
Michael Seibel, CEO of YC, is doing an AMA - mwseibel
YC applications for the Summer 2017 batch are due in a week, so I thought I&#x27;d do an AMA to answer questions about applying to YC, how the program works, or anything else.  I&#x27;ll start answering questions at 10am.
======
avaer
How do you feel about _non-profit_ startups developing pure Open Source
software and services in exchange for donations, in the interests of bettering
the ecosystem itself? Could a nascent Mozilla be a YC nonprofit?

~~~
thejohnhenry
I'm extremely interested in this, as the current funding model for startups
restricts new technology to companies that are fiduciarily compelled to
monopolize their market, siphoning user data and (potentially) damaging civic
society in the process. Startups are still a very good vehicle for most
problems, but for certain classes of problems, sometimes make things worse,
and I'm curious if YCombinator is interested in helping out with those types
of initiatives.

~~~
jessriedel
To be clear: YC accepts non-profits each round.

www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/

The question of whether open-source producing non-profits fit into YC is still
a good one. I couldn't find an info on whether they have already accepted such
non-profits, but the incubator Fast Forward has:

> Intelehealth built an open-source intelligence engine for assessing primary
> care conditions

[https://qz.com/792685/silicon-valley-wants-to-save-the-
world...](https://qz.com/792685/silicon-valley-wants-to-save-the-world-by-
investing-in-nonprofits-like-startups/)

~~~
thejohnhenry
Sure, and I'm aware of the non-profit initiatives. I don't think many people
have considered producing actual software under a not-for-profit (except for
Khan Academy?), probably because it's insanely expensive. Would YCombinator
help facilitate funding a fully open Facebook or Twitter clone, for instance?
It sounds outlandish to consider, but it seems equally outlandish to consider
the 2020 election happening over essentially the same social stack & people
will just be okay with that.

(Obviously, a clone itself wouldn't suffice, you'd need to start with
federated identity, and....)

~~~
nostrademons
FWIW, YCombinator has funded a fully open, federated Facebook clone:

[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/diaspora#/entity](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/diaspora#/entity)

It didn't work out so well, mostly because a.) actually cloning Facebook is
pretty hard and b.) _users_ don't seem to want to switch to fully-open
Facebook or Twitter clones.

~~~
thejohnhenry
Haha, interesting, I didn't know they went through YC at some point.

I'm making a strong bet that people _do_ want to switch to fully-open social
clones, because it's hard for me to imagine citizens of 2024 or 2028
conducting an effective political system using today's monolithic social
technology. But the current ecosystem sucks for it.

------
jdorfman
Hi Michael,

YC-funded companies are known to be large-scale consumers of free and open
source software. They are able to leverage the competitive advantage provided
by this digital infrastructure to build successful, high valuation businesses.
Some of those companies have gone on to make great contributions to the Open
Source community themselves.

Would YC ever consider setting up a fund for the builders and maintainers of
the infrastructure that your companies depend upon?

~~~
pedalpete
I may be a bit dense here, but who are the 'builders and maintainers of the
infrastructure'? Can you give an example?

I'm thinking Docker, GitLab, NPM are both in some ways doing both the
development of their businesses, and maintaining the infrastructure and open-
sourcing their code.

Are these not the sorts of examples you're thinking of? Does this require a
separate fund?

~~~
jdorfman
That is a great question. @Alex3917 pretty much nailed it but I do have
another example.

On April 7, 2014, CVE-2014-0160 aka Heartbleed was publicly disclosed. At the
time, 66% of websites used OpenSSL (via Netcraft). Also, OpenSSL had 1 full-
time engineer, and only a few volunteers. Yearly donations were about $2,000.
17 days after Heartbleed Jim Zemlin from the Linux Foundation as well as
thirteen companies stepped up to the plate and created the Core Infrastructure
Initiative and pledged to donate $100,000 a year for 3 years to help prevent
the next Heartbleed.

The point is this, Open Source isn't free. Docker, GitLab and other 'open-
core' businesses stand on the shoulder of giants. If they raise a round of
fundraising or whatever Press Release hits the wire, they get praise (which is
fine, I love it). But the only time a project like the OpenSSL project gets
press is when something goes wrong which I don't think is fair to them.

We can keep being reactive or we can start being proactive. I believe YC has
the capital and influence to change this thinking of Open Source doesn't cost
anything.

------
healthenclave
Hello Michael,

I was suggested by few YC Alums that YC will not accept a startup if the
founders are not working full time on it.

Question: In my case I am working full time because it's helping me fund my
startup and It's actually helping me grow it due to connection to my peers (I
am M.D from India working on a Health Startup). Is this a bad sign ?

I simply do not have the resources (and enough revenue) to quit my job Yet.
But I am dedicated 200 % towards my startup and the vision. And I spend most
of my time (outside of work) on my startup.

~~~
fnbr
He answered a similar question (mine) below:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13895615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13895615)

~~~
healthenclave
Thanks. But for me, I am NOT looking for any external validation. Except my
users, whom I deeply care about. My situation (being in a Developing country)
is a little different from your IMHO.

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
Your question was "Is this a bad sign?" And the answer to that is NO. You're
doing just fine. But if you're looking for a funding from YC (which is an
external validation btw), they would rather fund someone who are willing to
quit their job and commit 100%.

Like I said there's nothing wrong with your approach. If you believe you're
doing the right thing and you can see the growth then you are doing it right.

You WILL know when it's time to quit your job and commit when the time comes.

------
sharode19
What's the best way to pick between two ideas when you like one idea better
but the other is more feasible given your skill set?

>>>>>>>>>>>

We're two founders working on products for people of color.

We have two ideas we want to work: 1) a networking type idea 2) a media and
entertainment idea.

We love both these ideas deeply, we've committed most of our time to idea 1 bc
we can make an MVP for it but we want to work on #2 bc it will have more
promise given market trends and we like the idea more.

The problem with #2 is that it requires a lots of capital to make video
content and we don't have domain expertise in film production.

As a result we're torn as to what we should write about on the YC app. Our app
focuses on the 1st idea but we mention the 2nd idea plenty of times. We would
love your thoughts.

Thank you Michael for taking the time to be accessible to the community.

~~~
nashadelic
FYI, you should take a look at the application itself, it allows for multiple
ideas

------
rtiwary
Hey Michael,

How do you when the right time is to quit a business that just isn't working?
And how do you distinguish between normal obstacles and hardship vs real signs
that signal the business isn't viable?

