sama

25 ms·

301.
by sama 11y ago
YCR is a non-profit; we just think this is important and interesting. Though if it does turn out, years down the road, that basic income happens, I suspect we'd get more people starting companies and that would obviously be good for Y
302.
by sama 11y ago
I think this is one of the most important components to study.
303.
by sama 11y ago
Ask HN: What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone? I think basic income is important to do but decreasing the cost of living is a critical component as well. I'd be very interested to hear thoughts from the HN community
304.
by sama 11y ago
We have a somewhat relevant announcement to this tomorrow...
305.
by sama 11y ago
Fair point; I updated the post.
306.
by sama 11y ago
We're all for companies doing what they need to do to survive. However, we've seen an increasing number of accelerators getting startups to join them by saying "we can help you get into YC", and then subsequently hurting
307.
by sama 11y ago
We don't want to do that; however, I think sometimes when people think they're getting help they're actually getting hurt. One of our goals is to release as much advice as we can for free for anyone.
308.
by sama 11y ago
My thinking has changed on this. I think investors shouldn't get a free option on every idea a founder ever has; after a few pivots and rounds I think a clean start is often a good idea.
309.
by sama 11y ago
We don't fully understand it.
310.
by sama 11y ago
In general, the more money that a company has raised and the longer it's been around, the higher our expectations are. There are of course important exceptions to this, but we do look for evidence that founders can get things done.
311.
by sama 11y ago
Our motto is "Make something people want!" If that's not a statement about retention, I'm not sure what would be. And a startup needs to grow quickly. It's not an either/or--at most, it's a sequencing iss
312.
by sama 11y ago
There is real danger in aiming for that. The way to make the hit rate higher is to fund safer bets, which are usually not what generate the giant returns. I'd like to the "slugging percentage" be higher, but I think the hit
313.
by sama 11y ago
1) Build a network of experts you can rely on for evaluation 2) A lot of what makes a startup good or bad translates across different domains, so even if you can't evaluate the technology yourself, you can still evaluate other things (
314.
by sama 11y ago
We're working on a new web site!
315.
by sama 11y ago
Good point, added clarification.
316.
by sama 11y ago
"Integers" is probably better. 26 might not be enough for us :)
317.
by sama 11y ago
Yeah clarifying responsibilities is just horrible. Jumped the shark!
318.
YC Updates and Additions(blog.ycombinator.com)
194 points by sama 11y ago|124 comments
319.
Introducing OpenAI(openai.com)
1107 points by sama 11y ago|376 comments
320.
by sama 11y ago
It's now been two weeks since Theranos said they were going to release clinical data.
321.
by sama 11y ago
No.
322.
by sama 11y ago
http://www.amazon.com/Persecution-Art-Writing-Leo-Strauss/dp...
323.
by sama 11y ago
Yes I'm adding something on that.
324.
by sama 11y ago
(This got published a little early because it got indexed. I'm still going through and fixing some typos and will maybe add a few other things.)
325.
Startup Playbook(playbook.samaltman.com)
1202 points by sama 11y ago|232 comments
326.
by sama 11y ago
No, that's when the 2x comes into play. In this scenario, the investor gets the first 2x, and then after 3x doesn't make any more money.
327.
by sama 11y ago
YC is an investor in the company. We've been trying all day to reach the CEO and we've been unsuccessful so far. Obviously, this is very bad and we hope the company will fix it quickly.
328.
by sama 11y ago
I thought about this more and in fairness I think since we don't charge for startup school, female founders conference, etc we should sort of count that as marketing. Though I also honestly believe they are good for the world. And HN,
329.
by sama 11y ago
This is correct--art of war in the Middle Ages.
330.
by sama 11y ago
We would someday like to allow access for individual investors. We actually looked into it this time around; it's still extremely difficult. But hopefully the laws keep evolving and someday soon we can make you lots of money :)

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