agoWhy are you so in favor of nuclear energy startups when solar+batteries seems to be the cheaper and more immediately implementable option?
- _AllisonMobley 11y agoYou gotta diversify yo' bonds nigga.
- partycoder 11y agoFrom your experience, which personality traits are the highest predictors of success or failure in startup people?
- sama 11y ago• Determination • Unstoppability • Ambition • Clarity of vision/communication • Intelligence
- sbierwagen 11y agoLooks like HN doesn't support the * bullet point markdown syntax. EDIT: Ha, did you just directly edit the html there, or something?
- dang 11y agoHave some •s.
- sbierwagen 11y agoUsing unicode is 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- _Marak_ 11y agoWhat would you personally consider a good failure percentage of YC backed companies? Is http://yclist.com/ http://yclist.com/ a valid source of data? If so, it seems like YC could be at the cusp of a large amount of DEAD companies starting from S10 to current.
- sama 11y agoMaybe 40-50% outright failing? Much below that and it would feel like we weren't making enough risky bets. No, it's pretty inaccurate.
- iamleppert 11y agoDo you really drive a mclaren to work everyday?
- kartayyar 11y agoYou mentioned that you are interested in AI. Chris Dixon made an interesting post about how some AI ideas are better suited for bigger companies because of the data and compute needs. http://cdixon.org/2015/02/01/the-ai-startup-idea-maze/amp/ http://cdixon.org/2015/02/01/the-ai-startup-idea-maze/amp/ What are your thoughts on what classes of AI problems are better for startups vs. big companies?
- BinaryIdiot 11y agoI'm not Sam but I wanted to talk about this anyway. I'm working on a side project that deals in the AI space (would like for it to become a business; we'll see how things go when I launch). Anyway, Chris's article confuses accuracy with capability and is very strictly talking about synchronous AI agents. But I think there is a ton of space for AI related start-ups that don't fall into the trap he describes. I'm working on a side project that doesn't work in most of the ways he describes (made it at the Launch Hackathon a few weeks ago if you're interested; website should be launched this weekend but this was my submission: http://devpost.com/software/sim http://devpost.com/software/sim).
- garrettflanagan 11y agoSam! Hello, How do you foreseee your Universal Basic Income analysis plan working with with politicians and public policy officials?
- fumar 11y agoYou mentioned previously YC is after bio-tech startups. What traits would a bio-tech team need for YC consideration? And, what is an ideal stage for a bio-tech crew (long-term vision) to raise capital? Thanks! Victor
- bcjordan 11y agoDo you keep up with any recent academic research? (If so, how? If not, do you wish you did?)
- ericzawo 11y agoWhat's one piece of advice you could give to a recent graduate?
- henrymercer 11y agoLast March, you mentioned on twitter that you are a customer of/financially support Shanley Kane's organization, Model View Culture. Since since then (and before then too), she has made a variety of racially and sexually charged statements, such as, "fire some fuckin white guys to get it done" ( https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KtAdEv8WXUIJ:https://twitter.com/shanley/status/633773694536429568+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KtAdEv... ). Do you or Y-Combinator still patronize or support Model View Code after these statements? (A pure yes or no is fine, I don't need a big discussion, I just want to know where you and YCombinator stand.)
- hoodoof 11y agoIs this really the place/time to ask such questions? Or are you hoping for an answer because you feel Sam is trapped into answering here?
- henrymercer 11y agoHe titled the post AMA. If he doesn't care to answer here, I'll email him in private.
- WWKong 11y agoIt is AMA. Not "ask me what I'm comfortable answering". In such a forum there is always some controversial discussions. Being trapped might not be the right perspective. And at this time Sam has answered.
- sama 11y agoNo.
- pw 11y agoI'd love to hear what you find so objectionable about the tweets to linked to. It seems radical but not offensive.
- nailer 11y ago
- djiejxnncks 11y agoHow does applying with a spouse impact an application?
- joseluisnuno 11y agoWe are 4 cofounders, 3 of us are brothers and the fourth one is my wife. We were accepted to W16 without any problem, they did not even questioned us about this. I believe that there has been several other husband - wife teams.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- daniyel 11y agoWhy didn't you do this AMA on /r/programming?
- BillionaireBear 11y agoHi Sam How do you decide between putting a company in the fellowship vs YC core?
- sama 11y agoHonestly, we're still somewhat figuring that out.
- mwpmaybe 11y agoSam, thank you for taking some time to answer our questions. Mark Suster and other VCs have recently expressed distaste for convertible notes and SAFEs. Are you still in favor of SAFEs? In general, what are your thoughts on seeking seed funding for super early stage startups when determining a valuation might be problematic?
- sama 11y agoI think SAFEs are good. I think uncapped SAFEs/convertible notes are very bad and misalign founders and investors--they punish early investors for helping the company to be worth more.
- Taraji 11y agoHi Sam, you just replied to a question with this : "Having a cofounder you don't know well is usually a very bad idea. It's much more important to trust someone and know they are great than to 'hire' for a specific skill." What do you recommend for someone who isn't a friend with a good developer ? Is it better to subcontract the development of the site/app to a good software development company ?
- sama 11y agoI'd try to meet good developers, and I think the best way to do this is either at school or by working at a tech company.
- ObsoleteMailMan 11y agoHow did you learn to communicate so well? Any book recommendations? What do you recommend to get great at building products? Any recommendations for college students? Engineering courses don't seem to do justice. (21, in college)
- jimrandomh 11y agoWhat is your plan for AI safety, and how does OpenAI fit into it? In http://blog.samaltman.com/machine-intelligence-part-2 http://blog.samaltman.com/machine-intelligence-part-2 you laid out sensible requirements and safeguards we should demand of late-stage AI development when it gets further along. But OpenAI's founding statement seems to have baked in a mission and vision that's incompatible with those safeguards, requiring immediate sharing of breakthroughs even if the technologies required to use them safely aren't ready yet. That founding statement used to have the word "safely" in it, but this was edited out without any sort of announcement or comment, and, to the best of my thirdhand-rumor knowledge, OpenAI is not currently doing any safety-related research. (I wrote a blog post on this back in December, and no one has given any plausible answer: http://conceptspacecartography.com/openai-should-hold-off-on-choosing-tactics/ http://conceptspacecartography.com/openai-should-hold-off-on... )
- sama 11y agoWe're still working through this--it turns out to be a research problem in itself. We talk about it a lot, and I'm working on a post about it (for example, we may not share intermediate breakthrough that we think pose major safety risks), but I've been much busier than expected the last few months and haven't gotten to it yet. Definitely expect us to do safety research.