------
wcchandler
I want to be a farmer. I want to treat the farm like a startup. At which point
in the application process can I try to convince you that you need a farmer in
your portfolio? Also, when and where can I go into details to describe how it
would be different from today's conventional operations?

~~~
tedmiston
YC has backed at least one startup for indoor farming lighting, Transcend
(S15), and one for indoor gardening, Click & Grow (S15).

~~~
brudgers
Farmlogs went through YC in 2012.

------
ryanSrich
Seeing some of the recent startups that have come out of YC and learning about
what they're working on; I can't imagine how they'd scale to a billion dollar
business. Question: Is this a signal that YC is now investing in companies
that don't have such lucrative paths? If so, how does YC justify such a
decision to their partners.

~~~
mwseibel
To be honest - it was impossible early on to see how Justin.tv (a guy wearing
a camera on his head 24/7) or Airbnb (airbed rental) could turn into billion
dollar companies. Often times we invest in great teams and just see what they
can do. Remember hindsight is 20-20.

~~~
guelo
Don't you think the web is maturing and consolidating quickly and there will
be fewer and fewer opportunities for a guy with a camera to build a billion
dollar business?

~~~
jasim
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

The status quo is _always_ broken. Change is unceasing. Assumptions that are
true today need not remain so in the future. This can happen to any product,
business and their culture. Opportunities are everywhere, but we get
normalized to reality pretty soon, the status quo fervently resists change,
new things by virtue of being new are hard to do and fail often, and so we
conveniently avoid spotting them.

~~~
_ao789
This is such a motivational response, not sure if you intended it to be so (to
that degree). Either way, thank you.

------
mchakravarti7
Hi Michael, thanks for the AMA. When you evaluate an early stage biotech
startup, what would you say is the most important thing that you look for? -
clinically validated products, or a solid long term business model?

With Trump picking Scott Gottlieb to be the next FDA commissioner, the FDA
approval process is expected to get more lenient. Would you say that YC (or
investors in general) would be open to take more risks with high tech startups
that do not have a clinically validated product as of now?

One more question - Given that the FDA process takes a lot of time, quite a
few biotech companies often get acquired or merged with bigger companies that
can afford to do so, without ever having actually gotten their product out on
the market. Would you say that you look at the company's potential return in
that sense when you evaluate startups? I'm not entirely sure if this question
makes sense, so let me know if you want me to clarify!

------
johnhenry
Hi Michael, I'm wondering if you can comment on how you think the current
political comment will affect the startup scene?

For example, I remember reading (sorry, no source) that YC is starting to hold
events in Canada in order to welcome those who may not be able to come to the
U.S. due to the current administration's executive orders. It looks like this
may push startups out of the United States.

I'm hoping you can comment on this action, and other actions that might affect
the startups in America and around the world, including, but not limited to
actions involving education, public funding, military spending.

Thanks!

~~~
tyre
I think this is the source you're looking for:
[https://blog.ycombinator.com/us-visas/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/us-
visas/)

~~~
johnhenry
Thanks for the source!

------
altern8tif
What percentage of YC companies are founded by solo founders? And what
observations do you have of such companies viz-a-viz companies with founding
teams?

Would you advise someone against being a solo founder? If not, is it much
harder for a solo founder to fundraise?

------
mion
I've once heard PG say that if you are an international startup, an important
question is who will stay with the company back in your home country in your
absence during the YC period. My founder and I would obviously both love to be
there and we don't have a good answer for that. Any tips?

------
refrigerator
What do you think of teams that are working part-time (e.g. while in full time
education/employment) on an idea with decent traction, but who are waiting for
external validation (such as YC or other investment) before going full-time on
it? Do you take it as a sign of low commitment?

~~~
tyre
You're basically asking YC to bet on you before you bet on yourself. If you
aren't willing to go all in, what does that say?

Startups are really fucking hard. You have to have a serious belief and
commitment to build a billion dollar business (which is what YC is investing
in.) If you're unsure, that's totally fine, but you need to be the first to
believe in your company and get used to being the _only_ ones who believe in
your company, in order to make it through the hard times.

~~~
jacquesm
> If you aren't willing to go all in, what does that say?

That you are smart enough not to weaken your negotiation position if you don't
actually have to?

~~~
tyre
Unless you are weakening your negotiating position because you can't raise
money?

This isn't a game theory experiment. It's not unreasonable for investors to
want you to be full-time invested (if you can) before putting in money. Also,
some people may want to run their company until it is profitable enough that
the company can pay them a full-time salary.

------
ptero
Can you provide some info on how does YC support hardware startups? More
specifically, what is a good stage to apply?

We are working on building a demo-quality HW prototype, with the ETA of
~6months. That means we will not be focused on growth, but on tech
development. Should we wait until we have a working system and apply to YC
when we are ready to scale and grow it (this is our current thought).

~~~
chatmasta
You want to join YC because you want the money and investors, but your product
isn't ready yet so what's the money for? If you only need to pay your own
living costs and small development costs for R&D, maybe you should look for an
angel investor and a pre-seed round.

Speaking of, there's a void in the VC market for funds that invest in the R&D
stage like this.

~~~
brudgers
YC has traditionally been seen as provided seed round funding and its
investment as being for living expenses and early development costs.

------
bholdr
Hi Michael, is it a good idea to apply to YC to find quality co-founders? or
in other words what is the right way for a single founder to apply? thanks.

~~~
ianai
Follow up: What would be the fastest, most efficient way for someone highly
technically proficient to learn just enough business operations/basic 101
stuff to be functional?

~~~
t3soro
Read a book

~~~
daenney
Perhaps a bit less snark and bit more "here's some books to get you started"?

------
traviswingo
Hey Michael, thanks for this - should be a real eye opener!

Q: What are some of the top weighing attributes you're looking at for
companies applying today, and how heavy (1-10 scale) would you say they count
towards an acceptance decision. I'm envisioning a "credit score" for
application.

~~~
mwseibel
The top 5 things I look for in an application are (in no particular order): 1)
Can the team clearly communicate what they are working on? 2) Does the team
have the technical talent to build and grow the v1 of their product? 3) Is the
team moving quickly or are they waiting for approval from YC? 4) Did the
founders have a personal or professional relationship before deciding to start
the company together? 5) Does the team understand something about their space
that is controversial or non-obvious?

~~~
santiagobasulto
> Does the team have the technical talent to build and grow the v1 of their
> product?

