
Welcome Anne, Ben, and Joe - sama
http://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-anne-ben-and-joe
======
rdl
I think it's been long enough to conclude: the pg -> sama transition has been
a clear success.

YC has innovated in a lot of really promising ways, expanding the partnership,
expanding access, scaling successfully, and doing some new things.

Succession is one of the biggest challenges in organizations, and navigating
it successfully is a big win.

~~~
JonFish85
Wow, you're jumping to that conclusion already? As much as I'm sure the three
of them are great additions in a lot of ways, none of them has led a product
to a meaningful exit just yet (Pinterest, 123andme and Airbnb have yet to
exit).

Now their valuations are sky-high, and they've raised an incredible amount of
money, but it seems like a big chunk of YC people (people working for YC, not
in the program) haven't really successfully led a company to a big exit (IPO
or $100m+ cash buyout).

PG: Sold Viaweb for ~$50m

Sam Altman: Sold Loopt for ~$43.4m after raising ~$30m

Anne Wojcicki: Raised $191m, no exit

Ben Silbermann: Raised $1.3bn, no exit

Joe Gebbia: Raised $2.3bn, no exit

I'm sure they're all very bright people, but at the end of the day, these
aren't companies that have been profitable or really been sustainable. They're
great resources for how to raise lots of money, sure, but are they people who
can speak at any great lengths about building a long-standing business?

I don't mean to sound incredibly negative about YC; I want to keep a level
head when looking at them and what they offer.

~~~
nostrademons
The first part of your post complains about how few YC partners have led a
product to a meaningful exit, but the last part complains about how they lack
experience building a long-standing business. The two of them are to some
extent mutually exclusive: once you exit, you are no longer building a long-
standing business. (There are some exceptions where a company is acquired and
then continues growing under the acquirer, like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch,
and Reddit...and founders of the latter two happen to be YC partners.) Which
do you care more about?

For building a long-standing product or business, I would argue that
Pinterest, AirBnB, 23andMe, GMail, and Yahoo Mail all qualify, as does YC
itself. That's _why_ they haven't exited: Ben/Joe/Anne are all still building
their businesses.

For exiting: PG/TLB/RTM (Viaweb), Kevin Hale (Wufoo), Justin Kan (Twitch),
Michael Siebel (SocialCam), Paul Buchheit (FriendFeed) and Alexis Ohanian
(Reddit) all exited for F-U amounts of money. Sam Altman (Loopt), Dalton
Caldwell (iMeem), Garry Tan (Posterous), Qasar Younis (Talkbin), and Geoff
Ralston (Lala) may have, but it's unclear from public documents whether the
acquisitions of their companies resulted in a significant payoff to them after
the liquidation preferences of their investors are taken into account.

~~~
strayptr
It's sort of interesting that the inescapable conclusion is that VC funds
power tech. What I mean is, if a business isn't sustainable, and the fact that
they're sustainable doesn't matter, then it's thanks to the VC funds.

If you want to affect the world through business, the type of business you'll
start is a startup. Counter-intuitively, it may be true that sustainability
doesn't necessarily matter for a startup. If so, then sustainability in
business doesn't matter for affecting the world.

That seems like dangerous thinking, and I've been trying to escape the
conclusion. But since the home runs are how VCs make their returns, why is it
a bad thing if 9 out of 10 startups eventually fail? And if it's not a bad
thing, then why decry companies for being unsustainable, or the valley for
funding them?

------
numair
We keep seeing impressive names come on board as YC partners. This might sound
strange to you guys, but I'd love to read about some no-name partners come on
board as well. I've found that a lot of the most helpful people out there are
mostly unknown and under-appreciated (think: corporate version of "guy on
couch" in Half-Baked).

Maybe those people are just so stealthy that I don't notice that you're
staffing up in that area as well. Just a thought!

~~~
seiji
YC is no longer a quaint little outsider experiment. They are now The Man, The
Establishment, The Gatekeepers.