- darnton 11y agoWhat can a run-of-the-mill technical person do to help? We know that super-AI is more likely than not to be existentially dangerous. It would be remiss to foresee the apocalypse and assume someone else will fix it.
- efader 11y agoWhat is a failure you are most proud of?
- BinaryIdiot 11y agoHey 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 https://twitter.com/Jason/status/710176806184349696
- sama 11y agoTo 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 particular investor is treating them, but investors have enough advantages in the system and we unashamedly take the side of our founders. EDIT: I also never think these things are black and white, and that all of us have good and bad parts. I've heard from plenty of founders that Jason has been very helpful to their companies.
- foobarqux 11y agoIs it true that some VCs get first dibs on YC companies before demo day?
- jasonmcalacanis 11y agoI can confirm this is true, because YC staff members have explained to me that they bring in a small group of investors to mentor -- and because founders have confirmed it. This is something I talked about on This Week in Startups, and frankly I think it has something to do with my "ban."
- djiaomei 11y agoThis is not our experience. Actually, Jason is the most founder-friendly investor that I have ever worked with. He really cares about founders. He was the very first investor that invested in us, and has become our biggest champion since our very early days. Most investors look for traction and only decide to invest when you have traction. Jason sees the fire and the determination in us (first time founders), and decides to support us, and helps us grow as a person and as a company. Some other investors just put in money and disappears. But Jason truly cares and whenever we need help, he's always there. He gives us frank feedback that we really need, he challenges us and pushes us to be better. He helps us with intros. He sends product feedback and recommendations without being asked. I know dozens of other founders that Jason had invested in and I know that they all feel the same way I do about Jason.
- efader 11y agoWhat is a failure you are most proud of?
- hayksaakian 11y agoHi Sam Do you think non-venture backed companies can change the world? Does YC want to help founders who do not want funding?
- elliotec 11y agoI would think that is against their purpose of making money.
- baron816 11y agoMy company Krewe (https://www.gokrewe.com https://www.gokrewe.com) is aimed at helping people make a new group of close friends in their neighborhood that they can see every day and build a strong local community. I only have a couple hundred sign ups (after about three weeks) so I don't know for sure that the concept will work. I also don't have a cofounder. Should I apply to YC now, or potentially wait for the next batch when I would (hopefully) have more traction?
- sc00ty 11y agoJust want to say that I love your idea! Though, I do find the font a little hard to read, but that just might be me.
- throw420 11y agoJust stop working on this idea. The main problem, imho, with the current model of startup creation, is that it heavily selects for young technical people with little in the way of other commitments to take chances on new ideas. Many young technical people are hard-working and driven and that's wonderful, but (1) they form a narrow demographic [if you hang out at too many hacker cons you'll wildly overestimate the popularity of crummy cable sci-fi shows, for instance] (2) they have very little exposure to meaningful problems, so we end up with hundreds of meal delivery and laundry startup, because what else troubles a recent college engineering grad? I have seen hundreds of apps like yours. It's a terrible space. First of all, literally every social app in the world is designed to help people make friends. That's how friends are generally made: people have something in common like "takes the same bus to school", "works at the same company", or "comments on the same warhammer 40k miniatures painting advice forum", they get to know each other, things grow from there. I posit that "Make a New Group of Close Friends in Your Neighborhood" is not actually a value proposition that you can deliver on, even with perfect execution and infinite engineering resources. I just don't believe it. But clearly you do, so let's put that aside and I'll grant you that this technology could exist and you implement it perfectly. How many times in someone's life could you imagine them using this? How many close friends in their neighborhood can anyone really maintain? Once? Twice? Maybe three times if they move a lot? Let's say it's six total times. And let's also posit that, against all odds, it always works, there's always the right mix of people in a given neighborhood to make this always work. What are you going to do? Charge for the six uses? Show ads six times? GEICO has ads on TV all the time because even though you basically never change car insurance, they need to be top-of-mind when you think of who to google. I think your cost of customer acquisition, given the idea that your technology works indistinguishably from magic, will be ludicrous. Remember, there's no reason for people to even tell their friends about this: its an app for people with no friends. I think you will have to spend a fortune continually acquiring users. Then, what's your arpu over the customer's lifetime? I can't imagine how you can charge for this. Ads? Some sort of affiliate marketing? I would think, if your product worked, the total user engagement with the site over the entire lifetime of the customer would be on the order of what, an hour? There's just no place to make money here. Personally, I also think this is not a real problem, customers do not exist for this service, etc. but you know, I'll spot you that, along with the idea that if it was a problem, you could fix it. _Even if those things are true_, you are going to end up with a horrendous business. See also: every "helps friends figure out who's down to hang out" startup, every "helps organize your travel plans" startup, every "uber for X" where X is something you buy like four times in your life startup. There is something about the founder mindset that is drawn to this bad idea, just like founders are drawn to build "like making apps, but easier!" startups over and over again that essentially never work (maybe Hypercard?). I read an autobiography once by a former Navy SEAL. He said the first thing he does when any young kid tells him he wants to join the SEALs is spend an hour or so telling the kid why being a SEAL sucks and why he'll never make it. He said 99% of the time, the kids give up on the idea. He said it's nothing personal, he usually barely knows the kids, it's just that if someone you barely know can talk you out of even trying to join the SEALs in an hour, there's no fucking chance you'll survive BUD/S and all that stuff, so he's really just saving them a bunch of time. He's doing his own "pre-BUD/S" screening that's a lot cheaper and easier for everyone, and that involves a lot less heartache. I always felt like that was a pretty good idea.
- benclarke 11y agoHi Sam. The social graph, interest graph, and professional graph have all been successfully mapped online. When do you believe the location graph will also be mapped at scale, and by whom?
- dougddo 11y agoAny advice or observations regarding doing one's first startup in one's 30's and up?
- sama 11y agoBezos did it, I believe.
- w1ntermute 11y agoNot necessarily their first startups, but: Dre (Beats), Larry Ellison, Travis Kalanick, Phil Knight (Nike), Jack Ma (Alibaba), Sam Walton, Wang Jianlin (Dalian Wanda). Mike Bloomberg and Amancio Ortega (Zara) were nearly 40.
- jedberg 11y agoI find it interesting which people you chose to label with their company and which you didn't.
- w1ntermute 11y agoI thought about that quite a bit as well while writing the comment. Since HN is US- and tech-centric, I added the company name for non-tech or non-US companies. Walton was an exception because everyone knows Walton/Walmart, Bloomberg was an exception because the company's named after himself (and it is technically in technology), and Dre was an exception because (a) most people know him for his music, not Beats and (b) it's more of a fashion company than a technology company. I was on the fence with Ellison/Oracle, given how old the company is.