This means they can join YC without a v1? But I guess you should have
validated your hypothesis in any other way, right?

~~~
mwseibel
You can certainly get into YC pre-launch!

------
ikeboy
I haven't worked on the idea/MVP I applied with last time, instead working on
scaling my existing business. Last time I didn't get an interview.

Is there a point in applying again with the same idea? The only thing that
would have changed is that my other business, listed as an accomplishment, is
now 5 times as successful. (In the 350k range vs 70k.)

I was also thinking of applying with that business, but it's not really a YC
kind of company. Would YC fund an e-commerce company with no particularly
unique approach, just selling on 3P marketplaces, and ambitions of growing to
maybe pharmapacks level (100 million in yearly revenue, around the biggest
such company)?

~~~
rgbrgb
We got in on our second try with the same idea :). I think it's a good sign if
you stuck with it and got some traction. We had even written this
(embarrassing) medium post on how not getting in was a good thing:
[https://medium.com/@Open_Listings/what-we-learned-from-yc-
su...](https://medium.com/@Open_Listings/what-we-learned-from-yc-
summer-2014-a419e7ffb55c#.vk1m50b99)

~~~
ikeboy
I didn't work on it at all because I was doing better with my other, boring
business.

------
mysterydip
I don't know all the YC startups so this might have an obvious answer, but
would YC consider a video game company for a batch, rather than software or
tech?

Like a company trying to make something as disruptive as Pokemon Go, which
required quick scale and reached a massive audience in a very short time.

~~~
Impossible
There have been multiple video game and video game related companies in YC.
Examples include Machine Zone(one of the more successful YC companies afaik),
OMGPOP, Minomonsters and A Thinking Ape. Game related startups that did YC
include Twitch and Humble Bundle, who are now both game publishers, even if
they don't directly develop games themselves.

I think if you're doing something interesting in mobile, AR or VR, YC will
definitely be interested in your application as long as you can demonstrate
the potential for massive growth, probably a game as service product that is
free to play. I don't see them funding indie game studios or traditional
console game developers that are unlikely to scale.

------
d--b
Hi again Michael, another quick one for you: how important is charisma to be a
succesful founder?

Do you think YC's application process is skewed towards accepting people who
are great at talking?

~~~
mwseibel
I don't think it's important at all. PG has a saying that good founders become
more formidable during their time at YC. Also, demo day prep and fundraising
is pretty intense at YC so most founders get much better at talking about
their startups after going through the program. That might explain the signal
you are seeing.

------
Ashu_14
It's midnight here in india and i just noticed this session. I really want to
know if there's any quick tip regarding international founders such as from
india. I've been in touch with other Indian YC alums and have been getting
feedback and suggestions for my YC application. I really am in doubt about how
should i go with the application, i mean what exactly YC partners look for in
the application the very first time, considering and international founder?

~~~
tyre
Just go with the basics:

1) Here is a massive opportunity

2) Here is the awesome founding team

3) Here is why we will be the ones to win this huge opportunity

4) Here are some proof-points (e.g. customers, product development, etc.) that
back us up

YC goes out of its way (like to Vancouver!) to find the best startups in the
world. If you can nail those 4 things, it doesn't matter where you're from.

------
teknyk
Hi Michael,

As international founders (Egypt), our team is a bit worried about the whole
visa situation. I heard the interviews are generally held 2 weeks after the
invitation. Do you help with obtaining a visa for the interview and is 2 weeks
enough time to go through the whole visa process?

Thanks!

~~~
mwseibel
We do help founders with visas. We prepare invitation documentation and work
closely with an immigration law firm that we give founders direct access to.
We also have late interviews for founders who need more time to get a visa and
will even do interviews outside of the country or remotely if required (see
here: [https://blog.ycombinator.com/us-
visas/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/us-visas/)).

------
temporalparts
What do you think the most over-saturated space is right now? What are the
biggest unaddressed opportunities that you have seen?

------
quan
What happened to pg, is he still involved in YC day to day operation or the
application process?

~~~
mwseibel
(edited for tone) PG and Jessica are currently on sabbatical in the UK - after
running YC for 10+ years they are taking a little break spend more time with
their kids

~~~
gist
> after running YC for 10+ years they deserve a little break no?

With all due respect what is so special about running YC that means you
deserve a sabbatical?

They are taking a sabbatical not because they deserve it but because they can
afford to do so financially and have left their organization in what they feel
are very capable hands.

It is actually atypical in most professions in the US (at least outside of
teaching or academics) to be able to step away other than for a somewhat short
vacation. And business? It moves to fast and the competition is most likely
hard at work step away and someone else is there to take your place.

Hats off to them for creating an organization where they can do this but most
people who are in either traditional businesses or professions (medicine, law
as only two examples) can't do something like this.

Edit: Predictable downvotes. Everyone looks at this through a lens that says
the commenter surely is showing disrespect or lack of knowledge for how
special YC is.

Edit2: Noting that it has been edited for tone so...

~~~
brudgers
With Graham, taking a break (or 'hammock time' as Hickey might phrase it)
appears to be a pattern if one can draw a pattern from two data points. After
selling Viaweb and working a Yahoo for a bit, Graham wrote and painted and
created a new dialect of Lisp for several years before the experiment that led
to YCombinator (there may have been consulting and investing in there too, it
wouldn't surprise me but since I've never seen anything directly stating there
was, it would not surprise me if there wasn't)...and Graham's descriptions of
why he did a startup includes not having to get 'a real job' so to speak.

When Graham turned over the public face of YC to Altman, I was like, huh?
Since then, I've come to think that 'I'm going to take my money and learn to
paint' is one diffs between Altman's and Graham's personalities...though in
fairness Graham was well into his thirties when he made his first millions and
Altman was just 29 when he became president of YC.

~~~
sjg007
It takes 3 points to confirm a pattern. :) Otherwise, it is nice and fortunate
to be able to take time off (if you choose) to raise your kids, especially as
a family. Especially when they are young and before school starts.

------
BIackSwan
Hi Michael,

If a startup has taken a lot of dilution before applying for YC, is YC
flexible enough to not dilute the founders but come up with a structure that
makes them get 7% through a secondary sale or some other tactic which makes
sense for that specific situation?

I have mostly come to the conclusion that the answer is no because YC likes to
do stuff in a standard way and there is no room of flexibility w.r.t that
aspect of the program terms. Just wanted to confirm that though.

------
Jd
Does YC have any evolving thesis as it comes to particular technologies, such
as Blockchain or Quantum technologies? For example, are there attempts to
achieve internal consensus on the use of Ethereum?

(Full disclosure: I applied with an Ethereum wallet one year ago and got an
interview but was told that the path to market wasn't clear enough. The
project was ultimately absorbed into a different incubator. )

~~~
mwseibel
At YC we don't have strongly held opinions on exactly how technology will
develop over the next 10 years. We simply want to fund the strongest teams and
help them accomplish their goals.

~~~
Jd
Is that equally true of the incubator side and Research?

------
oculusthrift
i know you've funded a handful of single founders but what is the current
outlook on them?

also, how developed must a startup be to apply. should the product already be
developed?

