I’m very excited about this. YC is the smartest group of people I’ve ever worked with, and I believe that startups are going to be the major driver for innovation and economic growth going forward.
I was thinking this morning about what it was like to start a startup in early 2005 and how much it’s changed now. PG has done a remarkable amount to improve the startup ecosystem for founders—in fact, it’s hard to think of anyone who has done more.
(Also, maybe someday soon we’ll make Hacker News work well on mobile :) )
So, what about you jl? You'll still have your hands on deck?
Not to be so intrusive, but I recall pg talking about the son -- was that a factor in pg making this decision? To dedicate more time to parenting or something like that?
This is really cool ... while all the YC partners are amazingly talented and giving, you were always the person to go to in the trenches ... wise beyond your years and extremely tactical in how you communicate.
Thanks for everything you've contributed to all of us.
Congrats Sam. I hope other founders have taken notice recently that Sam's posts - especially about raising money - are some of the best playbooks you can get your eyes on in terms of starting and fundraising successfully as a startup today. Well done.
I have always found this to be HN's "Badge of Irony": Funds some of the best, highest velocity startups in tech; Can't get their shit together around UX/Mobile.
I wonder why I've not seen this expressed before, I've thought it every time I see these complaints regarding the HN mobile experience.
Maybe it isn't desirable to have people writing comments on their phone. The comment quality is likely greatly reduced by people writing pithy one-liners on their phones.
The best content on this site are the long expert comments, and those will never be typed on a mobile device.
All that being said, maybe its by design that the UX isn't great on mobile devices... or you know maybe the people that could make the changes just have bigger fish to fry.
Congrats Sam! I've come to anticipate your essays as a way to inform my own thinking. I'm certain this is excellent for YC and the entire startup ecosystem.
Congratulations Sam! It won't come as a surprise to anyone close to YC, maybe just that it happened today. I am sure you are going to have a PG sized legacy when it is your turn to hand over the reins and I can't wait to watch it unfold.
Congrats Sam! Starting with even before we joined Y Combinator in the summer of 2008, you were always a very important advisor to us. I remember when we were first trying to raise money, no investor would talk to us. In our fundraising deck, we had our total addressable market at something like $100M, which was ridiculous considering our vision was just airbeds. We wanted to make it smaller. You told us to opposite - switch the m's to b's. I asked why, and you said that "investors want b's, baby." Ok, I may have added the "baby" part of the quote, but more importantly, you mentored us to think bigger, and you were (alongside the Justin.tv guys) an inspiration for us to join Y Combinator. Since then, you have been super helpful with showing us how to hire and scale a company. Congrats on this next part of your journey. Many startups will be better off because of you.
Congrats Sam! You've recently shown your ability to be a thought leader with your writing, and I couldn't be more excited for this opportunity to show your mettle as an executer as well. Here's to a bright future for YC!
Every startup has a moment where the founder has to ask, "Do I become a professional administrator, or do I hand the professional management to someone else so that we can scale while I keep spending my time on what I want to."
It's good to see that YC has done this prior to a crisis, rather than in reaction to one. It doesn't seem like there's a better use of PG's time than office hours and writing. If this allows him to do more of both, everyone benefits.
Happy to add my congratulations to the wave of orange users already doing so... it's clearly reflective of the impact you've had on so many YC startups. Thanks Sam and can't wait to see where you take YC next!
Wow, awesome news! I've noticed a lot more Sam Altman posts on HN recently, and I have to say I'm a fan, at least of his writing.
What does this mean for your role at YCombinator, PG? Will you still be spending most of your time helping out with companies there, or are you going to work on other projects?
I'm going to continue doing office hours with startups in future batches. And since office hours are the main way founders interact with me, YC should feel the same to companies we fund. It will feel a lot different to me though. Not so much because I'll have more time as more attention to spare. For years now YC has been the thing in the top of my mind. That has made it hard to write essays. Now I'll be able to focus most of my attention on writing again.
On Lisp and ANSI Common Lisp are still relevant in regard to their subject matter while the essays of Hackers and Painters can at times seem dated despite being more recent. That's not to say that Graham's essays haven't had more impact, it is possible they have.
But even the essays when presented in book form seem to hold a greater claim upon us than a dozen or so links in an email or blog post. Then again I don't deny my bookishness.
Will you still review all the preview/demo day pitches?
For those who haven't witnessed this: pg stands there for an entire day (maybe longer now), watching every pitch, slicing and dicing like a samurai. It's super rapid-fire, and with one or two pieces of advice each presentation doubles in effectiveness.