- snoman 11y agoTo save anyone else the lookup: Bezos was born in '64 and Amazon was founded in '94.
- mettamage 11y agoIs it possible to apply with no idea? Assuming that the applicants are able to demonstrate: - they can build stuff - they're a good team fit (e.g. showing a small project from the past) - they can generate ideas which they're passionate about If not: do you have a tip for improving these nearly graduated* university applicants? * 80 hours of course work left
- sama 11y agoWait until you have an idea. We once tried funding companies with no idea. It didn't work. I'm not totally sure why. Perhaps the time pressure of YC is bad for coming up with a really good idea (the best ideas often start out seeming bad). Perhaps the best founders always have ideas.
- hyperpallium 11y agoIdealess-founders was an interesting experiment; that YC tries such things is a defining characteristic. Theory: it's not the value of the idea in itself, but the motivating effect it has on the founder. An idealess founder goes nowhere. "Going somewhere" is necessary for exploration - even if your destination turns out worthless, you might find something better than you imagined along the way. But there's no serendipity without a journey. - What is the current theory of the role of founder ideas at YC? → What experiment could disprove it?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- md2be 11y agoUp for a pitch?
- lomnakkus 11y agoOK, so... what have you ever done for the world? (As per my usual disclaimer: I'm not being facetious.)
- lomnakkus 11y ago... and, btw, shouldn't you be out there making bajillions instead of answering questions? EDIT: That was facetious.
- juxtreme 11y agoIs Robert Morris still involved in YC? Does he read applications and provide office hours ?
- mixedbit 11y agoAre all YC companies incorporated in US? If not, what other countries are acceptable for YC and investors that cooperate with YC?
- joseluisnuno 11y agoOnce you get accepted to YC you need to incorporate in the US to get funded. Its not that difficult and they have a very clear process for all of the companies from other countries (we were a Mexican company).
- tmbeihl 11y agoHi Sam, Two of my college buddies and I applied to YC this week, we're looking forward to growing our startup idea. What do you think is the number one thing that most founders don't think about that ultimately hurts their company?
- danield9tqh 11y agoI would have to say asking Sam Altman for advice. Most founders simply don't think to do it and it ends up hurting them tremendously in the long run. You're on the right track.
- Huhty 11y agoDo you agree or disagree on each of Rand Fishkin's (Moz) 10 SEO/marketing/business predictions for 2016 as posted here a couple months ago: https://moz.com/blog/10-predictions-for-2016-in-seo-web-marketing https://moz.com/blog/10-predictions-for-2016-in-seo-web-mark... ???
- api 11y agoDid anything ever come of YC's "one million jobs" RFP?
- tim333 11y agoI've stuck in an application for that for S16 but I'm not sure it's terribly good.
- taytus 11y agoI've applied like 3 times already. The second time we had a follow up question but nothing else, should I give up applying with this company?
- lowglow 11y agoI had to stop and give a response. As a fellow entrepreneur/founder I'd say if you're building a startup to get into YC, you're not worried about the right thing. The metrics I've found most useful in building a startup/company in general are 1. Are your users happy? 2. Are your users happy enough to refer other people to join? If you nail those, then what does anything else matter?
- taytus 11y agoI'm sorry if I gave the wrong idea, but no. We are not building our company (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz7QpBub6fo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz7QpBub6fo) to get into YC. Not sure how you deducted that. Trying to apply several times was something that made sense for us at that time and nothing else. But it would be goog to know if YC is not interested in our company at all.
- nbadg 11y agoHi Sam. Two questions: 1. I'm a little in the dark about what happens to applications that have already been seen (because they were submitted early) that are then edited pre-deadline. I've been putting off submission because I'm very close to having an MVP demo video, which I think would be strongly to my advantage to include, but I also know that early submissions face a strong advantage as well. Do you have any advice on the balance between the two, specific to the YC application process? Would it make sense to submit now and edit in the demo later? 2. Are you aware of any publicly available resources for founders to do their due-diligence on investors? I've met a couple of investors by chance (at bars, amusingly enough) that, after hanging out for a few hours, I knew would be a bad fit -- but it would be a waste of both the investors' time and my time if we didn't learn that until the first face-to-face meeting. Do you have any advice on how to maximize search utility (for both an investor and my company) when I'm building my list of potential investors?
- sama 11y ago1. Some partners may read the earlier version of your application. The advantage to submitting earlier is not so big, it just means you might get more reads. I'd for sure wait to submit until you have your demo. 2. We have an internal DB for this, but I'm not aware of a good publicly available one :(
- vlokshin 11y agoThe RFS list is strong, but general. Are you excited about any specific ideas for the S16 batch? If so - what and why? (genuinely curious. Already applied... so I can't go and change the idea now :) )
- GFischer 11y agoWhat would you value more for the application: a potentially huge, innovative idea plus a weekend-hack prototype/demo but no market validation yet, or a more mature, somewhat validated product but with existing startups on the space, some YC-backed? I have a very clear vision of what we want to accomplish, but we're selling a much more down to earth service to our customers and prospects. I do think there's a path leading us to our vision (think Netflix going from CDs to streaming). Should we describe our vision in the application?
- hoodoof 11y agoIf relationship breakdown between cofounders is the reason for so many company failures, why does YC not proactively solve that by requiring all founders to attend weekly relationship counselling, for which YC pays? Could such a thing prevent more breakups and therefore greatly increase chances of company success? And the cost is pretty small for YC to employ relationship counsellors.
- sama 11y agoWe don't require many things--founders are not are employees. However, we do offer cofounder communication workshops to the batch. Innerspace puts them on, and they always get incredible reviews--in fact, some of the most positive reviews of anything we do.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- neurotech1 11y agoI'd read from various sources that a team and their execution are more important than ideas, but wondered how would you handle a startup with a (hypothetically) brilliant idea, but with less than brilliant team performance?
- arasmussen 11y agoHi Sam, What are some actions people like myself can take to push our community, nation, and world towards Basic Income? This is particularly important to me because of how fast Uber/Tesla are rushing towards fully autonomous vehicles. Over 4 million jobs in US alone are as drivers. They're all gonna be laid off soon.
- jdshutt 11y agoIf you live in the United States, you might want to connect with us at the Universal Income Project. We have regular meetups in San Francisco, and are looking for more organizers around the country to collaborate with on Basic Income Create-a-thons. And if you're in a different country, we might be able to connect you with advocates closer to you. There are a ton of interesting, active projects going on right now around the globe. We recently hosted a talk by Matt Krisiloff, who is managing YC Research's basic income program, and are really excited to see how it develops. Shoot us an email at questions@universalincome.org if you want to learn more!
