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sama: can you comment on the various personal and financial interests you have in this case? Would you name and shame for a YC company in which you had not inve

sama: can you comment on the various personal and financial interests you have in this case? Would you name and shame for a YC company in which you had not invested as an individual? One not run by a personal friend? One not about to be acquired for huge money and become another home run for YC? Or similarly, you note in this post that you spent a whole day dealing with this issue. Hanging around HN we frequently read about how YC partners' time is in high demand, many applications to YC are viewed for literally only seconds, office hours are in fact not hours, etc. Would any YC company get such a chunk of your time? I certainly don't mean to be some jerk on the internet telling you how you may or may not spend your hours. That's a) not my place and b) a topic I'm not qualified to philosophize on. Nonetheless, it's more than a bit disconcerting to read a blog post which starts out with "here are some of my various connections to an interests in this company" followed by "and I'm doing them special favors, apparently at risk to myself, including writing this blog post." This blog post gave me quite a sense of "well, sama and YC have a solid moral compass and plenty of self confidence but don't always follow the rules." The "I'm making an exception of my usual don't-be-on-YC-company-boards policy to be chairman of two YC companies" post from a year ago [1] had a similar vibe. Both posts made me wary of YC. [1] http://blog.samaltman.com/energy http://blog.samaltman.com/energy Maybe I should clarify that I'm rooting for Helion and UPower and hope they go far with Sam. But a policy of I won't be on YC boards unless it's for my favorite company in one of my favorite application areas sounds a lot like I've given up desserts and other refined sugars (except warm brownie sundaes with ice cream and chocolate sauce).