~~~
mwseibel
While we prefer that a team have co-founders we regularly fund single
founders. Also, we fund a wide range of companies from those who are just
starting to those who are post-launch and have raised seed funding (and
everything in between).

~~~
maram
What do you look for when considering a solo-founder? Given that the bar is
higher.

~~~
gingerbread-man
I'm also curious about this.

------
CptJamesCook
From Paul Graham's tweets
([https://twitter.com/paulg/status/322219801525223424](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/322219801525223424)),
it appears that YC ranks startups when they are accepted into YC.

Do you really do this for every startup in YC?

If so, are your internal rankings accurate predictors of startup success?

------
d--b
Hi Michael. You've done YC twice, why?

It sounds like if you do it once, you already get a solid network, and you
probably don't need the cash. So I don't really understand what made you go
back there.

~~~
mwseibel
That is a great question - I'm actually going to post a blog post about this
early next week. Quick summary: 1) It is motivational to work around a bunch
of other super hungry startups 2) YC is a great tool and the more experience
you have the better you are at using it 3) While I did have a good network I
didn't have a ton of relationships with current early stage founders

------
11thEarlOfMar
Hello Michael.

How would you characterize the effectiveness of the scaling that YC has done
over the last few years? Meaning, the increase in partners coupled with
broadening of the scope of markets, not to mention YC Research.

Too much too soon, going well as planned, could still do more...

------
urs2102
Hey Michael, with getting rid of the Fellowship, and moving to the MOOC, does
that mean YC will look at some of the early stage companies the Fellowship
would have looked at thus expanding their scope, or is that the purpose of the
MOOC?

~~~
mwseibel
I think both - we always want to accept early stage companies to YC. Also I
think the MOOC will be a great way for any company to get value out of YC.

~~~
sah2ed
How will the MOOC tie into your investment decisions now that the fellowship
is no longer available?

------
ksashikumar
How does YC feel about funding on AR, VR and mobile games technology?

~~~
burkaman
He wrote about VR two months ago:
[https://blog.ycombinator.com/vr/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/vr/)

> Recently I’ve heard a lot of investors say “There isn’t a whole lot of new
> stuff to do in consumer. There’s already an app for that.” With VR, there
> isn’t already an app for that.

> I think we are no more than two years away from an explosion of new consumer
> startups and I cannot wait to start funding them at YC.

------
healthenclave
Hello Michael,

Thanks for the AMA

Question: Is there are more stringent criteria for accepting international
founders and companies, focused on their local markets?

The reason I am asking this is because most of the companies from India in the
latest batch, seem to have a lot of traction and/or significant amount of
funding before being accepted into YC. Most looks like good candidates for
Series A.

Vs other US based founders and startups in the current and previous batches

~~~
mwseibel
There isn't a higher bar for international founders or companies working on a
non-US market. The number one reason why companies don't apply to YC is cause
they don't think they can get in. I think this applies double for
international founders and is why we have increased our international
outreach. My best guess is that you are seeing more post launch international
companies in YC cause they are more confident in applying.

~~~
healthenclave
Thanks that makes a lot of sense.

~~~
sandGorgon
we (RedCarpetUp) were accepted to YC with extremely minimal levels of early
funding.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have India/YC questions.

~~~
ramezrana
What is the best way to reach you for YC related questions?

~~~
sandGorgon
My email is my profile

------
ankitsoni
Hey Michael, Thanks for the AMA. How do you approach an application when you
have no domain knowledge of the field in which the startup is working in?

~~~
mwseibel
That is a great question! First I look at how clearly the founders communicate
their idea and their insights. When someone has a truly deep understanding of
their domain, they are able to explain it to intelligent people from any
background.

~~~
32wattle_park
Hi Michael, as a tech person, I'm not articulate enough to sell my ideas (and
I have lots of them :)) or explain problems that need to be solved. Does YC
sees that articulate founders (speech & presentation/looks) is a pre-
requisite? Looking back at recent YC allumni, there have been 'easy' problems
solutions (eg, tea bot, uber condom, smart mattress etc). I have a feeling
that it was not easy for Mark Z to explain what Facebook all about. I
understand that founders need to be able to sell ideas to VC. How can YC help
companies with not-so-articulate founders? Thank you.

------
vedranm
Where do you see the trend of companies being politically active and taking a
side in the debates happening in society going in the next 5-10 years?

------
btcboss
Hi Michael,

Thanks for doing this!

My question is: How can we make a better environment for discovering
cures/vaccines? Can we create a almost like a "YC" for research of biological
sciences.

Although, I don't know much about this area, I feel there needs to be a better
way to allow the most intelligent people have the resources they need to
discover cures/vaccines etc, with no external barriers. Thank you.

~~~
toufka
The modern biotech sector as a whole (excluding pure pharmaceutical
therapeutics) is a pretty small compared with the tech sector. It's really
challenging to build a company in a new ecosystem like that. Getting resources
into the system in order to get the flywheel running is tough. Good ideas on
jumpstarting what will inevitably a valuable technology would be great to
hear. But like all research, it's an investment - obvious returns might not
come in the short-term.