Probably not. But though it's an impressive feat of standing, the stuff that comes up then is so basic (slow down, look at the audience, etc) that any YC partner could make those sorts of comments.
I'll still talk about pitches individually with startups at office hours.
Ha, what I remember most is you modifying presentations based on the psychology of the audience (investors).
For example, for Pebble you said, "put this joke in there: 'I bet you guys really want to check your phones right now but you can't because it would be rude... if you had one of these babies on your wrist you'd be able to see those precious emails'".
OK maybe not the most world-changing example but there were 100 more of those.
It's not the only motivation. It really will be better for YC to have someone running it who is actually interested in running an organization.
I have a whole bunch of ideas for essays I'd like to write, but I almost never pick a topic. The way I decide which one to write is that one starts to write itself in my head.
Just a thought (I know you've got a huge "to-do list" in your head), I'd like to hear your opinions on effective altruism, and what you think the best ways to change the world are.
"The way I decide which one to write is that one starts to write itself in my head."
As someone who only comments in two places on the web (HN and at another place that I'd rather not mention) that is exactly how it works when I make comments.
You read something you react you write.
It's not an assignment. It's not a job. It's not required. You just do it because you are moved and/or inspired by something you read or observe.
Do you think this will provide you with an opportunity to approach prospect and current yc startups in a less "adversarial" manner, for the lack of a better term?
It's kind of sad to see pg stepping down, but I'm sure sama will do a great job. Should we expect any fundamental changes in the way things get done at YC?
As a past YC founder that sat on the receiving end of some awesome advice from Sam from time to time I think this is a great thing for YC and for future YC founders.
Aside from being a smart, well connected guy Sam has the innate ability to solve complex problems in a well thought out and efficient manner.
I can't wait to watch YC scale like so many of the companies it has funded. It might be the gold standard for this model of financing, but I think they've only just begun.
Glad to have been a part of YC and glad to be a part of the awesome network of Alums. I sold my first company before I graduated college and never got to be an "Alumni" anywhere else, so in some ways I feel like this is watching my Alma Mater make great forward progress, I'm proud to watch it.
Congratulations to Sam. This was as interesting for the topics it didn't dive into as to the topic it did. I'm sure there'll be an outcry and wild conjecture requiring a longer post on the reasons for doing this.
Huge congrats Sam! I think this move makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons. You've been cranking out some really great stuff lately. Best of luck to you and YC!
For a second I got irrationally excited that Sam was announcing a Presidential run, then read the post. Beyond my initial excitement at a potential USPOTUS candidate I actually believe in, I'm much happier that Sam is taking over YC, where he can add much more value, and hopefully free up PG to do more thinking (writing, giving advice, etc).
I'm not sure how I even noticed as I was just skimming the thread but I hit that line and lost all train of thought. Must be one of those things...
POTUS is "President Of The United States" so USPOTUS is redundant, but no more so than "ATM Machine" which my brain parses no problem. Sometimes its interesting to think about why we notice what we do :).
Yea, don't know why I did that. I've never used that acronym before, must have been my brain processing POTUS as President rather than the actual acronym.
My first reaction "Sam Altman for President? Is he running for POTUS office? wow! that would be awesome if a hacker would be the president". And then logic part of brain kicks in...
Congratulations Sam, and well-done Paul. I consider both of you to be mentors who have educated, inspired, and motivated me to push myself further than I ever thought possible. Paul, you'll continue your mission... it'll just be at a higher level. And Sam... I wish you the best of luck as you elevate Ycombinator to the next level and beyond with your drive, enthusiasm, and talent for spotting patterns, trends and opportunities as well as pain points worth addressing and problems worth solving. dh
I am really curious about YC corporate structure. Is it a partnership or LLC? Does PG still have "controlling vote block" in significant matters? Can I buy YC shares?
Sam, it would be great since you are the new President of YC if you could update the How to Apply to Y Combinator[1] page with your views on what a successful application looks like and your typical thought process when reviewing applications.
155 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 192 ms ] threadI was thinking this morning about what it was like to start a startup in early 2005 and how much it’s changed now. PG has done a remarkable amount to improve the startup ecosystem for founders—in fact, it’s hard to think of anyone who has done more.
(Also, maybe someday soon we’ll make Hacker News work well on mobile :) )
Not to be so intrusive, but I recall pg talking about the son -- was that a factor in pg making this decision? To dedicate more time to parenting or something like that?
Thanks for everything you've contributed to all of us.
Does this mean you will have less time to write blogs ?