- Jommi 11y agoHi Sam! We here in Finland have been slowly developing a startup ecosystem. The effort started 5-years ago and now finally, thanks to the amazing bunch of volunteers, we have stuff like Slush and Startup Saunato show for it. What would be your advice in rocketing the finnish startup ecosystem to the next level? P.S. You should visit us sometime, we'd love to host you at Startup Sauna!
- w1ntermute 11y agoNot sama, but one suggestion: cut down on the sauna references (Startup Sauna, Silicon Sauna, etc.). It runs the risk of sounding too silly/humorous.
- jey 11y agoI bet we have things that sound equally silly in American English when interpreted literally. Sadly, they're so invisible to me right now that I can't think of one easily...
- eruditely 11y agoHonestly it just sounds comfortable. I'm not sure how much work I would get done, but god would I like a start up steam room. that's for damn sure.
- ElHacker 11y agoHello Sam. I'm a Software Engineer at a Big Tech Co. I've been ambivalent about going back to school to do a part-time master's degree in AI, or just do self-studying. Creating a startup in the US is not an option for me yet since I'm on a TN visa (hoping to get a green card in the following years). What do you think is the best investment of my time, and how far ahead in the future should someone plan to start a "hard tech" startup? (I'm on my mid 20's)
- drwl 11y agoWas there a moment in your life that created a sense of urgency to live life to the fullest? From the looks of things you're doing so many (cool) things.
- sama 11y agoNone of us live very long. May as well try to contribute to the future and try to feel fulfilled in the little time you have.
- jorgecurio 11y agowhat do you think about the recent article calling out on arrogance of SV?
- over 11y agoWhat are the pros and cons of Silicon Valley being the VC capital of the world? How do you feel about it on the whole? Do you guys ever talk about diversifying, either inside the US or out?
- d0m 11y agoWhen YC started, it was so small that PG and Jessica knew everyone's names and could invest a lot of time and effort into making the startups successful. One complaint as YC gets bigger is that there is more "Fast food advice", i.e. there are so many startups that a partner can't hardly remember all of them and we both know that most often than not the devil is in the details. What's YC plan to make sure this doesn't happen as it continues to grow stronger? I assume getting more partners on board is definitely one, and having special group for certain verticals (i.e. biotech or hardware). Any other plans? Thanks for the AMA
- sama 11y agoThe main thing is that we shard YC into small internal groups. I know all the startups in my group in the batch well, and very little about the startups in other groups.
- drwl 11y agoI think in an interview pg talked about this. IIRC they tried using a sharding approach and failed, and instead just came up with mini YC silos(partners get grouped and handle a group of companies)
- nostrademons 11y agoWould you recommend getting cofounders first and then iterating on different possible ideas, or finding an idea that resonates with users first and then approaching people you know about founding a company around it?
- sama 11y agoOften they sort of happen together--you start going back and forth on an idea with the people that become your cofounders.
- shifte 11y agoHi Sam, You've mentioned many times, more so recently, that YC is committed to investing in hard tech problems. When considering companies solving these problems for the next batch, knowing that often times even getting a prototype ready is a massive undertaking, how much chance does one have applying with nothing more than an idea and some research? And the possibility that it won't generate revenue for 5+ years?
- sama 11y agoA common failure mode for companies like these is to talk a lot about how hard their problems are and never get anything at all done. Even a huge project starts with a first step. We look for founders that get that one done, and then the second, and ... Good founders get stuff done. Bad founders talk about why they aren't getting stuff done. This is true for web apps and nuclear reactors.
- shifte 11y agoBeing that this is true of getting anything done in the real world I was hoping to frame the question without needing to preface it with that, or listing any qualifications of my own or my team on a pseudonymous account, but needless to say we get things done. Thanks for replying nonetheless :)
- alfiedotwtf 11y agoWhat are the best ways to discover what people want to pay for?
- titaniumrain 11y agoCan I submit an application while I am still employed by a company?
- mgtla 11y agoHi Sam. What are your views on a venture that would take some reworking or coaxing of the state laws in order to be successful? Example- the law has gotten more relaxed over time and would probably be where we'd need it to be in 5 years or so. Not marijuana related. Thank you!
- krstck 11y agoHas YC ever considered having a control group by randomly pre-accepting certain applicants into the program automatically? I'd be curious to see the stats on how successful that group would be versus the group that's actually picked by the committee.
- sama 11y agoWe do talk about that every once in awhile, but the average company that applies to YC is not very good and thus the experiment would hurt the network (and be painful for us to work with). What we've more seriously considered is randomly funding some companies just below the threshold. Also, we do look at our ranking to see how companies at the top vs companies near the cutoff do. It's rare (but not unheard of) for a company very near the cutoff to be one of our most successful companies.
- w1ntermute 11y agoWere the companies rejected by YC that have gone on to be the most successful often just below the cutoff?
- tim333 11y agoI can't answer that but pg talking about what may have been Sendgrid was quite interesting along those lines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMqgiXLjvRs&feature=youtu.be&t=49m4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMqgiXLjvRs&feature=youtu.be...
- namenotrequired 11y agoI recall pg previously stating that there was no correlation between how close to the cutoff an accepted candidate was and how well they ended up doing. Now Sam says the opposite. I can't find the original quote now and this was when PG was still in charge, so they probably have improved their interviewing process and collected more data since.
- gogopuppygogo 11y agoCan you elaborate on what makes a company "not very good"? Would you ever consider releasing anonymized data on companies that apply and are accepted along with those who apply but aren't accepted into a batch? That'd give future applicants much more insight into the process.
- alexandersingh 11y agoOne of my friends is a tenured professor and leading researcher on mental trauma, specializing in PTSD. YC Research piqued his interest when I mentioned it to him. Are you open to receiving research proposals?
- falsestprophet 11y agoDoes 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 you have at hand specific evidence that Mr. Calacanis had done each of "bullying them", "changing offers," and "sharing their confidential info." Of course I totally believe you and wouldn't be keen to do business with him. But, that's exactly the point.
- markdown 11y agoTruth is an absolute defence for libel.
- throwaway_xx9 11y ago> Truth is an absolute defence for libel. In the USA. In the UK, the opposite.
- 15155 11y agoDoes the UK have any jurisdictional capacity over YC?
- ddlatham 11y agoNope. In the UK truth is still a defense, but the difference is that the burden of proving truth is on the defendant rather than the plaintiff (like in the USA).