joncalhoun 11y ago
I'm not sama, but I did attend YC a few years ago so I will try to chime in a bit here based on my experiences. First, you are right - every YC partner has very limited time, and if you expect to get a lot of it for anything and everything you will be disappointed. YC wouldn't scale that way, and it would be a waste of the partners' time. That said, if you ever NEED a partners time, they will bend over backwards to make it happen, regardless of whether you just sold for $1b, were personal friends with them, or whatever else.
- pj_mukh 11y ago
  Seconded, in fact I'll go one step further. YC has drastically increased the number of partners to meet the demand of a growing batch size. I've seen partners do more publicly for new garage startups (new YC companies) being strongarmed by large companies. Totally no surprises here.
- anthonyko 11y ago
  Agreed. Sam and all the other YC partners will go out of their way to help, it's just often not public.
- j_hammond_ingen 11y ago
  This is interesting to hear. As an aside, my company is a Techstars company and we have had the exact opposite experience in terms of getting the attention and/or help of the folks that run the organization. Sigh that we didn't apply to YC...
  - peteforde 11y ago
    Just curious: why didn't you apply to YC? TS seems generously like the best B-list incubator. I've never understand the pull, given that they have none of the status and thought leadership demonstrated so regularly by YC.
pbreit 11y ago
This is all kind of ridiculous. For starters, Sam is a human (hard to believe, I know). Really now, would it make any sense (whatsoever) Sam or anyone at YC (or anyone in the world!) to give equal time to every person/company/thing/other?? No, of course not. That would be ludicrous. And this isn't any ole company that Sam or YC has an interest in. It's multiple time YC participant that has built something awesome and achieved one milestone on its journey as YC's largest exit to date (hopefully).
morgante 11y ago
Even though I disagree with Sam on this, I find your comment very distasteful. For one thing, Sam would emphatically not be doing his job as a VC if he didn't make himself fully and readily available to the most successful YC companies. He would be doing a huge disservice to YC's LPs if he didn't provide any assistance possible in preserving literally millions of dollars for them.
- Tarrosion 11y ago
  It was certainly not my intent to be distasteful; the feeling was not meant to be bring out the pitchforks but instead Sam I believe you are a top notch fellow, this seems slightly odd, put me at ease. If I phrased anything poorly, I apologize. Indeed, the other comments have done a pretty solid job of that. If the question itself is distasteful, well, that's surprising to me and I clearly still have much to learn. Enlighten me?
  - Mz 11y ago
    It comes across as mud slinging. Like asking a rape victim in a very public situation "I know it is not really my business, and I do not mean to call you a whore, but how many men did you screw before this guy? And how were you dressed? And how much did you drink?" You know, the most damning things are usually veiled accusations -- the sort of thing where it puts the accused in a position of looking like an overly defensive lunatic reading in something not there if they try to defend themselves while thoroughly dragging their name through the mud. If it really doesn't matter to you, leave it be. Your curiosity does not have to be satisfied. Since he has stakes in this and this is apparently idle curiosity on your part, it just looks bad. (I don't really care. I have zero skin in this game. I am just hoping that answers your question. I am weird like that about certain things. Shrug.)
hoodoof 11y ago
It might have been wise for Sam just to sit and wait for other people to play this situation out. He's a young guy and whilst I am sure very clever, probably has wisdom to gain. One of the hardest things to learn is "how to do nothing". I'm guessing the lesson for him coming out of this will be to not risk his reputation for wise leadership trying to intervene in someone else's battle. If you suspect something is going to get legal then it really makes sense to sit on your hands even though it is tempting to speak out. Rallying support for a participant in a fight..... well it just doesn't look good. It would be easy to read this post and think "Rich young influential Silicon Valley powerbroker wielding his power to force someone to give up their claim, so that he may cash in on a deal." I'm guessing that's not the way Sam wants to be seen.
nicholasjbs 11y ago
I'm a cofounder of a YC company. This June will be the sixth anniversary of when we did YC, and our company isn't exactly a billion-dollar darling (to put it mildly). Nor do we have any interest in going public or being acquired, so the odds of YC seeing any sort of financial return from us are slim. Nevertheless, we commonly get email responses from YC partners (including Sam) inside of five minutes, and I've met and gotten helpful advice when we needed help from six partners (including Sam) in just the past year or so. YC doesn't only help the huge successes: They also do a tremendous amount to help tiny companies, and even if they're still tiny many years after YC.
- moeamaya 11y ago
  To be fair, Hacker School / Recurse Center is a considerably large brand name and is doing imperative work in the programming education sector. Regardless your anecdote does parallel other YC companies' in that a Brian Chesky email is tantamount to a first year YC founder's or as you mentioned a founder from batches over half a decade old.
sama 11y ago
Sometimes you have to be willing to risk your personal reputation to stand up for what you believe in. Yes all day every day I do things for YC companies I'm not close to, but our biggest exit ever for sure gets extra attention. In any case, I think you'd be surprised to see my calendar. We paradoxically spend the most of our time on the least successful companies, and trust that doing so will help us get to fund the next Airbnb. I do try to always disclose conflicts. And it's definitely true that areas like nuclear energy that I'm personally passionate about and believe I can contribute to will get extra attention from me.
- vonklaus 11y ago
  In interviews and watching YC develop, i've admired how measured and thoughtful you have been in contrast to my reactive style. The judgement has always been excellent in hindsight. This is obviously emotional, professional and personal for you and I think that limited your objectivity. It isn't that this needed to be objective, but that your role is as an enabler. In my opinion this should have been written by the founder, and your post should be a comment or set of pull qoutes attached to the article or referenced by Cruise. It is a worthy cause (or seems so) but at least sharing the post or contributing to a founders post allows the perception & impetus to be on the company, with your direct support. That said, the message and what you've conveyed seems correct, just not up to your usual standards.
- tikhon 11y ago
  I can personally attest that Sam helps out all the companies I've seen that ask, whether or not it helps him in any way. That sort of person is rare in the ecosystem and should be celebrated, not questioned like this. We're attacking him for being honest and giving full disclosure? Really? The obvious parallel one could draw here is Ron Conway -- these folks help startups because they can, not because they're profiteering. The suggestion is almost offensive given what Sam has done here, which I don't think most people would have had the guts to do. I doubt any legal counsel would have suggested he post this, anyway. Few folks put in more time, energy, and effort than Sam does to help startup founders, and I think that's partially how he's built up such a world-class reputation. Sam is making a bold move here with this blog post, given the case. We should be celebrating him doing the right thing here. A lot of folks wouldn't want to publicly touch a topic like this given the legal case. Any startup would be lucky to have his help, and he's probably the most gracious and helpful person in the startup ecosystem you'll be lucky enough to meet. The fact he's been an investor in the past is, I suspect, more a byproduct of the fact he meets with so many startups as he does. If you spent all day meeting with hedge fund managers, for instance, you'd likely end up being an LP or advisor for at least a couple of them. That doesn't affect the quality of your hedge fund decisions or advice. Sam has helped me when he had no vested interest in doing so, and I'll always be grateful for that.

