HN Explorer

I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA

341 points by sama ↗ HN
The application deadline for our winter 2016 batch is next Tuesday, and people frequently have a lot of questions about applying. Also happy to talk about anything else!

EDIT 11:15 AM PDT: I have to go. This was fun!

558 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 306 ms ] thread
bt3
Hi Sam, thanks for doing this.

Is there any advice you can give to young founders trying to get into YC or raise a seed round? It’s worth noting we’re students with graduation quickly approaching. I fear my previous applications weren’t seriously considered since my team and I lack true industry experience, which leaves us seemingly unqualified.

wlamont
Recently a plethora of startups working on new nuclear energy technology have been created: Transatomic power, Flibe, Helion and UPower (to name a few). These startups, respectively, have technology based on molten salt reactors (MSR), new fuels (Thorium), or new modalities (small distributed scale and fusion). Most of these startups face a huge challenge (and capital requirement) to go from idea/concept to pilot/demonstration plant. As Chairman of Helion and UPower how do you see these new startups commercializing their technology? Will they require partnerships with existing utilities and what is the expected timeline?
sama
I think they should just try to raise large amounts of money rather than partner with large companies for development. However, they will need to partner with utilities for pilot plants.

I can't speak to the other companies, but my hope is that UPower and Helion have prototypes in ~3-5 years.

djhn
Nuclear energy faces a challenging PR environment.

Letting the public perception get so bad should be considered one of the costliest PR mistakes in recent history in terms of human and environmental cost. The problem is highlighted by the fact that many will disagree with this statement.

How do you see the way out of this?

solotronics
I sincerely hope these endeavors are successful!
DanGPhoton
Hi @sama. Are there any technologies that you would not consider funding?
sama
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.
bryang
Like lightsabers?
ChicagoBoy11
He said "bad for the world", not "the most amazing thing the world has ever seen." :-)
mukulsud
Hey Sam, would it be okay to use third party links to prove our market exists? - would the software that you use to scan through apps create a hyperlink and allow the partner reading the app to click thru?
mukulsud
A follow up to this would be that if we use market numbers should we use attribution links to show where we got them from?
erosa01
Hi @sama. Since anyone could have applied to YC Fellowship, do you think that it finally became just a small "seed round" for the startups that would win YC Winter 2016.
berpasan
Hi @sama, I'm From Brazil and CEO of an EdTech startup. We're profitable, with 60 employees and a lot consumer traction/revenue, but didn't raise a Series A yet. Questions:

1) What advice would you give to applicants from Brazil and other large countries (India, China, Russia), whose products initially target their local markets?

2) What advice would you give to post-Seed and pre-Series A applicants? When (if at all) would you consider them "too big for YC"?

3) If you select a post Seed startup, would YC invest at their latest valuation, or would it only offer the standard deal, even if it would be a "down round" for current investors?

Heard you are visiting India and know you've been to Mexico not long ago. Ever thought about coming to Brazil? Best regards, Bernardo

sama
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 months?"

2) We have funded companies that have raised more than $10 million, and they've said they still got a lot of value out of YC. If anything, it's usually the existing investors that have a problem with it.

3) Standard deal, BUT we buy common stock, so it doesn't trigger any anti-dilution stuff. Most investors understand that YC is mostly "sweat equity" anyway.

I might come to Brazil for New Years!

berpasan
Wow, that would be great! Please, let us know if we can help in any way during your visit. Lots of interesting things for you to see in the Brazilian startup ecosystem. We are close to São Paulo (where Embraer, the 3rd largest airplane manufacturer in the world is located). Regards
cfontes
That is my home town! What do you guys do? I currently live in Campinas but would love to know Startups in SJC!
beambot
Minor nit on #3: Doesn't the new YC stock agreement come with pro rata rights...? Doesn't that mean it's not really common stock? (In the sense that those rights aren't explicitly given to employees and founders.)
sama
You can still have pro rata rights on common shares.
rohit_goyal
When are you visiting India? Which cities would you be visiting. I strongly recommend visiting Powai Valley(Mumbai). It is a very small area highly dense with great startups. The ecosystem is insane here as almost 90% of the start up are founded by IIT-Bombay alums (I am also one) which is just 2 km away from the area. Many people from SV who visited here have said this is better than SV in terms of eco-system.
jbernab
If you come to Brazil and you can spare a couple of hours it would be very nice to have you in one of our meetups for our local community http://meetup.com/Germinadora/ we are fans of YC.
talles
Hey there. Do you mind if ask what's your startup?