- DanBC 11y agoThe UK has different legal systems for Scotland and England, so there isn't a "UK Libel law". English defamation law has several defences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_defamation_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_defamation_law > Allowable defences are justification (i.e. the truth of the statement), fair comment (i.e., whether the statement was a view that a reasonable person could have held), and privilege (i.e., whether the statements were made in Parliament or in court, or whether they were fair reports of allegations in the public interest). > An offer of amends is a barrier to litigation. > A defamatory statement is presumed to be false, unless the defendant can prove its truth. > Furthermore, to collect compensatory damages, a public official or public figure must prove actual malice (knowing falsity or reckless disregard for the truth). A private individual must only prove negligence (not exercising due care) to collect compensatory damages. In order to collect punitive damages, all individuals must prove actual malice.
- jonstokes 11y agoI'm working on a piece about universal basic income, and I have the following summary of the how I think that many tech people like yourself believe UBI is going to work: 1. Companies innovate by doing things more cheaply with automation than human workers can do them. 2. As a result of automation, the more efficient companies reap all the profits in a market as they drive the less efficient companies out of business (and the humans out of jobs). 3. This bonanza of profits that automation yields is taxed. 4. The taxes from the accumulated wealth of the winners -- wealth that, again, exists because the winning companies' machines were able to do things more efficiently than the losing companies' human laborers -- go toward paying the laid-off laborers a basic income. Any I missing anything?
- amelius 11y ago> wealth that, again, exists because the winning companies' machines were able to do things more efficiently than the losing companies' human laborers Losing companies also produce wealth, perhaps even more so, because e.g. they didn't spend enough on advertising. However, in this winner-takes-all economy, the losers have to give up. All wealth does not exist only because of winning companies.
- tdaltonc 11y agoYou're missing alternative opportunities created by 1, 2, and 3. For example, wage insurance, a negative income tax, or state-funded retraining. You're also missing other big upside to UBI. For example, if people can be more sure that they won't be reduced to destitution if the quit there 9-5 to work on a passion project, they will be more likely to do that. More people taking more bets on passion projects means more opportunities for explosively successful companies.
- roymurdock 11y ago> This bonanza of profits that automation yields is taxed. Optimizing companies will do everything possible to avoid the corporate taxes (>60%) required to make universal basic income a reality. If you are assuming that winning companies are the best at implementing automation and reducing cost, it is a fatal mistake to assume that they will suddenly become charitable when it comes to wealth redistribution - no, they will "win" because they optimize every single aspect of their balance sheets. They'll move their capital offshore where it will be taxed at a fraction of the US rate. They'll pay lobbyists to make sure tax loopholes stay open, and that the wealth accretes to the few at the top of the company who run the business. This is simply the nature of capitalism. If you allow a few companies to gain too much power, they will abuse that power. That is why we have a government that does an OK job of breaking up monopolies, creating anti-trust laws, regulating risk-taking, etc. > taxes from the accumulated wealth of the winners...go toward paying the laid-off laborers a basic income What about the people who never had a job? Those born into a society where they are not needed for labor? UBI for everyone creates a large misdirection of resources that perpetuates the problem of too many people, too few jobs, social unrest. We have solved this problem in the past through war, which stimulates the economy through government spending, reduces excess labor (especially young, angry, dangerous men), reignites nationalism and social cohesion (against a common and clearly evil enemy such as Hitler), and realigns national incentives towards R&D and infrastructure investment. I am not advocating for war, merely making an observation. Does UBI get distributed to everyone who is unemployed, or only those who are laid off from jobs? I encourage you to examine the concept of "helicopter money" and study the incentive structures it creates and why we haven't truly implemented it before during tough economic times.
- bcjordan 11y agoWill there be another YC Hacks this year? Did any teams/projects from YC Hacks wind up going through YC?
- sama 11y agoNo--we try a lot of things but they don't all work. When they don't, we move on to new ones.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Taraji 11y agoHi Sam, How would YC help an accepted application of just an idea in a technical point of view ? Will there be developers to build a prototype to present during Demo Day ?
- rsp1984 11y agoObviously YC can't enter into NDAs with applicants but can you shed a little bit of light on what YC does to protect the applicants' business ideas? Some might be discouraged from applying because they fear if the idea is interesting (but not the team or there's another reason it's not accepted) that someone from within YC or a related ecosystem might just take the idea and look at the product so far and decide to just do it themselves (but obviously with more resources, connections, etc and obviously holding more equity).
- sama 11y agoHonestly, we are so busy, there are so many companies, and ideas are worth so little, that most of us don't think twice about a specific company once we move on to the next applications. The very best ideas usually don't seem worth stealing.
- miracle_code 11y agoThe concept of ideas being worth near to nothing is new to me, can you explain that thinking? Without monetary arguments this seems not right.
- shizcakes 11y agoThis might help: https://crew.co/how-to-build-an-online-business/idea-vs-execution/ https://crew.co/how-to-build-an-online-business/idea-vs-exec... The concept to further research is execution vs ideas: https://www.google.com/search?q=execution+not+ideas https://www.google.com/search?q=execution+not+ideas
- eric_h 11y agoIdeas are cheap, it's the execution and the team that matter.
- cbhl 11y agoIf an idea is a good business opportunity, it's common for multiple people to be working on it independently at the same time. It's also common for many people to fail working on that very idea before you get to it. One of the values of VCs and networks and experts is that they can tell you how other companies in your space have failed (running out of money, founder breakups, "people won't pay for it", "it really needs X but X doesn't scale", etc.). If you watch the start-up space for long enough you start seeing multiple teams with the "same idea" but only a handful succeed at it; even at small a scale as university incubators.
- danield9tqh 11y agoHello Sam, what is your opinion on REST APIs (A CRUD based model) vs RPC APIs (a more functional based model)?
- schthngs 11y agoHey Sam, VR, AI, etc are really cool. But how about normal markets and solving usual problems? We're working on a service on top of any possible static website generator (from jekyll to hugo) (i.e. yet another website builder) that brings total freedom for artists, musicians, photographers with complete syncronization with dribble, soundcloud, dropbox and so on giving universal content editor and marketplace. Much cheaper, simpler and easier than other (will not count names), schema.org out of the box, blah, blah, blah — really a lot of features. Sounds easy, but internally it's a bunch of cool technical solutions. Any chance to be a part of YC Core/Fellowship family? If yes, we'll definitely try to set-up a demo asap and apply. Cheers, Art
- douglance 11y agoWhy is hackernews so poorly maintained?