joncalhoun 11y ago

I'm not sama, but I did attend YC a few years ago so I will try to chime in a bit here based on my experiences. First, you are right - every YC partner has very limited time, and if you expect to get a lot of it for anything and everything you will be disappointed. YC wouldn't scale that way, and it would be a waste of the partners' time. That said, if you ever NEED a partners time, they will bend over backwards to make it happen, regardless of whether you just sold for $1b, were personal friends with them, or whatever else.

pj_mukh 11y ago
Seconded, in fact I'll go one step further. YC has drastically increased the number of partners to meet the demand of a growing batch size. I've seen partners do more publicly for new garage startups (new YC companies) being strongarmed by large companies. Totally no surprises here.
anthonyko 11y ago
Agreed. Sam and all the other YC partners will go out of their way to help, it's just often not public.
j_hammond_ingen 11y ago
This is interesting to hear. As an aside, my company is a Techstars company and we have had the exact opposite experience in terms of getting the attention and/or help of the folks that run the organization. Sigh that we didn't apply to YC...
- peteforde 11y ago
  Just curious: why didn't you apply to YC? TS seems generously like the best B-list incubator. I've never understand the pull, given that they have none of the status and thought leadership demonstrated so regularly by YC.

pbreit 11y ago

This is all kind of ridiculous. For starters, Sam is a human (hard to believe, I know). Really now, would it make any sense (whatsoever) Sam or anyone at YC (or anyone in the world!) to give equal time to every person/company/thing/other?? No, of course not. That would be ludicrous. And this isn't any ole company that Sam or YC has an interest in. It's multiple time YC participant that has built something awesome and achieved one milestone on its journey as YC's largest exit to date (hopefully).

morgante 11y ago

Even though I disagree with Sam on this, I find your comment very distasteful. For one thing, Sam would emphatically not be doing his job as a VC if he didn't make himself fully and readily available to the most successful YC companies. He would be doing a huge disservice to YC's LPs if he didn't provide any assistance possible in preserving literally millions of dollars for them.

Tarrosion 11y ago
It was certainly not my intent to be distasteful; the feeling was not meant to be bring out the pitchforks but instead Sam I believe you are a top notch fellow, this seems slightly odd, put me at ease. If I phrased anything poorly, I apologize. Indeed, the other comments have done a pretty solid job of that. If the question itself is distasteful, well, that's surprising to me and I clearly still have much to learn. Enlighten me?
- Mz 11y ago
  It comes across as mud slinging. Like asking a rape victim in a very public situation "I know it is not really my business, and I do not mean to call you a whore, but how many men did you screw before this guy? And how were you dressed? And how much did you drink?" You know, the most damning things are usually veiled accusations -- the sort of thing where it puts the accused in a position of looking like an overly defensive lunatic reading in something not there if they try to defend themselves while thoroughly dragging their name through the mud. If it really doesn't matter to you, leave it be. Your curiosity does not have to be satisfied. Since he has stakes in this and this is apparently idle curiosity on your part, it just looks bad. (I don't really care. I have zero skin in this game. I am just hoping that answers your question. I am weird like that about certain things. Shrug.)