------
softwaredoug
Do you think the startup ecosystem is too focused on the Bay Area? Is
YCombinator funding startups that don't have a Bay Area presence?

~~~
mwseibel
Over 35% of the current batch is international (moved from outside of the US
to participate in YC). Almost all of my startup friends from when I did YC
came from outside of the Bay Area. One of the great things about YC (and why
I'm a partner here) is that we run an open application process with no pre-
requisites. You don't have to know anyone, come from some particular
background, go to some specific school, or be from the Bay Area.

------
abhikandoi2000
Out of all the companies that YC has funded, which one do you consider to be
the best? How about the second best?

By best I mean one which has had the most positive impact on people's life,
where positive impact is some function of just two variables - the number of
people affected and the intensity of that affect.

Also of these two variables which one do you weigh more and why?

------
ianai
Thank you for taking the time today. It's neat and rare to have a somewhat
direct line to someone in your position.

What's the "big thing" 10 years from now? Ie Are smartphones still the rage
and hottest "endpoint"? Did security wind up being the highest demand/pay IT
career path? Etc

~~~
mwseibel
Honestly, this is not how I think about YC. We don't spend a lot of time
thinking about what is going to be "the rage". We are excited about funding
great founders and some subset of what early stage founders are interested in
today will become the rage 10 years from now.

~~~
ianai
I was looking more for your prognostication - somewhat like Gates did in "The
Road Ahead." I figure you're in a somewhat unique position to speak to what's
upcoming on the horizon and likely to be disruptive.

------
escapecharacter
How does YC feel about funding seed stage projects that have to test market
before actual growth? I'm currently CTO of a new distributed entertainment
platform, and the investors we're talking to all want us to grow now.
Conservatively, we feel if we seek growth now we'll be in some minima of
quality that is too similar to competing products and not actually different
enough to be sustainably disruptive. We ideally want a year of experiments
before we commit to attempting explosive growth. Thoughts?

PS. We are raktor.org, working on telepresence participatory theatre, which we
believe is the future of entertainment. Currently in VR, though whether it's
VR or not is not relevant to our long term goals of being an Uber-for-theatre-
performers.

------
dorianm
BTW this Chrome Extension makes it track users in HN comments:
[https://github.com/brhs/hnuserlist](https://github.com/brhs/hnuserlist) (e.g.
read all of mwseibel's comments)

------
annerajb
Does YC typically invest on startups that may possibly have overlapping market
segments?

For example Boom Aero focused on supersonic and another startup applies to YC
with subsonic aircraft.

From what I read typically VC firms usually don't fund two companies as such
example.

~~~
gingerbread-man
[https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q8](https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q8)

Q: Will you fund multiple startups working on the same idea?

A: Yes. If you fund as many companies as we do it's unavoidable you'll end up
with some overlap. Even if you tried not to accept competing companies, you'd
still get overlap because startups' ideas morph so much. The way we deal with
it is that when two startups are working on related stuff, we don't talk to
one about what the other's doing.

In practice it has not turned out to be a problem, because most big markets
have room for several slightly different solutions, and it's unlikely that two
startups would do precisely the same thing.

~~~
annerajb
Thanks,

I read that a long time ago and forgotten that was there.

------
gmchueh
Is there a chance for non technical founder if we dont have a prototype and no
programmers in the team? We only have an idea and a lot of passion of it...is
it still worth applying?

------
dre7413
What are the current in-between steps for YC? What normally happens after
application submitted but before acceptance e.g. in person interviews, video
interviews? What other steps are involved and what's the reason for them?

------
xiaoma
Hi, Michael. Thanks for taking the time to do an AMA.

Where do you fall on the spectrum of looking for high probability wins vs
black swan hunting? To put it another way, how high of a failure percentage
would you accept so long as it maximized total cohort value?

E.g. would you accept see it as a loss if you funded the best single startup
of the decade and all other YC funded companies failed? How about a 90%
failture rate, but huge winners bringing a bigger return than YC has
historically had? How do you balance the desire for a good hit rate vs a good
total return?

------
chippy
Personality type question. For a two founder (technical & business) startup it
would be important for at least one of them to be conscientious and the other
to be creative. For example you might have a genius but unruly technology
lead, tempered by a focused product and business partner, or you might have a
visionary and rule breaking CEO tempered by a hard working diligent technical
workhorse. Both appear to be a successful combinations.

Which pairings of personality type and role works better in your experience
for YC applications?

------
wwwdonohue
How important is the video?

~~~
maram
Very important. It's mentioned on their site

------
bontoJR
Considering the current evolution of automation and the global forecast of
high unemployment rates, that will be a problem for the whole economy (with
Bill Gates suggesting a tax on robots), what are your thoughts about
education? We currently educate kids based on a system that assumes the
current jobs are going to be there in 15-20 years and for the rest of their
lifes. Can startups and technology help in improving education considering the
future world considering the current pace of automation in most fields?

------
frik
What are some of the more well known YC companies of the previous 3 years?
Some posterchilds like Dropbox and AirBnB were a few more years ago. (from
traditional IT category, not FinTech, etc)

~~~
mwseibel
In no particular order here is a small subset of YC companies from 2-3 years
ago that I bet will become household names in the next 2-3 years: Theorem,
Algolia, Bellabeat, Flexport, Cruise (I guess a lot of people know about these
guys already), Gobble, Front, Ginko Bioworks, Rigetti, Checkr, RazorPay,
WayUp, Gitlab, Lob, Remix, TripleByte, Lugg, Jopwell, Gigster, and GiveCampus.

------
dre7413
Based on the S17 batch, what %age were People of color, women and LGBT?

~~~
mwseibel
13% of startups in this batch have either a black or latinx founder and 22%
have a female founder.

------
awwstn
In what ways have your criteria for selecting great startups changed or
evolved over the past 5 years? (either your criteria personally or YC's
general criteria)

~~~
mwseibel
I don't think the criteria has changed much. I think personally I've had to
learn not to get caught up by pet ideas. It is easy to ignore obvious red
flags when you read an application where you would love to be a user.

------
tonydiv
Hi Michael,

How will computer science ever be taught to the general K-12 population if
software engineers make $102k and teachers make $45k in the US on average?
This gap seems to only be increasing too.

How should we think about developing solutions to solve the problem of
affordable CS education for everyone?

Even with the best textbooks, curriculums, etc., it is probably not enough for
the average teacher (definitely without a CS background) to teach CS
effectively.

------
Drenav
What should I do to become the next CEO of Y Combinator?

~~~
notburnt
1\. Be bros with the current one

2\. Make sure there is enough online sniping so the current one thinks it
isn't worth it.

------
cookiecaper
Will YC start branches outside of Mountain View sometime? I know the Boston
branch existed at the beginning and eventually was consolidated into MV. In
particular, I'd love to see YC go out and tap the untapped talent markets in
Middle America. This seems unlikely considering that even Boston was
considered too detached. Remote classes are also an interesting prospect IMO.

------
dmazin
The most recent answer I could find re YC funding multiple competing companies
is Harj's from 2010. What's YC's stance now?

