sama

30 ms·

331.
by sama 11y ago
it doesn't effect our decision making. the best companies end up raising most of the money--we've looked at this in detail.
332.
by sama 11y ago
Just asked our CFO--she thinks we will be at about $8MM for 2015 not counting investments.
333.
by sama 11y ago
The main thing we're doing here is not making any discretionary bets on companies until they're far enough along to be valued off of an Excel model. At that stage, signaling matter much much less.
334.
by sama 11y ago
That is a good specific example :)
335.
by sama 11y ago
We have had a number of exits, and two or three times we've sold some of our stock in our larger companies for cashflow for operations. Partners have also contributed money. Going forward, we'll get some management fees from this
336.
by sama 11y ago
This will just be a small part of what we do. There are now 15 partners on the early stage side and 1 on the late stage side. Two thoughts: 1) In the same way YC was able to make the early-stage ecosystem better for founders, we think we c
337.
by sama 11y ago
I certainly hope for the better.
338.
by sama 11y ago
You can still have pro rata rights on common shares.
339.
by sama 11y ago
None of our current programs sound like a good fit. We're considering doing something for later-stage companies that might be a good fit, though we haven't sorted out details about the bay area for example. If it does end up as a
340.
by sama 11y ago
For now we are recruiting them. Someday we'd like to have a way for them to apply.
341.
by sama 11y ago
Ok sure that sounds fun, could you email my office (SArouter@ycombinator.com)?
342.
by sama 11y ago
I think we're pretty accountable--if for example we started misusing information that would quickly become known and founders would stop applying to YC. I think most things we do to help YC startups help the community in general. Thin
343.
by sama 11y ago
Definitely not--we certainly understand that some startups need to raise more money than others.
344.
by sama 11y ago
I don't think you can do all 3 well at the same time, nor should you try. Pick what you most want to excel at for now and focus on that.
345.
by sama 11y ago
We do a lot of different outreach, but to your specific question, we recently did this: http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-open-office-hours-for-black-a...
346.
by sama 11y ago
The bandaid is we increase the amount of money we give to teams. We do have some longer-term thoughts if the area can't get its act together and fix the problem.
347.
by sama 11y ago
Ideas do not start out as unicorn ideas. They start small and morph into something bigger.
348.
by sama 11y ago
Well, that's fucked up about academia. All the more reason to create alternatives. Do you really want to be part of a system that does not allow for failure? At a minimum, I expect YCR researchers to be turning down job offers from Y
349.
by sama 11y ago
Yes. No--we will fund single founders, but it's harder. No. The best thing is just to do it--there is no pre-startup thing really.
350.
by sama 11y ago
That sounds like a good plan.
351.
by sama 11y ago
1) Yes! That's really helped up expand into new areas. 2) The partnership talks about this all the time. We're very focused on not letting it happen. Far, far worse for us to miss one Airbnb than to fund 10 decent (and credible
352.
by sama 11y ago
1) I generally believe in trying to find the most-impactful areas to donate, and also concentrating on areas that are important to me personally, and also areas where I am uniquely suited to make a difference. This seems like a good inters
353.
by sama 11y ago
I really lucked out big-time on the parent lottery. My parents were and are incredibly supportive of anything I was interested in. But they were never "hovering". That's a great combination.
354.
by sama 11y ago
I work a lot. But I love what I do.
355.
by sama 11y ago
Self-taught to start, then I took an amazing CS course from Georgeann Kepchar in high school who is one of my personal heroes. I guess I'd recommend the same path--start studying yourself, and find a great teacher at some point.
356.
by sama 11y ago
Personally I'd want to take my family with me if at possible. One of the reasons we upped the amount of money we give companies was to help make this possible.
357.
by sama 11y ago
Don't wait.
358.
by sama 11y ago
Too early to say. We really won't know for another month at least.
359.
by sama 11y ago
The best way to do this from what I've seen is to meet people at school or at work that seem interested in building things. Work with them on interesting projects, and see you seem to work well with.
360.
by sama 11y ago
The last two books I read were Sapiens and The Supermen (given to be by @dang). Highly recommend both.

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