sama

43 ms·

601.
by sama 12y ago
Most have no revenue, or very little. Most companies we fund have some sort of prototype, but some of the best ones don't.
602.
by sama 12y ago
I don't know why most don't. Ours sound silly. The IRR is way over 100%, but on a relatively small amount of capital.
603.
by sama 12y ago
Yes, I think it's the biggest long-term risk to the valley's continued startup dominance. http://paulgraham.com/marginal.html
604.
by sama 12y ago
Definitely a chance, but if you want to get into YC you should just apply to YC. It usually hurts you if you've gone through another accelerator because our bar is much higher. In that case, we expect you to be already accelerate d ,
605.
by sama 12y ago
Adam is super smart. In fact, I asked him for an updated list at dinner a couple of weeks ago and I predict he will be right again. I'm not going to share my list because I've found that people put too much stock in it. I don&#x
606.
by sama 12y ago
I think the biggest problem is that it's making housing totally unaffordable. I think it's critical SF fix this, and that the only real solution is more supply. Unfortunately, homeowners are the ones that vote, and they are lovin
607.
by sama 12y ago
I have never cared too much about "validation" or "verification of the concept". I trust my own judgment, and the companies I've made the most money on had far, far more people saying the idea was stupid than valid
608.
by sama 12y ago
Yes, this year.
609.
by sama 12y ago
It's really just way too damn high. Live in somewhere like Sunnyvale or San Jose, maybe.
610.
by sama 12y ago
Maybe we do and maybe we don't...
611.
by sama 12y ago
No, you can just say "we're still figuring this out, but here is about what we're thinking". Leaving this question unanswered for a long time is a sign of badness, though. It's important to resolve this quickly and
612.
by sama 12y ago
I don't use it (I just read reddit in mobile safari) but I will pass this along to the reddit team.
613.
by sama 12y ago
I am an extremely patient investor. I just invested in a company that I believe will take 20-30 years to work. If reddit gets to a billion users, which I believe it will, the company will have many, many interesting monetizations opportuni
614.
by sama 12y ago
Even if the company is only a few weeks old, we look for signs that the founders are determined, getting things done week by week, and improving quickly. If it's just an idea, then we look at what the founders have done in the past. M
615.
by sama 12y ago
We will fund a company with 1 founder, but the bar is very high. Have you thought about working at a startup first as a way to meet potential cofounders?
616.
by sama 12y ago
We are excited about teams applying for anywhere in the world! A huge percentage of the startups we fund come from outside the US.
617.
by sama 12y ago
We do have some alumni help us review applications. There is a chance the founders of your startup would randomly see your application. HOWEVER, you should not only start a startup if you get into YC. If you're into this startup, you
618.
by sama 12y ago
I wrote something related: http://blog.samaltman.com/advice-for-ambitious-19-year-olds If you have a low personal burn, you can jump right into a startup. If you have a lot of personal expenses, you probably need to save m
619.
by sama 12y ago
Yes, of course. We reimburse travel expenses for everyone who comes to interview with us, and I think it's shameful when other accelerators don't. I probably would not have interviewed at YC if I had to pay for the trip--I was su
620.
by sama 12y ago
Yes! sendwave.com is one of our companies, and they are doing phenomenally well. They have a chance of being the best pivot in the history of YC.
621.
by sama 12y ago
No, I totally ignore this. We'll keep funding good companies no matter what the macro does.
622.
by sama 12y ago
Both. The best answer is something like "we have a path to be be doing enough revenue to cover our expenses in a year, but if things really work, here is how we could make $1B a year in 10 years."
623.
by sama 12y ago
We've funded many companies working only on non-US markets. Razorpay is an example of one in the current batch.
624.
by sama 12y ago
A lot, but it's very illiquid.
625.
by sama 12y ago
It's hard to give a standard answer to this--it depends entirely on the specifics of each case.
626.
by sama 12y ago
No, if anything it's higher. I think the median age increase has more to do with us funding companies in different spaces that require more experience. If you're starting an Internet company, I'm more convinced than ever tha
627.
by sama 12y ago
I have a good answer for this! Go work at a breakout medium sized tech company (i.e. a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand people). You'll meet lots of potential cofounders. The people that are attracted to these companies are
628.
by sama 12y ago
No, I don't (I don't have a CS degree either--I dropped out after two years). I'm skeptical about how much one actually learns in business school, and I think it's a bad investment of time and money. I think management
629.
by sama 12y ago
We haven't updated our numbers in awhile. Current total is more than Uber. We'll update again at some point. It's not a perfect correlation, but the founders that build huge companies are extremely determined and smart, they
630.
by sama 12y ago
10x returns don't help us much. Our entire model is driven by occasional 10,000x returns. It usually takes about 2 years to have a good sense for who is on a trajectory to maybe get there, and then about 10 years to see if they actual

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