------
catshirt
hi Michael, thanks!

considering the 1% rule, do you think our culture of media consumption is in
our nature or something we've created? is it a trend? do you think there will
be more room in the future for companies that serve amateur producers? can we
create more producers?

sorry for so many question marks. it's a single question- poorly formed. :)

------
smaili
How much do you value the idea v.s. the person(s)? I.e., do you evaluate more
on the idea or the people behind the idea?

------
crisanionel
Hi, any advice for solo founders, if the startup isn't launched yet, but
expected to launch in 1 month? Thanks.

~~~
keithwhor
As a solo founder: my main advice is just do everything you can to create
value and hustle. I don't want to paint a rosy picture --- being a solo
founder is a hell of a lot of really, really hard work. It's not enough to
just be good at writing software. My top recommendation is to find a cofounder
you have worked with before that you really trust, and barring that, make sure
you have a solid support network of friends and (hopefully) a supportive
partner. The emotional rollercoaster is real and it can f_cking hurt.

The number one skill you can have as a solo founder is a tremendous amount of
self-awareness and self-reflective ability. You're not going to have a
business partner telling you when you're f_cking up, and you can't rely on
really early stage investors too much for this, either (even after they've
invested) because as empathetic human beings it's often better to give
somebody the chance to figure it out on their own than risk alienating them.
So be the person that figures it out on their own.

Aside from that, listen to the advice people give you, and take it seriously,
but judge them by their motivations and actions, not necessarily the content
of the advice at face value. A question from a prospective investor like, "how
do you compete with [X]" isn't necessarily looking for an answer - if their
_action_ is they don't invest, it's probably more of a signal that the story
you're telling them is raising red flags about [X] and you're not going to
convince them today and move on. Figure out how to take [X] out of the
equation in your story. (But it's good to know, for the sake of the business,
how you plan on dealing with [X]. Storytelling-by-pitch is only a high level
overview of a robust business strategy.) Similarly, keep in mind many active
founders have motivations around self-interest of talent / IP acquisition
first and foremost --- there are many, many helpful ones but at the end of the
day they all have a business to grow just like you do.

Finally, with all of that in mind, trust your gut. If you believe in what
you're building, and you're creating value for your customers, that's all that
matters. Find believers. They're out there. Love others and accept love that
others are willing to give. _Listen to your believers when they speak._ (Early
investors, employees, etc.) They've already made _actions_ you can trust (re:
above), so their words are an order of magnitude more valuable.

Re: YC specifically, I can't be helpful there, but thought I'd jump in. I hope
Michael has valuable advice about timelines and such.

~~~
crisanionel
Thanks for the advice.

~~~
keithwhor
No problem. For what it's worth, I'm still pretty close to the beginning of my
journey and wouldn't be here without a fantastic group of amazing, supportive
friends, family, colleagues and investors.

I wish I had received more advice like this earlier on, and hope that's
helpful for you. You'll probably hear, "find a cofounder" a heck of a lot but
it's not _necessary_. It is _extremely helpful_ , so always have your head on
a swivel looking for the right people, just try to understand what you're
getting into from the start. :)

------
drbhoomika
Hi michael

What are the top three things that you'd look for in a healthcare startup from
India applying for YC summer batch 2017?

------
DinoRob
Hey Michael, thanks for doing this. Can you comment on the responsibility of
companies like Y Combinator (or more generally, Google, Apple, etc) to be
involved in causes for social change? How does a company like yours draw the
line on profitability vs activism, and how do you choose which causes to stand
behind?

------
cdev
We applied for Y Combinator Winter 2017. We were not selected for the in-
person interview. The company has faced lots of restructuring after that. Some
founders left and new people came. Product changed but the vision is still the
same. Do you think it will have the negative effect on our application ?

------
rnprince
Hi - Thank you for doing an AMA.

One factor when evaluating startups is how long it will take to get everything
ready. Some can launch in a month, but some depend on breakthroughs or
environment shifts that will take a decade to happen.

Is there a Goldilocks zone that lends itself to better outcomes? How far into
the future is too far?

------
contingencies
Last year it was reported that YC was considering a China program. Given that
the competition here is so poor, and Chinese domestic capital currently so
readily available, it seems well timed. Can you confirm if or when we can
expect this to come to fruition?

------
bsvalley
How does the $120k get allocated to the startup? Can cofounders take a tiny
piece as a monthly income?

~~~
Lordarminius
Founders spend the money in any way they choose. Its stated on the site.

~~~
bsvalley
Is it allocated on day one? Full amount? Or gradually throughout the 3 month
batch?

~~~
tyre
All at once. Timing of the payment is based on how long it takes to fill out
the paperwork, which is highly variable based on company structure, maturity,
organization, etc.

------
tschellenbach
Hi Michael, what are the biggest companies you've missed out on? Do you keep
an anti-portfolio like BVP? [https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-
portfolio](https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-portfolio)

~~~
healthenclave
I think SendGrind, Buffer, Couchbase and Ionic Framework are a few notable
ones that were previously discussed. BTW: great to see you here. I used
Feedly(get stream) a while back in a project of mine and it worked liked a
charm.

~~~
tschellenbach
Small world :)

------
evbots
If founders have a product already deployed but have many future plans for it,
do you recommend they focus on explaining what the product is currently, or
what the plans are for the future state of the product? (for the question
"What are you going to make?")

------
Sebrith
How long is too long for nonprofit explanations of what they do? I tried a
hyper-dense at 171 words but few found it understandable. I wrote a more
comprehensible version but it's currently 325 words.

------
d--b
Hi Michael, how do you guys do your financial analyses / reporting? Any pain
there?

Just asking cause you may be interested in my product, (or in accepting me in
your summer session haha).

Seriously though, startup accelerators never talk about their internal tools,
any insight?

------
dre7413
YC sends out emails to previous applicants who were in some percentile but
weren't accepted to encourage them to apply again.

Are their chances any better? What could've happened since the last
application that would make their current application worse?

------
bakenator
How are companies in the program paired up with mentors? Do mentors specialize
in specific business spaces? Do companies work with different mentors for
different parts of the program, eg marketing/technical advice/fundraising?

------
mtjl79
I know a lot of VC funds really don't favor Services and Solutions companies
really well - and of course prefer SaaS due to obvious reasons. What does YC
think about Services related companies? Would it be a waste of time to apply?