For a few seconds while the post loaded, I wondered if you are really running for president. It seemed improbable, but not impossible :)
Sam, there are already mobile apps for this. But the constantly expiring links due to limitations to Arc should be fixed.
I have always found this to be HN's "Badge of Irony": Funds some of the best, highest velocity startups in tech; Can't get their shit together around UX/Mobile.
It is frustratingly endearing.
Maybe it isn't desirable to have people writing comments on their phone. The comment quality is likely greatly reduced by people writing pithy one-liners on their phones.
The best content on this site are the long expert comments, and those will never be typed on a mobile device.
All that being said, maybe its by design that the UX isn't great on mobile devices... or you know maybe the people that could make the changes just have bigger fish to fry.
Edit: so my prediction a few months ago that you'd be joining Sequoia wasn't too far off ;)
bitch
It's good to see that YC has done this prior to a crisis, rather than in reaction to one. It doesn't seem like there's a better use of PG's time than office hours and writing. If this allows him to do more of both, everyone benefits.
Best of Luck.
With the Mobile part ofcourse, you'll do brilliant with rest, no wishes needed there :-)
What does this mean for your role at YCombinator, PG? Will you still be spending most of your time helping out with companies there, or are you going to work on other projects?
An opinion column in a well respected publication has the ability to wield more influence. Books are hit or miss and ephemeral.
But even the essays when presented in book form seem to hold a greater claim upon us than a dozen or so links in an email or blog post. Then again I don't deny my bookishness.
Sounds to me as if you have bigger ambitions in that area than just writing essays.
i predict you will surprise us all ;-)
For those who haven't witnessed this: pg stands there for an entire day (maybe longer now), watching every pitch, slicing and dicing like a samurai. It's super rapid-fire, and with one or two pieces of advice each presentation doubles in effectiveness.
I'll still talk about pitches individually with startups at office hours.
For example, for Pebble you said, "put this joke in there: 'I bet you guys really want to check your phones right now but you can't because it would be rude... if you had one of these babies on your wrist you'd be able to see those precious emails'".
OK maybe not the most world-changing example but there were 100 more of those.
I'm sure Sam will be excellent at this too.
EDIT: I know how you say that writing => other ideas. So I guess the question is whether
1) You have something else in mind currently
2) You're writing with the intent to come up with other ideas
3) You're writing, and if another idea happens to come up that you like, you'll pursue it, or
4) You want to write and not pursue other ideas
I have a whole bunch of ideas for essays I'd like to write, but I almost never pick a topic. The way I decide which one to write is that one starts to write itself in my head.
Just a thought (I know you've got a huge "to-do list" in your head), I'd like to hear your opinions on effective altruism, and what you think the best ways to change the world are.
As someone who only comments in two places on the web (HN and at another place that I'd rather not mention) that is exactly how it works when I make comments.
You read something you react you write.
It's not an assignment. It's not a job. It's not required. You just do it because you are moved and/or inspired by something you read or observe.
Change is hard and exciting. If PG is monitoring these comments, my question is: "what was the hardest part about letting go?"
I'm surprised that so many people are saying this, since I find his writing mediocre.
All you had to do was ask for my help...
Jokes aside, congrats Sam!
PG: What's your next primary focus going to be?
Aside from being a smart, well connected guy Sam has the innate ability to solve complex problems in a well thought out and efficient manner.
I can't wait to watch YC scale like so many of the companies it has funded. It might be the gold standard for this model of financing, but I think they've only just begun.
Glad to have been a part of YC and glad to be a part of the awesome network of Alums. I sold my first company before I graduated college and never got to be an "Alumni" anywhere else, so in some ways I feel like this is watching my Alma Mater make great forward progress, I'm proud to watch it.
Maybe lobste.rs?
Welcome to YC 2.0. Looking forward to following the original meta-startup under Sam's leadership.
> Because YC needs to grow
> we'll have to grow proportionally bigger
I'm excited to see how this plays out!
I'm not sure how I even noticed as I was just skimming the thread but I hit that line and lost all train of thought. Must be one of those things...
POTUS is "President Of The United States" so USPOTUS is redundant, but no more so than "ATM Machine" which my brain parses no problem. Sometimes its interesting to think about why we notice what we do :).
>There will be a lot more startups in 10 years than there are now
Pity pg phrased this in such a fuzzy fashion. Does he mean more in the absolute sense or per 1000 people?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1025798
5 years earlier than I predicted and for a better job. Congratulations, sama.
I don't know if PG has control.
You can't buy YC shares.
Also, congratulations!
[1] http://ycombinator.com/howtoapply.html