- ec109685 11y agoWhat don't you like about it? No ads, loads super fast, everything on one page.
- kordless 11y agoWhat are your thoughts regarding the effects venture capital strategy (game theory) has on the compute markets, specifically the creation and acceleration of bubble phases? Do you believe venture capital, beyond the obvious benefits for investors and founders, actually provides a heathy, sustainable ecosystem for innovation and advancement of humanity and the planet?
- bing_dai 11y agoI found a "YCombinator" account on WeChat yesterday. Is it indeed YC's official WeChat? Here is the screenshot: http://logicalorange.com/mis/YCWeChat.jpg http://logicalorange.com/mis/YCWeChat.jpg Thanks for the AMA Sam!
- tosh 11y agoWhat do you think about distributed teams?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- bpchaps 11y agoI'm actively working on data-based civics projects that should hopefully have positive individual financial impact - particularly for lower income households. It's very fulfilling work that perhaps comes close in addressing localized economic problems (eg, neighborhoods). Problem with this sort of work is that it's generally incremental and has zero immediate effects. In other words, there's no way in hell anyone's going to fund me even on principal. Philanthropists? Nah. YC types? Nope. AVs? heh. Volunteers? Eh. The only way I've found to make it happen is to apply some sort of gamification (ads, app selling), which switches motivation from helping all, to only helping those with a smart phone or easy access to internet. "No shit, you're asking for free work." is pretty common, but I have a persistently hard time believing it's 100% systemic. Any thoughts on building capital for a company whose goal is in helping low income areas using YC-loved technology without any expectation of direct income? (Two examples: Find/Contest bad parking tickets in Chicago. Work in progress with a newly created team of 3: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/red-bin/chitickets/master/chicago.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/red-bin/chitickets/master/... Mapping domestic violence shelters in US, as this exists nowhere else : https://red-bin.github.io/ https://red-bin.github.io/ (unfinished) )
- tdaltonc 11y agoApplying for government grants?
- bpchaps 11y agoNever thought of that, honestly - I'll look into it. I've had surprising amount of folk ask in seriousness why I'm trying to take money away from the budget starved city, though.. That mindset might push back. Still worth a shot! ;)
- tdaltonc 11y agoMind if I ask what city? Some cities and states have grant programs for exactly this kind of thing.
- 11y ago
- srcmap 11y agoSam, Here's my side project - It lets developers browse, understand and document source code via browser. Here are a few examples Doc/Xref source code it can generate: * WASM code in the newly release v8 Engine source. http://www.srcmap.org/sd_share/7/2f4b60db/v8_JS_Engine_WASM.html http://www.srcmap.org/sd_share/7/2f4b60db/v8_JS_Engine_WASM.... * Start up script Code trace in Android AOSP code. (10GB of source) http://www.srcmap.org/sd_share/7/f772faae/Android_AOSP_Platform_Linux_init_rc_Startup_Code_Trace.html http://www.srcmap.org/sd_share/7/f772faae/Android_AOSP_Platf... * ES 6 code trace in v8 Engine. http://www.srcmap.org/sd_share/7/c2018475/v8_ES6_features.html http://www.srcmap.org/sd_share/7/c2018475/v8_ES6_features.ht... The single binary is hosted in $5 / month VPS in DO. (I am cheap and don't like to burn $.) Soon anyone can download it and run it on their PC/Laptop. Free to individual, $ for team. What do you think? Good enough for YC?
- tosh 11y agoAny plans to make borders obsolete? What are the main levers and milestones?
- tangled_zans 11y agoCould you share some personal insight into modelling AI systems?
- throwaway41597 11y agoDo you have some advice about how a founder should organize their day? How many hours of coding/designing/talking to users/sleeping...?
- sama 11y agoDon't over-optimize. At some point you have to stop reading advice blogs and go build a company, and figure it out as you go. Take care of yourself, take some time to enjoy your life, and work the rest of the time.
- eruditely 11y agoOh wow, interesting. I always remember PG saying he only had time for dinner with a friend every two weeks.
- AltruistPartner 11y agoSam, what's your ideal vision for how many nonprofits you would engage?
- hybmg57 11y agoHi Sam, I'm a young entrepreneur who is really passionate about startup and SAAS. For one man SAAS B2B startup with limited funds is there any advice on initial growth? I have used Twitter with some success and used Adwords but had little success (could be due to not enough budget)
- AltruistPartner 11y agoSam, if you could attract the cream of the crop, what percentage/number of nonprofits would you want to engage?
- laksmanv 11y agoHi Sam, Thanks for doing this. Accelerators like StartX at Stanford have programs where you can volunteer to work for the entity itself. Is YC open to having volunteers in this capacity? Do you hire often for the entity, YC, itself?
- bobbyd12 11y agoShould economists revise the natural rate of unemployment? And what do you think that rate will look like once AI is the new norm?
- bobbyd12 11y agoShould economists revise the natural rate of unemployment? And what do you think that rate will look like once AI is the new norm?
- frakkingcylons 11y agoHi Sam, do you have any general advice on selling software to government organizations?
- barcadad 11y agoHow important to you is it that the founders of your companies have gone to college? Has your view about teenage entrepreneurs changed over time?
- sama 11y agoNot that important. I didn't finish college.
- betadreamer 11y agoOne of the problem about the bay area is housing. If YC continues to make successful companies this problem is going to get worse. Does YC have plan to do something about this problem?
- bbb333777 11y agoSam, Energy has the #1 position on your RFS, but energy companies are typically slow moving and capital intensive by nature. Can you give us a bit more insight into the kids of energy companies you are hoping to find?
- viviennelee 11y agoUnder what circumstances would you consider a company with: - Solo founder - No revenue yet - 13-15k monthly active users and 1200-1500 daily active users - Launched 6 months ago Or is it not even worth trying yet?
- viviennelee 11y agoUnder what circumstances would you consider a consumer marketplace company with: 1) Solo founder, 2) No revenue yet, 3) 13-15k monthly active users and 1200-1500 daily active users, 4) Launched 6 months ago. Or is it not even worth trying yet?
- amatic 11y agoNo questions, just a huge amount of respect and admiration. Best wishes for all of your projects.
- echoudhry 11y agoHey Sam, we have attempted to apply a couple times showing steady progression. Does it hurt to re-apply with same idea. To be fair, I know if I have seen a resume for the third time, I am conflicted with the applicants passion and my initial decision. How would say this can differ with your team or is it the same?