------
elmar
Hi Michael, Is YC actively looking for partners with hardware startup
experience? Correct me if I am wrong currently YC doesn't have any.

The only one I recall is Luke Iseman (great guy) that left this year
(currently a YC alumni).

thanks for taking the time to reply.

~~~
mwseibel
Luke is actually in the current YC batch. There will be a YC alum working with
hardware companies in the next batch - announcement coming in the next month
or so.

~~~
madamelic
$100 says it is Eric Migicovsky

~~~
elmar
I will second that.

------
ramezrana
For AI companies, they might have to do things manually in the beginning to
collect data and train their algorithms. Many people criticize them as wannabe
AI companies. What are your thoughts on such early stage companies applying to
YC?

------
rmatte09
I don't have a co-founder at this moment. But I am working on an MVP that make
sense more in India than here in the USA. I am from India but live in Bay
area. Can you suggest what is the best way to build this product into reality?

~~~
healthenclave
Fellow Indian Founder here. PG once said (I think to AirBnB) go where your
users are.

------
gallerdude
What things will we take for granted in 10 or 20 years that we don't have now?

~~~
ianai
I'm hoping it's eink displays in everything.

------
ValentineC
Hi Michael,

Has YC ever considered moving from the Bay Area due to the high cost of living
there?

What advantages does YC see in being in the Bay Area that prevents them from
moving elsewhere, or setting up a satellite office in, perhaps, Vancouver?

------
diminoten
How long can a company that sells to the public (the term is escaping me)
avoid the draw of B2B? Should they?

Is there any unintuitive advice would you give to companies that might want to
start selling to companies?

------
deepakravindran
How important is founder/product fit for successfully applying for YC? If a
founder is doing something totally outside of his domain expertise/experience,
how can he still pursue it?

------
TheAdamAndChe
The tone of your comments makes it sound like you are really focusing on
international investment. Did the recent elections lead to you making that
your focus, or was it a focus beforehand?

~~~
mwseibel
I don't mean to set that tone - I think international founders
disproportionately believe that YC is only focused on the US so that is why we
talk about it a bit more. YC has always accepted large numbers of
international founders.

------
Dim25
Will top teams from Startup School MOOC be accepted into Summer 2017 funding
cycle? Or they will have a completely independent path and own demo day not
related to the main program?

~~~
snowmaker
The programs are independent. We hope that some top MOOC teams will apply to
YC and join the summer batch.

------
andyshvc
What are key things international (UK) applicants should be aware of?

------
rishabhsingh
Hi Michael!

What advice do you have for _technical_ solo founders who have also been doing
user acquisition at a reasonable high conversion rate, applying to YC S2017?
(besides go find a co-founder)

------
TheGrassyKnoll
Cheers Mr. Seibel,

(I'll assume you're rich and were smart enough to take a vacation somewhere
along the line.)

Where is the coolest place you've ever visited ? (and what about it did you
enjoy ?)

------
ramezrana
For early stage companies who don't have real metrics on their user
acquisition channel, what is expected as an answer to the "How do you get
users.." question?

------
adamzerner
Being at the edge of your field seems important if you want to succeed at a
startup. How much time spent developing skills should someone spend before
starting a startup?

------
wasd
What's an upcoming changes to YC you're excited for?

~~~
mwseibel
I'm really excited for the Startup School MOOC we are launching soon and
excited about all the new software we are building to help the new YC batch
and all the alumni. Most people don't realize how much of a software company
YC is. We run our own internal mini-facebook, internal quora, and a host of
other sofware to track companies and read applications.

------
saycheese
Has YC thought about doing a campus per batch and would it allow a startup to
do this for YC as launching point for further growth both inside and outside
of YC?

------
maram
What do you look for when considering a solo-founder ?

------
eternalyxiii
What do you think is the best way for a non-profit to get funding 1) to prove
market fit, and 2) ongoing funding to sustain the organization?

~~~
mwseibel
I think the best way for a non-profit to succeed in general is to have a
business model that doesn't require it to raise money from donors.

------
Dim25
What funding options, other than VC money, shall early-stage companies explore
more? E.g. r&d tax credit are great in UK.

------
trevinla
Should an application explain the founders' vision of how the startup is
expected to scale or should it focus on the now?

~~~
mwseibel
both!

------
mrdrozdov
Hi Michael,

What advice do you have for some who is happy with their current trajectory,
but might want to start their own business in say 10 years?

Thanks!

------
akashsingh
For global SaaS companies applying from out of US, is sitting outside of the
core market, Bay Area etc, a red flag?

~~~
mwseibel
Absolutely not!

------
pulla
Why do you think Silicon Valley is so prone to armchair political science? How
can we fix this approach?

------
emarts
If I have a great product that people love but without a clear business model.
Do I stand a chance at YC?

~~~
mwseibel
Short answer: yes. Longer answer: what business model do other products in
your space use and why isn't that a good business model for you?

------
nabiha_zahra
what is your definition of a superstar salesperson for an early-stage post
product market fit startup? what differentiates the top 10% of salespeople
from the rest?

what resources do you recommend to learn sales if you're young and
inexperienced and want to begin your startup sales career?

------
DodgyEggplant
Do you think that YC, startups, and VCs should seek viable models to support
wildlife and animals?

------
konydsa
At what point exactly does YC transfer funds? Upon acceptance or at the start
of the program?

------
robg
Why are YC companies having more difficulty raising Series A than they were a
few years ago?

------
beaconstudios
Hi Michael, has YC considered funding founders not based in (or able to move
to) California?

~~~
gingerbread-man
I'm not Michael, but I think I can answer that. Moving to CA for the 3-months
of YCombinator has traditionally been non-negotiable. After the 3 months is
up, you can move wherever you like, and many do.

The only exception to this I'm aware of is that, in light of recent US
immigration policy, YC is optionally holding interviews for S17 international
founders in Vancouver, and is reportedly planning to "experiment with allowing
founders who can't get visas for the duration of our 3-month program to
participate remotely." [https://blog.ycombinator.com/us-
visas/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/us-visas/)

------
gulshaniyer
How does YC look at companies solving sizable problems but not necessarily
tech focussed ?

~~~
mwseibel
Can you be more specific?

------
MichaelAO
Where do you see e-sports in 5-10 years and what role do platforms like Twitch
play?

------
msvan
Here's a short question: how do I decide between grad school and startup land?

