sama

59 ms·

781.
by sama 13y ago
Three things: 1) There are almost certainly a lot of inaccuracies in here. I saw a few on a quick skim of the article. 2) Exponential growth is a hard thing for most people to wrap their minds around. The best tech investors--many of whic
782.
Payments Startup Stripe (YC S10) Joins the Billion Dollar Club(online.wsj.com)
267 points by sama 13y ago|123 comments
783.
by sama 13y ago
Luck is necessary but not sufficient. But I left it off the list because telling people to "be lucky" is difficult to act on.
784.
by sama 13y ago
Garry is among the best people I've ever worked with--he's both a very smart and helpful investor and a great guy. Extremely well deserved.
785.
by sama 13y ago
thanks!
786.
by sama 13y ago
Experience itself is usually a good thing; the problem for startups comes when that experience brings with it things that cause issues with the startup--for example, much higher salary requirements.
787.
by sama 13y ago
I specifically carved out enterprise software and developer tools--I think this mostly applies to consumer Internet. As mentioned, Google is a good counterexample. Groupon and Foursquare very much touch the real world. I'd argue Yaho
788.
Government and the Internet(patrickcollison.com)
120 points by sama 13y ago|18 comments
789.
by sama 13y ago
ok, last comment on this. this was meant to be more about how to have the biggest impact with your life than how to make a little more money. and it certainly doesn't apply to everyone--hence the title. many people will me much happi
790.
by sama 13y ago
It's true--I absolutely had a safety net from my parents. I really didn't want to ask them for it, but it undoubtedly affected my decision making.
791.
by sama 13y ago
The problem is most 19 year olds will spend that money instead of saving it. MS research is pretty awesome.
792.
by sama 13y ago
Travel is not wasting a year or two; you should do it. It doesn't answer the question of what you should do when you get back.
793.
by sama 13y ago
Depends what you believe will happen with the markets and inflation over the next 15 years. I believe a better approach in today's world is to put yourself in a position where you're less dependent on historical market performanc
794.
by sama 13y ago
I still said that when I had a negative checking account balance while starting my company. I think you should worry about money, but that you should take a long-term view of it.
795.
by sama 13y ago
I agree with that--for example, I think Microsoft Research has some of the smartest hackers I've met. However, other divisions of MSFT (and where this person was going) have some of the worst people I've met.
796.
by sama 13y ago
I'd obviously choose no war over war, as would anyone sane. Just trying to point out a potential cause for the apparent slowdown.
797.
by sama 13y ago
I think that's totally different than the NSA having them, but yes, I would. It's not really the point, though--I can have opinions about whether specific practices are overreaching, but what I really care about is disclosure.
798.
by sama 13y ago
Mildy bad things are less common, but very bad things are possible now that were not 50 years ago. One individual can have a much worse impact.
799.
by sama 13y ago
Definitely true--if someone invests a lot of their money, they'll focus. The problem comes when a 500MM fund makes a 100k investment. YC is somewhat different, since all the investments we make are the same size. And, I'm biased, but I th
800.
by sama 13y ago
this is how analytics should be done. congrats, guys. proud to be an investor!
801.
by sama 13y ago
This is intentional. I believe that secondary markets are usually bad, and always distracting. I'm not opposed to pre-exit liquidity, but a secondary market that the company does not oversee causes huge issues. Most companies now prevent
802.
by sama 13y ago
No, after the liquidation preference, everything is split among common holders.
803.
by sama 13y ago
If the founders have been working on the company for awhile I'll usually agree to a shorter vesting schedule. That said, one of my favorite things in the world is when a founder proposes 6-year vesting for a company they've already been wo
804.
by sama 13y ago
1) work with founders you trust? or, when there is a board, it'd have to be board-approved. 2) options pools are carved out of this.
805.
A founder-friendly term sheet(blog.samaltman.com)
366 points by sama 13y ago|89 comments
806.
by sama 13y ago
yes
807.
by sama 13y ago
Most investors can really help with at least one thing, and if they're busy with that, they won't muck around in other things.
808.
by sama 13y ago
This usually only happens if the company is failing, in which case your stock is close to worthless anyway.
809.
by sama 13y ago
not ordered.
810.
by sama 13y ago
I agree, you'd be better off building your product than reading pretty much anything. Reading HN is rarely the most productive thing you could be doing with your time.

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