- tapeman 11y agoI'm like 80% sure I've heard aaron harris say on startup school radio that it doesn't hurt to reapply
- namenotrequired 11y agoThey've always said that it's good to reapply, which makes sense to me personally, because they say they need founders who get things done. Having a previous application to compare your current application with must be one of the best ways to judge that.
- echoudhry 11y agoThanks!
- 0318ThrowAway 11y agoWhen you first told us you were hired as YC President, I remember you mentioning about making HN more mobile friendly would be a priority close to the top of your list. Is this still going to happen in the near future?
- SdApartmenyGuy 11y agoHi Sam, I am planning on applying this batch, however; I have a friend who just finished his Ph.d in Computer Vision. I want to work with him on a different idea than the one I applying for at YC(robotics). It's in the "other interests" category, he is not a co-founder for my current application. If chosen, can a founder be added iff you don't like the initial idea?
- sama 11y agoYes but we need to meet them first.
- 11thEarlOfMar 11y agoAllegations are circling the web that a side effect of the (also alleged) startup bubble is that there are more good founders than good ideas. The purported effect is to water down the societal value of the products and services that are produced by companies exiting accelerators and incubators. A few obvious counter arguments come to mind right away, such as YC's startups in fusion energy and non-profits like Watsi. If I could, I'd Google up a histogram of funded startup business models as granular as 'restaurant food delivery' or 'pre-packaged home cooked meals' and see where the ideas are concentrated. What is your opinion on the aggregate? Does YC have any formal or informal policies aimed at balancing the mix of weighty vs. frivolous businesses?
- sama 11y agoSome of the most important startups start out looking incredibly ambitious. Others start out looking incredibly trivial, but with users that are in love with their product. We like funding both.
- nxzero 11y agoCurious, why're you President of YC? Just to be clear, this is not intended to be why you vs someone, but if there's a story behind why you ended up where you are today. Thanks!
- dookahku 11y agoHi, Sam, Many of the HW people I see on YC focus on consumer applications. How does YC feel about more 'b2b' applications, like nuclear seals for the IAEA, or industrial things?
- brashrat 11y agoIs Hacker News comment history "private/free speech", or does YC use Hacker News comment history in judging founders, employees, business partners etc.? I'm not talking about the judgements anybody could make by googling, I'm talking about using your positions as insiders, is Hacker News a source of intel? I am not a partner or potential partner, I ask because sometimes I see people write well meaning things that make me wince for them if they are being judged.
- mrpearl11 11y agoHi Sam, what is your personal mission?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tdaltonc 11y agoHow is the funding environment for start-ups right now compared to 12 or 6 months ago? How will it be in 6 to 12 months? Why?
- sama 11y agoHonestly, it doesn't seem to be super different yet, except for the late stage which has gotten much harder. It still could change a lot--I'm not sure.
- currentoor 11y agoHi Sam, PG in some of his older articles was really big on Lisp being the most powerful programming language and instrumental to his success. His writing actually inspired me to learn Clojure. In your experience, does the power of a programming language, in a software business, matter as much? Thanks for doing this!
- demiurge_09 11y agoHey Sam, For a non-technical founder interested in building tech products; is it more important to learn how to code (well enough to build a prototype) vs understand software architecture (to manage the building of the product)
- hahla 11y agoI would argue that learning how to code well enough to build a prototype is the same thing as being able to understand software architecture to manage the building of the product. A better question would be learn how to code vs be able to lead and manage a team.
- demiurge_09 11y agothanks hahla, to your proposed question what do you reckon is better?
- palmyra 11y agoDo you only invest in single product companies? what if a company have multiple rebranded products (3-5) based on same code and at the end adds up to respectable revenue figures and very good ROI?
- CCalif 11y agoWhat would a YCombinator look like if it was for projects aimed at moving human society to a sustainable footing? what features of YCombinator would you keep, and how would you modify it?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- CiPHPerCoder 11y agoHow about getting away from San Fransisco?
- theoracle101 11y agoI'm at a YC startup that's successful. How do you look at early employees of such companies, and how I tactfully apply? There is no way I could without it getting back to my CEO (or so it seems to me)
- tdaltonc 11y agoWhy haven't you told them you have a side project/ are interested in starting your own company?
- theoracle101 11y agoI want to finish what I started first. I think I owe that to them
- ScottBurson 11y agoI think that's a good attitude -- to a point. Wait until the right moment, okay, but don't give up your own dreams completely. I think you should go ahead and tell your founders about your aspirations. They may very well be supportive; I've definitely read that many YC founders encourage their employees to do their own startups. Telling them will give you and them a chance to work out a plan for what you should get done before you start applying to YC or other accelerators in earnest. And if they're not supportive, well, maybe they weren't so deserving of your consideration as you thought. I find this hard to imagine, though. It's not like you're quitting outright.
- GFischer 11y agoI've seen some cases where companies incubate startups in-house, in exchange for some equity :) and even invest in them. I don't know about the specific case, but a 4-year old startup should have enough cash to spend a little in a small seed capital.
- vecter 11y agoYC is so big and has so many (1) existing portfolio companies and (2) applicants to go through that they simply don't have the time to even care about this. We graduated YC in S12 and, outside of fundraising, talk with partners on average once a year. I don't think we've reached out to YC or YC partners have reached out to us in any meaningful way for the past year or two. Perhaps counterintuitively, this is even moreso the case the more successful a YC company becomes. There's little to nothing that YC can do to help Dropbox, but there's way more that YC can do to help a struggling 5 person company get off the ground. Working at a successful YC startup can only help your chances.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- wprapido 11y agois YC fellowship more solo founder friendly than your regular YC program?
- Omnipresent 11y agoWhat do you think about https://privacyowl.com/ https://privacyowl.com/ - Legally compliant privacy policies for websites or mobile applications
- errantspark 11y agoHey Sam, where do I apply for YC basic income? : ) Many people have no problems in life except those related to not having enough dough. I know a number of really creative/talented individuals who would be a lot better off if they didn't struggle to feed/house themselves. People who contribute to open source, build art projects and love to share knowledge. Definite contributors to society and the betterment of their fellow man. Have you ever considered just letting people to apply for YC for a few years of basic income. The individuals that I'm thinking of would contribute more to society if given basic income than in any other situation I can imagine. (Many of them bay area locals, if you want to interview a few in person). Driven to create but stifled by various real and/or self imposed restrictions.
- Xeoncross 11y agoEven more than basic income in the west. Basic income in developing countries could go farther for less. It's pretty easy to work a job and still have time to develop if you want to here in the states. It's really hard to starve doing what you love here.