hoodoof 11y ago

It might have been wise for Sam just to sit and wait for other people to play this situation out. He's a young guy and whilst I am sure very clever, probably has wisdom to gain. One of the hardest things to learn is "how to do nothing". I'm guessing the lesson for him coming out of this will be to not risk his reputation for wise leadership trying to intervene in someone else's battle. If you suspect something is going to get legal then it really makes sense to sit on your hands even though it is tempting to speak out. Rallying support for a participant in a fight..... well it just doesn't look good. It would be easy to read this post and think "Rich young influential Silicon Valley powerbroker wielding his power to force someone to give up their claim, so that he may cash in on a deal." I'm guessing that's not the way Sam wants to be seen.

nicholasjbs 11y ago

I'm a cofounder of a YC company. This June will be the sixth anniversary of when we did YC, and our company isn't exactly a billion-dollar darling (to put it mildly). Nor do we have any interest in going public or being acquired, so the odds of YC seeing any sort of financial return from us are slim. Nevertheless, we commonly get email responses from YC partners (including Sam) inside of five minutes, and I've met and gotten helpful advice when we needed help from six partners (including Sam) in just the past year or so. YC doesn't only help the huge successes: They also do a tremendous amount to help tiny companies, and even if they're still tiny many years after YC.

moeamaya 11y ago
To be fair, Hacker School / Recurse Center is a considerably large brand name and is doing imperative work in the programming education sector. Regardless your anecdote does parallel other YC companies' in that a Brian Chesky email is tantamount to a first year YC founder's or as you mentioned a founder from batches over half a decade old.

sama 11y ago

Sometimes you have to be willing to risk your personal reputation to stand up for what you believe in. Yes all day every day I do things for YC companies I'm not close to, but our biggest exit ever for sure gets extra attention. In any case, I think you'd be surprised to see my calendar. We paradoxically spend the most of our time on the least successful companies, and trust that doing so will help us get to fund the next Airbnb. I do try to always disclose conflicts. And it's definitely true that areas like nuclear energy that I'm personally passionate about and believe I can contribute to will get extra attention from me.

vonklaus 11y ago
In interviews and watching YC develop, i've admired how measured and thoughtful you have been in contrast to my reactive style. The judgement has always been excellent in hindsight. This is obviously emotional, professional and personal for you and I think that limited your objectivity. It isn't that this needed to be objective, but that your role is as an enabler. In my opinion this should have been written by the founder, and your post should be a comment or set of pull qoutes attached to the article or referenced by Cruise. It is a worthy cause (or seems so) but at least sharing the post or contributing to a founders post allows the perception & impetus to be on the company, with your direct support. That said, the message and what you've conveyed seems correct, just not up to your usual standards.
tikhon 11y ago
I can personally attest that Sam helps out all the companies I've seen that ask, whether or not it helps him in any way. That sort of person is rare in the ecosystem and should be celebrated, not questioned like this. We're attacking him for being honest and giving full disclosure? Really? The obvious parallel one could draw here is Ron Conway -- these folks help startups because they can, not because they're profiteering. The suggestion is almost offensive given what Sam has done here, which I don't think most people would have had the guts to do. I doubt any legal counsel would have suggested he post this, anyway. Few folks put in more time, energy, and effort than Sam does to help startup founders, and I think that's partially how he's built up such a world-class reputation. Sam is making a bold move here with this blog post, given the case. We should be celebrating him doing the right thing here. A lot of folks wouldn't want to publicly touch a topic like this given the legal case. Any startup would be lucky to have his help, and he's probably the most gracious and helpful person in the startup ecosystem you'll be lucky enough to meet. The fact he's been an investor in the past is, I suspect, more a byproduct of the fact he meets with so many startups as he does. If you spent all day meeting with hedge fund managers, for instance, you'd likely end up being an LP or advisor for at least a couple of them. That doesn't affect the quality of your hedge fund decisions or advice. Sam has helped me when he had no vested interest in doing so, and I'll always be grateful for that.