
I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator.  AMA - sama
YC applications for the Summer 2015 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.<p>EDIT: 12:55 PM.  This has been a really fun three hours, but now I have back to back meetings for the rest of the day.  Sorry I couldn&#x27;t answer everything--I typed as fast as I can :)<p>Special thanks to the YC software team for fixing an issue very quickly in the middle of this!
======
mbym
Question re solo founders: "A startup is too much work for one person" and if
you can't convince even one friend to join you, that doesn't speak well for
your idea! On the other hand, a bad hire/partnership can ruin the company. YC
gives signal it really prefers to look at teams than individual applications.
Q: Do you have have advice or rules of thumb re how much time a solo founder
should put into finding partner(s)? Or thoughts re how much to prioritise
this, vs. just writing code and talking to users to finish initial version
yourself? I don't mean this to be just focused on "getting into YC" but more
in general: what's the right way to think about fixing this problem (being a
solo founder) vs tackling other things like actually building something
initial users can be using? For software ideas surely it is occasionally
sensible to make at least a prototype and actually get some users before ever
buddying up? Or if I've got this far but am basically still going it alone, am
I doing something wrong?

~~~
sama
We really prefer at least two founders, but it's not a deal-breaker. We funded
Drew Houston of Dropbox as a solo founder, but he got a cofounder before the
batch started.

A bad cofounder is far, far worse than no cofounder.

I'd spend maybe 20% of your time looking for a cofounder, and the rest on your
business. But don't force a cofounder if you don't have a good, organic
option.

The more progress you make on the business, the easier it will be to get a
great cofounder.

~~~
downandout
_> The more progress you make on the business, the easier it will be to get a
great cofounder._

I am not trying to be pedantic...but are they really a cofounder if you've
hashed out the idea and made progress on the business prior to their
involvement? It's an important question in my mind, because a cofounder
typically receives far more equity than virtually anyone else that becomes
involved with the business after it is founded, and it also carries legal
ramifications.

I have personally been in a situation where I founded a company and created
its technology, and when I needed money, someone volunteered to be my
"cofounder". He eventually stole my IP, transferred it to a new corporate
entity, sold it, and made more than $60 million. I wound up with nothing.
While what he did was outright theft, I assisted him in it and made the legal
battle infinitely more difficult for myself by declaring someone that clearly
had nothing to do with founding the business a "cofounder" early on.

~~~
nostrademons
It would disqualify nearly all cofounders of famous startups if they had to
form the company before one of them made progress on the idea. For example:

Steve Wozniak built the original Apple I attending Homebrew Computer Club
meetings. Steve Jobs saw the prototype, realized it would be huge, and then
talked Woz into founding a business around it.

Larry Page had started Google as a doctoral research project to download the
web and make sense of its link structure. Sergey's original startup idea was
to order pizza via fax machine, and he'd started work on it with some other
friends before abandoning it to go work with Larry.

Mark Zuckerburg created FashMash and then Facebook and had some early traction
among his house at Harvard before convincing his cofounders to join.

Drew Houston created DropBox as a solo founder and then convinced Arash to
join after getting accepted to YC.

Apoorva Mehta started Instacart on his own and then got cofounders after YC.

The usual rule-of-thumb is to give close-to-even equity splits to cofounders
here, because most of the work of building a company lies ahead of you, not
behind you. You definitely do want to vet your cofounders for trustworthiness
and have some idea whether they're interested in founding a company with _you_
or whether they just want _your idea_. Usually the best defense to the latter
is having something the former needs, either deep domain knowledge or
technical skills or connections in the industry.

~~~
marincounty
"Mark Zuckerburg created FashMash and then Facebook and had some early
traction among his house at Harvard before convincing his cofounders to join."