What will rise up and be the new YC for unconnected 18 year olds? YC probably
wouldn't even talk to Steve and Alexis under the current expanded growth
model. pg grew their idea and seeded their initial user base from his personal
website readership.

I think Sergey once mentioned (jokingly) he's not smart enough to be hired at
Google anymore. That's kinda the YC situation, isn't it? The original people
of YC created something bigger than themselves, and maintaining+growing the
behemoth machine is the focus now. The people who "grew up" inside YC run it
now because they helped _create_ it. But, as an outsider, you can't just be
hired into the machine. You can't grow the same way the originators did—you
have to prove your worth elsewhere (this parking spot is already taken).

There's always space for new scrappy teams to out maneuver established
organizations. What would a new "the next YC" look like? You probably can't
start it as a tech industry outsider. You'll need to have had your VC
connections and an exit or two already under your belt. The easiest route
would probably be to round up a team of traitorous YC partners who say "this
has grown too big and crazy, we need to reset our roots back to the original
problem space again."

~~~
paul
[http://fellowship.ycombinator.com/](http://fellowship.ycombinator.com/) :)

~~~
xiaoma
I suspect that most of those who were accepted were highly credentialed
(either via brand name schools or former employers). It would be wonderful to
be wrong about that, though.

~~~
garry
Thankfully what you suspect is wrong here.

~~~
xiaoma
Good to hear!

------
giarc
Wow, very impressive additions. Given the size of their existing companies,
will it be difficult to dedicate time to YC? Not only for the new partners but
for all existing partners that maintain an executive level position.

------
RickHull
What is a CPO? from wikipedia:

Chief People Officer, an executive who oversees human resource management and
industrial relations operations for an organization

Chief Privacy Officer, an executive responsible for managing issues of privacy
laws and policies

Chief Process Officer, an executive responsible for defining processes rules
and guidelines for an organization to follow

Chief Procurement Officer, an executive responsible for supply management

Chief Product Officer, an executive responsible for product management and
development

~~~
desdiv
>@airbnb Co-founder & Chief Product Officer. I design things.

[https://twitter.com/jgebbia](https://twitter.com/jgebbia)

------
stevesearer
I see these announcements from time to time and not knowing that much about
how YC operates, have no idea what something like this means for the companies
accepted into YC.

Can someone shine a light on what these three people (and the other partners)
will do in a practical sense?

~~~
sama
It means YC companies will be able to meet with them one on one and get
advice. They get a slice of YC equity in return.

~~~
stevesearer
Ah understood. Is it something like the company feels like it needs some help
in the area of design and sets up a meeting with a design-minded partner? Or
does YC look from outside and say, "you could use some help in the area of
design, so maybe talking to so-and-so is a good idea". Or a little of both?

------
ClintEhrlich
The part about Ben being a two-time YC alum caught my eye. In practice, what
does that mean?

I was under the impression that even once YC technically ends, founders are
still allowed to schedule office hours if it suites them. If so, what does
that person receive from returning to YC?

I presume (1) the opportunity to have the advice geared towards a new company,
not the old one (2) access to the dinners for that session, and (3) the
ability to bring in new partners to YC.

Roughly accurate?

------
gone35
_Ben Silbermann is the cofounder and CEO of Pinterest, and a two-time YC
alumni._

Shouldn't it read instead "[...] and a two-time YC _alumnus_ "? Just saying!

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kaffeemitsahne
Will be nice to demo cryptography apps with Anne and Ben. :D

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pgroves
Are there ever posts about who has left? Has anyone left?

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sinzone
Joe is a rockstar! Great addition.

------
jeremonda
The fact that we're welcoming Anne, Ben, and Joe, is why we need ethics in
welcoming Anne, Ben, Joe.

------
luxilove
With respect to Anne joining, would Google find out about applying startups?

~~~
mikeryan
I'm not entirely sure the source of the question but you know she's divorced
Sergey right?