------
ovatsug25
What kind of furniture are you using? Standing desk, special ergonomic chair?

~~~
gingerbread-man
"For most startups the model should be grad student, not law firm. Aim for
cool and cheap, not expensive and impressive. For us the test of whether a
startup understood this was whether they had Aeron chairs. The Aeron came out
during the Bubble and was very popular with startups. Especially the type, all
too common then, that was like a bunch of kids playing house with money
supplied by VCs. We had office chairs so cheap that the arms all fell off.
This was slightly embarrassing at the time, but in retrospect the grad-
studenty atmosphere of our office was another of those things we did right
without knowing it."
[http://paulgraham.com/start.html](http://paulgraham.com/start.html)

------
TheAdamAndChe
With the continued concentration of many tech positions to a handful of tech
hubs in the country, are you doing anything to improve the economic conditions
of the Midwest US? Or are you primarily investing in the coastal areas alone?

edit: I find your lack of response to this question telling.

------
esb1
What skills / traits are you looking for in nontechnical founders?

~~~
Kinnard
Propensity to/rate at which they are becoming technical?

------
MixtapeMadness
currently thriving in the UK urban scene with our platform and we want to
introduce products that help artists generate revenue. What advice would you
have for niche in accomplishing this?

------
GrantHenryHall
Should companies apply if they haven't coded their product yet?

~~~
wellboy
If you have a track record, they would be interested, like any investor.

If you don't have a track record, no revenue, no users, no product, most
likely not, just like any investor.

------
maram
Is applying to YC for the third time a bad indicator/sign?

~~~
healthenclave
Not official YC advice. But I believe I read somewhere Avg. YC company gets
rejected twice before being accepted. What matters is are you making progress
in the direction of your vision.

------
maram
How important it is generating revenue before applying to YC ?

~~~
mwseibel
It is not particularly important in and of itself. I would say though that if
you have a product that people should buy (instead of using for free) the
earlier you start charging the faster you will learn.

------
jbpetersen
Is it possible to participate in YC without selling equity?

------
rajan_kumar
Hi Michael. Do YC invests in Indian Startups ?

------
erlapso
What do you think about conversational interfaces?

------
corrius
Why do you keep banning DHH from the hacker news?

~~~
cookiecaper
Is DHH really banned?

~~~
corrius
No really banned, but any of his articles will magically be removed from the
front page.

------
JohnGB
Are there any types of companies or areas of interest that you are focusing on
in this batch? And if so, would you please elaborate on it.

------
tpae
are you guys considering decentralized web apps as well? e.g.) ipfs/ethereum
based web apps

~~~
mwseibel
We consider every single application. There is no point in guessing what areas
we are interested in. Assume we are interested in every industry and every
type of product.

------
thejohnhenry
you stole my name! bastard! ...also I have the same question

edit: sort of forgot to abide by community norms here and keep my comments on-
topic. apologies

~~~
sctb
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13896017](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13896017)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
thejohnhenry
thanks.

~~~
dang
If your comment was the worst sort of thing we had to deal with here I'd get a
lot more code written.

------
koolba
Is there any appetite at YC for a non-profit that is _pro-_ Trump and plans on
working with the new POTUS to further his agenda?

~~~
cookiecaper
This is a great question. It seems like it'd be difficult for YC to be neutral
on such topics, considering they are actively pursuing pilot projects on
things that very left-wing, like a basic income.

From the perspective of a non-profit, it's probably less likely because the
argument is probably less "invest and see what thrives [so we can make money
off anything that makes money]" and more "help craft the world in our image".
While YC is, in general, pretty good about staying above the partisan fray
(even if they do clearly prefer left-wing policies), I think they'd have a
harder time supporting a non-profit whose beliefs and/or values they didn't
feel properly aligned with their own. I'm not sure what the value proposition
in that would be for them.

Personally I'd be worried that YC would even accept a pro-Trump _founder_. It
was nice that they didn't shun Thiel despite public pressure, but they did
feel the need to write a blog post justifying his presence and disavowing his
political beliefs. One has to wonder how far they'd be willing to go for a
lowly founder whose tweets, Facebook posts, or HN comments didn't mesh with
the party line.

~~~
Jach
Wasn't this basically answered by the Pinboard fiasco a while back?
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11633517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11633517))
It wasn't really over left-wing/right-wing political differences but there was
a clash.

~~~
cookiecaper
Thanks for the link. I do vaguely remember seeing a controversy around that,
but not really having the time to get into the threads. No one really knows
what happened on the call between "kevin" (who I guess is important) and
idlewords, but it does seems like they were quick to dismiss him.

I could probably understand if they tried it for a month or so and it fell
apart; it is true that some people have personality clashes that are not
really worth the investment to overcome vs. having each party just move on
independently, but he seems to expect a "connection" to materialize in a
couple of minutes.

That speaks to the bubble that these VC types end up believing to be reality,
and unfortunately it means that a lot of people who aren't necessarily
convinced that there's any reason they _should_ be pitching a VC are written
off as low-energy merely because they're being compared to all the sycophants
who will say anything to get a check.

The next question is whether someone being conservative, a Trump supporter,
and/or both is enough to make the YC partners feel like they can't establish a
"connection". One would hope that Thiel is proof to them that it _is_
possible. The question is whether they'd give the benefit of the doubt to
someone who doesn't already have billions of dollars.

~~~
koolba
> The next question is whether someone being conservative, a Trump supporter,
> and/or both is enough to make the YC partners feel like they can't establish
> a "connection". One would hope that Thiel is proof to them that it is
> possible. The question is whether they'd give the benefit of the doubt to
> someone who doesn't already have billions of dollars.

I'm convinced they wouldn't. The various opinion pieces posted by sama made it
pretty clear that they've got a particular agenda and the choices for YC
applicants going forward are either 1) hop on the wagon, or 2) keep your
beliefs to yourself.

------
yashvg
Hi Michael, I am a UC berkeley student and along with a few friends we have
made a daily newsletter service (www.wokenews.co).

As a bipartisan political newsletter whose primary user base right now are
college students in Berkeley, would you have any recommendation on how to
expand beyond this bubble of student subscribers? Maybe on how to reach out to
influencers who may be willing to help?

------
soheil
Sam Altman wrote about the current make up of YC founders based on their
gender and ethnicity. If I recruit two co-founders of color and one woman
primarily for the purpose of getting into YC is that shunned upon?

~~~
mwseibel
I would recruit founders you have had either a personal or professional
relationship with and who you think you would want to work with for 10 years.

