sama

32 ms·

421.
by sama 11y ago
The biggest problem is failing to make a product that some users love, but then thinking they will solve their problems by doing everything else well. The second-biggest problem is probably cofounder fallouts. Internal communication and man
422.
by sama 11y ago
One of the things that differentiates us from other programs is we don't have outsourced 'mentors'. The advice you get during YC is from the full-time partners and a small group of part-time partners. I think this is importa
423.
by sama 11y ago
It honestly hugely varies. Sometimes 2 minutes. The longest I've ever spent on a single application (where I had to do background research) was probably an hour. But I try for my normal cadence to be 6 per hour. Some applications th
424.
by sama 11y ago
No huge surprises here, but probably Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk have done the most to influence my thinking about investing and technology.
425.
by sama 11y ago
We will not invest in something that we think will be bad for the world even if we think it will make lots of money.
426.
by sama 11y ago
Not this year, but we will next year!
427.
by sama 11y ago
We will connect you to lawyers that can help, but it can be a real challenge unfortunately :(
428.
by sama 11y ago
1) No specific advice--we fund lots of companies whose products target far-away markets and are particularly interested in doing so. The only different question we might ask you is "How will you handle being away from your users for 3
429.
I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA
341 points by sama 11y ago|545 comments
430.
Welcome Jared(blog.ycombinator.com)
102 points by sama 11y ago|29 comments
431.
by sama 11y ago
This is worth answering. I made single-digit millions from the Loopt acquisition. Almost all the money I've made has been as an investor. I got lucky in that the first few investments I made in 2009 (very small dollar amounts) were rea
432.
by sama 11y ago
I was hoping to answer questions here for awhile but I'm getting pulled into a crisis so I have to go. I'm going to do an AMA on HN later this week (mostly to answer questions about applying to YC) and would be happy to answer mor
433.
by sama 11y ago
1. SF for now. 2. Yes, eventually we'd like to have multiple groups in the same space just for this reason--I always think the interdisciplinary stuff is underrated. 3. Some of both, probably, but mostly we want to support people that
434.
by sama 11y ago
We are extremely hands-off with the companies we fund. These people will actually be part of the YC organization.
435.
by sama 11y ago
Definitely still a work in a progress on how we'll measure it.
436.
by sama 11y ago
We'll have more info on this in a month or so!
437.
by sama 11y ago
Both.
438.
by sama 11y ago
Above market salaries and also equity. We want to get the best people in the world, and I think YC equity is a pretty compelling thing to get. We're competing against e.g. Google, and Google stock is also a pretty compelling thing to
439.
by sama 11y ago
Yes, but we're coming in on the very high end of the comp scale. We're also considering doing things like YC guaranteeing 100% mortgages for the researchers--housing prices in the bay area are a joke. We're starting relative
440.
by sama 11y ago
The first group will be in SF. TBD on other groups. But unlike startups we fund, these people work for a YC organization, so we will provide space etc.
441.
by sama 11y ago
We talked to Alan at great lengths in the process of putting this together. He is the most insightful person I've ever met on how to structure an organization for great research.
442.
by sama 11y ago
Clearly if it seems promising we're going to up the funding significantly.
443.
by sama 11y ago
No--all IP developed is free to the world, so we wouldn't be able to use it defensively.
444.
by sama 11y ago
For now they are going to be hand-selected by me (the area we are starting with requires pretty specific domain expertise). Not sure what we'll do in the future.
445.
YC Research(blog.ycombinator.com)
1776 points by sama 11y ago|370 comments
446.
by sama 11y ago
Actually what I'm saying is that much more supply is the thing that will drive prices down. (And also that the number of units that are effectively full-time rented on Airbnb is just about 1% of the entire off-rental-market supply--let
447.
by sama 11y ago
Do you have evidence of Airbnb driving up pricing levels? I'd honestly love to see it if so.
448.
by sama 11y ago
I'm not arguing that people allocate specific income to specific expenses, just that people need and deserve more income. I think Airbnb is well aware of the housing issue and more than willing to work together on solutions.
449.
by sama 11y ago
That's a good point; now that everyone calls it the sharing economy that's the word that came to mind. But I'll change it.
450.
by sama 11y ago
We just hire whoever we think will be best at advising startups. When they are too well known people complain. When they are not well-known enough people complain. But as long as the startups get good advice I'm happy.

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