mwseibel

11 ms·

91.
by mwseibel 9y ago
I didn't grow up in the 1 percent and the vast majority of people I know in YC didn't either.
92.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Our problem was how to create a reality tv show with Justin Kan wearing a camera on his head. Is that a good problem?
93.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Engineering challenges I certainly agree. Life challenges though? I think we can have a good argument about that one.
94.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Totally agree - I think this applied to starting almost any business. I'm just speaking from personal experience.
95.
by mwseibel 9y ago
My goal was to help people create their own framework for deciding whether to do a startup. I actually didn't talk much about YC at all.
96.
by mwseibel 9y ago
I agree that being able to move back in with your parents is a huge luxury that many founders have (I did as well). I also believe that there are a lot of people (not everyone of course) who have that safety net.
97.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Sorry you didn't have a better interview experience at Twitch. Also, 90% of our employees didn't come from Ivy League backgrounds. Maybe there was a miscommunication there.
98.
by mwseibel 9y ago
On the flip side - if you want to be a founder - try to start early. On balance you often have fewer constraints, lower expenses, and much more life flexibility.
99.
by mwseibel 9y ago
"you can cause yourself to lose, but you can't make yourself win" - I like this - maybe I would restate this as "you can cause yourself to lose, but a lot of things outside of your control need to go right in order to wi
100.
by mwseibel 9y ago
I totally agree with this - starting by bootstrapping is a great way to get your feet wet while maintaining a stable salary
101.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Honestly I dont have a good answer - I don't think I dealt with it in the most healthy manner - although my girlfriend (now wife) helped a lot!
102.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Yes they did :) - I became friends with Justin during my second senior year
103.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Because I realized that I could be better
104.
by mwseibel 9y ago
No one ever asked about my grades - coming from Yale probably helped a bit - but more importantly, Yale allowed me to meet my first co-founders.
105.
by mwseibel 9y ago
No but we should - we are actually building a lot more data collection in the next year
106.
by mwseibel 9y ago
Hey folks - happy to answer questions here
107.
by mwseibel 9y ago
So happy to have all three of you on the team!
108.
by mwseibel 10y ago
It is not a good idea to apply to YC to find co-founders.
109.
by mwseibel 10y ago
We do help founders with visas. We prepare invitation documentation and work closely with an immigration law firm that we give founders direct access to. We also have late interviews for founders who need more time to get a visa and will
110.
by mwseibel 10y ago
That is a great question - I'm actually going to post a blog post about this early next week. Quick summary: 1) It is motivational to work around a bunch of other super hungry startups 2) YC is a great tool and the more experience you
111.
by mwseibel 10y ago
I don't mean to set that tone - I think international founders disproportionately believe that YC is only focused on the US so that is why we talk about it a bit more. YC has always accepted large numbers of international founders.
112.
by mwseibel 10y ago
I think both - we always want to accept early stage companies to YC. Also I think the MOOC will be a great way for any company to get value out of YC.
113.
by mwseibel 10y ago
13% of startups in this batch have either a black or latinx founder and 22% have a female founder.
114.
by mwseibel 10y ago
I would recruit founders you have had either a personal or professional relationship with and who you think you would want to work with for 10 years.
115.
by mwseibel 10y ago
I don't think it's important at all. PG has a saying that good founders become more formidable during their time at YC. Also, demo day prep and fundraising is pretty intense at YC so most founders get much better at talking abou
116.
by mwseibel 10y ago
In no particular order here is a small subset of YC companies from 2-3 years ago that I bet will become household names in the next 2-3 years: Theorem, Algolia, Bellabeat, Flexport, Cruise (I guess a lot of people know about these guys alre
117.
by mwseibel 10y ago
I don't think the criteria has changed much. I think personally I've had to learn not to get caught up by pet ideas. It is easy to ignore obvious red flags when you read an application where you would love to be a user.
118.
by mwseibel 10y ago
That is a great question! First I look at how clearly the founders communicate their idea and their insights. When someone has a truly deep understanding of their domain, they are able to explain it to intelligent people from any backgrou
119.
by mwseibel 10y ago
not at all!
120.
by mwseibel 10y ago
I think the best way for a non-profit to succeed in general is to have a business model that doesn't require it to raise money from donors.

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