Just out of curiosity; I'm Brazilian too :)

rslater
I was wondering about the new open ip effort for the r&d lab. I work in the air force research lab and am working to do the same for us and other gov agencies. How do you plan to release/license ip... Marketing strategies, etc
haaen
Will YCR accept donations from outsiders?
pavornyoh
@Sama,

So my question is about YC Research. You said in that earlier thread you will be hand picking the people. How exactly do you intend to do that if you don't me asking? Are you partnering with schools? Are they going to be recommended? Do you already have a database?

sama
Mostly the algorithm was to ask very smart people "who are the top 3 smartest people you know in area X" and then go after the people whose names kept coming up.
cryoshon
This approach won't work if you are looking for academic diamonds in the rough. The names that will get mentioned are probably already scoring big grants and pumping out well-received publications.

If you are really actually looking for long-shots by talented people, you're going to have to access the people nobody is going to mention for fear of marking themselves as a radical or an urchin-lover. Science is packed with these humble types, but they are invisible because of how brightly the superstars (who frequently stand on the shoulders of the more humble) shine.

As an aside, smartness is certainly helpful for research endeavours, but pridelessness is actually what separates the people jousting against windmills and people traveling the hero's journey. The smartest are frequently targeting windmills thinking that they'll be the ones to finally succeed, whereas the prideless are more interested in understanding and exploiting molehills or anthills. Pridelessness allows for maximum flexibility in following reality, preventing ego-driven attachments to incorrect interpretations.

andreasklinger
In your opinion: If global human society would be a startup.

What could/would be our 10x growth lever in innovation/living quality.

(reason i ask - in the end YC is one of those companies shaping global innovation that could help move towards above)

bnchrch
Hey Sam, given your position I imagine you see numerous unique, novel ideas and the trends that drive them. Having said that is there any particular trend that you're seeing today that has you particularly intrigued or excited?
sama
The relentless progress of domain-specific machine learning over the past year.
gotothrowaway
Is YC positioning itself to become a competitive alternative to traditional universities with YCR?
billconan
Will we have another startup school this year? I haven't seen any information.
sama
Not this year, but we will next year!
rrhoover
Hey, Sam! You recently announced HN is being split off from YC. What changes will we see to the site/community in the next 6 months?
sama
Well, per the announcement, this is a question for dang not me :)
invisible_dust
Hi Sam I've used this site forever it's cool. But I'm not like these other guys who want a job or to make a startup I just like tech news so my question is what is the best kind of coffee, as in what's your favorite kind.

My top pick is called "Black Cadillac" it's from a local shop and also reminds me of the modest mouse song of the same name.

sama
Philz Philharmonic, made into espresso.
Rainymood
Name the most influential person in your life! I'm really curious!
sama
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.
giarc
You obviously interact with PG quite a bit. Does the influence from Peter and Elon come from working in person, or from what they've done/wrote/speak about?
billconan
I'm currently on H1B, if we get accepted, will my working visa be a problem?
sama
We will connect you to lawyers that can help, but it can be a real challenge unfortunately :(
billconan
sigh. I wish YC could become an umbrella company who can accept immigrants working on their startups on h1b under the name of YC employee.
aakashnigam
This can be a good hack around the broken immigration system, if it ever happens!

No matter how good the founder or team is, an idea requires at-least 3-4 months of nourishment to crystallize into something promising.

Unfortunately, on H1B if one quits his job, he needs to leave the country. Around me, I see many good ideas by good people not being pursued because of this.

mukulsud
@billconan, u might be interested in unshackled.co. they hire onto a h1b.

as an immigrant entrepreneur myself, there are other visas other than a h-1b that would allow you to work/stay through YC.

waterlesscloud
Hi Sam. What's an example of the most heretical research YCR might pursue? Just trying to get a feel for the scope.
glxc
Hi @sama

TELL US MORE ABOUT Y COMB RESEARCH

What area of research will you be conducting?

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
viahartdotcom
Did you read our winter 2016 application?

Thanks :)

coltonrobtoy
How involved is YC going to be in 3D Printing?
sama
We've funded a number of startups working on this and I expect we'll fund more.
mesimoniv
How long does it typically take the YC team to review an application?
sama
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 that are really great or really bad are reviewed by only one of us, most are reviewed by about 3, and the ones near the cutoff are reviewed by a lot.

mesimoniv
Thanks Sam. Really appreciate all the time you spend helping the community. It's amazing & inspiring.
tyrick
How will the size of the W16 batch compare with previous batches?
sama
We never plan this in advance. Depends how many companies we fall in love with.
blt
Besides self driving cars, what robotics applications do you see as fundable now or in the next few years? Thanks!
ju-st
Not sama, but industrial robots with an intuitive programming interface, like simply showing the robot how to pick & place a part and the robot will repeat it forever. Market it for small business owners. Or you could call it "KUKA robots for everyone".