- 11y ago
- hypertexthero 11y agoJust a note that I'll happily provide visual design assistance for any Basic Income projects — http://hypertexthero.com/work/basic-income-11-arguments/ http://hypertexthero.com/work/basic-income-11-arguments/ Thanks for doing the [Request For Research on Basic Income](https://blog.ycombinator.com/basic-income https://blog.ycombinator.com/basic-income). It's good to see awareness of it increasing.
- DodgyEggplant 11y agoHi Sam! Would you consider to add preserving wild life and animals to YC https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/ https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/? After all, animals also live here with us, humans. And we need them too. Maybe startups and innovation can help?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- madrp 11y agoHave you fund any startup who is trying to better education in third world countries. Something like TeachForIndia or may be a school itself ?
- hardworkisfun 11y agoWhat habit or habits in your life have most contributed to your success?
- hardworkisfun 11y agoWhat habit or habits have most contributed to your success in life and/or business?
- jobobby 11y agoWhat happened to startup school?!
- jobobby 11y agoWhat happened with startup school?
- hkiely 11y agoHi Sam, What do you think is the best way for someone to express the challenges and circumstances in life they deal with and work to overcome. These typically aren't things one would list on a resume. Thanks
- jtatarchuk 11y agoMy cofounders and I believe CRM is broken... With a heavy emphasis on management and not the customer... What other areas of CRM do you see need improving?
- jpmcglone 11y agoI have a general life question for you Sam. What do you think is the main thing or things that holds great people back?
- jpmcglone 11y agoAs an iOS developer, is there any way for me to get involved with your Basic Income research and development?
- cybin 11y agoHey Sam: So I've been working diligently for the last few weeks putting the final edits on my application to YC. I'm 68 years old an the only founder. On the positive side I've got almost 50 years of work in the project that defines the state of the art. Am I wasting my time in applying considering my age and singleness?
- lbotos 11y agoHoly wow! I'm not Sam but kudos, keep at it no matter what. Inspired right now.
- cybin 11y agoThanks! That's a very nice thing to say.
- d_luaz 11y agoDoesn't hurt if it takes you less than a day to apply :)
- TimPrice 11y agoIf you can afford it, keep going at it!
- marincounty 11y agoI don't think this question will be honestly answered. Maybe we should ask is there over three successful applicants that were over 50? It's not an unfair question.
- tim333 11y agoI'm not sure if there are solo founders over 50 who were at YC but some individuals who are cofounders are. Dr John Slough of Helion for example. I've got similar issues myself. Perhaps cofounders are the answer. Maybe we can take inspiration from Rose Blumkin, founder of the Nebraska Furniture Mart who sold the store to Warren Buffett and then after arguments with her family left in a huff and set up a rival called Mrs. B's Clearance and Factory Outlet across the street at age 95. It became profitable and was Omaha's third-largest carpet outlet before Buffett bought that too.
- jondubois 11y agoAs YC's portfolio of established companies gets bigger (and more valuable), do you think YC's focus will eventually shift from "facilitating innovation" to simply "maintaining the status quo" (particularly if the latter becomes more lucrative)? What measures do you have in place to make sure that YC's financial interests remain geared towards innovation?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- cybin 11y agoBTW: The application form has a really nasty bug. If you've just spent the last hour in writing some of the greatest prose ever written, hit save, and don't wait for the response in the top right corner and hit logout your work will be lost:( dammit! Sam I hope you fix that.
- bradleyc 11y agoSeconded.
- yoman07 11y agoHi, we gave up with sending our application, because we weren't able to validate our idea with customers. Is it better to send application despite it or wait until autumn?
- pulsside 11y agoHi Sam, qq from my side. If you are not programmer, but want to become one, what would be area, programming language and industry that you would suggest to focus on that will allow you to grow fast as a product and company? Thanks!
- pulsside 11y agoHi Sam, qq from my side. If you are not programmer, but want to become one, what would be area, programming language and industry that you would suggest to focus on that will allow you to grow fast as a product and company? Thanks!
- Vitally 11y agoNice Q&A
- MattyMc 11y agoHi Sam. Not sure if you'll read this, but thought I'd take a moment this morning on the off chance you might. I just wanted to say hi, and say thanks. 5-6 years ago I came to realized how much I enjoy creating/making things, how little that process resembled work for me, and shortly later after reading Paul Graham's essays felt like I had finally found a community that who shares my interests and values. Although my background is in mathematics I've spent much of the past 6 years in coffee shops during evenings and weekends teaching myself to code and bringing my projects to life. Equally important has been my business education during this time. I now view business as a means to spend more of my time in that creative space, and creating successful business as an equally enjoyable engineering challenge. So thanks. Thank you to you for the countless videos, the (awesome) recent lecture series, the Stanford Entrepreneurial talks, and for curating this community. Thank you also to Paul and Jessica, from whom I continue to learn so much as I try to get to the essence of the deeper, most important questions in life. Thanks to you all. Well, it's Saturday morning which means Pam and I are off to the coffee shop - her to write and me to code. Although my current project/business (that I'm super excited about!) doesn't lend to a startup-style investment growth model, hence no immediate YC application forthcoming, I hope one day some context will exist where I can thank you in person. Have a great day.
- sethiw 11y agoSam, I know you've commented that valuations are generally meaningless re early stage start-ups. I don't disagree, but there are a lots of funds with holding in early stage start-ups....in some fund formats (not trad'l PE/VC funds) they collect management and performance fees based on "fair market value" of fund assets. Agree true valuation is best determined at a realization event, i.e. An ipo or other form of exit, but what are your views on determining fair market value marks along the way...last round pricing, market comps, dcf models, or none of the above.
- techpassion 11y agoWith respect to reputation of YC, what happens if the pitch although being amazing in an application could be a conflict or add on to one of your existing already funded groups ?! Wouldn't there be a conflict while you reviewing an application for it to be judged faily ? And also the pitch idea is compromised against the benefit of the founder ! Please advise
- clbrook 11y agoCould you share the demographics for the YC Fellowship program so far?
- aug-riedinger 11y agoSam, I know I'm late, but what a pain it must have been to reply to those questions with so many messy comments with such crappy interface. Don't you think the time has come to stop to fake advertising the success of simplicity and to build a proper HN interface? (Just looked at the sources to collapse all subcomments, and I found `<table>` tags, OMG) I understand the whole "it's simple but it works, people use it"-thing, but what's the point, when [dozen of developpers](https://www.google.fr/search?q=hacker+news+collapse+comments&oq=hacker+new&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i65l3j69i57j69i59.2028j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.fr/search?q=hacker+news+collapse+comments...) are willing to make it for you, even for free. Not very inspiring for startup builders either.