I don't think it went down quite like that? I just can't let that little dude
slip into history as the brilliant, modern day Jobs, or Gates. In my mind, he
capitalized on someone else's idea--with the help of a lot of people, and got
very lucky. Whenever I(under a pseudonym) use his site, I wonder why there
isn't more competition. I sometimes think the very act of stealing someone's
idea/site is the reason for Facebook's success? "I better not question that
new hire--I'm not sure I even belong here? I was wrong on mobile? Maybe I
should just follow their advice?"

~~~
elmar
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates also capitalized on someone else's idea. The "idea"
is just one factor on a very complex equation.

Take a look at this great movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley"

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_Silicon_Valley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_Silicon_Valley)

~~~
Tloewald
Ideas aren't worth much. The real idea that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had was
that personal computers and software were compelling products that would have
value to ordinary people.

I suggest you read the book "Hackers" by Stephen Levy (aside from probably
giving more accurate insight into the origins of Microsoft and Apple, also
includes timeshare, Unix, the free software movement, and IIRC Lisp Machines
in its recounting, all in a lot less space than Isaacson's complete ballsup).

[http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution-
Ann...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary-
ebook/dp/B003PDMKIY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426945382&sr=1-1&keywords=hackers+steven+levy)

------
shubhamjain
With you recently leading a round of investment for reddit, it seems you are
quite optimistic about its success but as of late 2013 (and maybe now too),
Reddit remains in red even after nearly a decade of its inception[1]. Reddit
CEO once said, that ads are the reasons Digg failed[2], so I believe the site
would be wary of using ads to the fullest.

How do you think Reddit would become profitable and would be able to sustain
itself?

[1]: [http://www.businessinsider.in/Reddit-CEO-Admits-Were-
Still-I...](http://www.businessinsider.in/Reddit-CEO-Admits-Were-Still-In-The-
Red/articleshow/21148326.cms)

[2]: [http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/08/reddit-
digg/](http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/08/reddit-digg/)

~~~
sama
I am an extremely patient investor. I just invested in a company that I
believe will take 20-30 years to work.

If reddit gets to a billion users, which I believe it will, the company will
have many, many interesting monetizations opportunities. It's on its way to
become one of the great monopolies of the web.

~~~
chimeracoder
> I just invested in a company that I believe will take 20-30 years to work.

How do you conceptualize investments on that sort of timescale?

20 years ago was 1995, and 30 years ago was 1985. So much has changed between
then and now. I understand that broader market trends can sometimes be
predicted, but when you invest, you're betting not only on a market trend but
on a specific instantiation of that trend.

How do you conceptualize an investment in a _specific_ team and company on
that sort of a timescale, when there's already so much uncertainty around what
markets will even _exist_ in 2045?

~~~
sjg007
Reddit is the meta-web. It is probably also flexible enough to be the backbone
(aka platform) of other businesses in the future.

~~~
dfinninger
Yeah, just look at Reddit Gifts. I can totally see more stuff like that pop
up.

------
arfliw
This answer by Adam D'Angelo on Quora blows my mind:

"What was hot in Silicon Valley in March 2013?"

[http://www.quora.com/What-was-hot-in-Silicon-Valley-in-
March...](http://www.quora.com/What-was-hot-in-Silicon-Valley-in-
March-2013/answer/Adam-DAngelo?share=1)

Every one of those blew up.

So I ask you the same question:

What is hot in Silicon Valley in March, 2015?

~~~
sama
Adam is super smart. In fact, I asked him for an updated list at dinner a
couple of weeks ago and I predict he will be right again.

I'm not going to share my list because I've found that people put too much
stock in it. I don't mind talking about things like nuclear energy or biotech,
because people are either going to start those companies or not.

But I don't want to cause founders to start or stop working on specific idea
because I say something like "I think enterprise software is great" and they
really want to get into YC. I never used to worry about this, but I've since
found it happens surprisingly often.

The best companies are usually started before any trend is obvious. By the
time the trend is obvious, it's too late.

~~~
alexirobbins
Enterprise software you say? interesting...

------
mattkrisiloff
If you had applied now with Loopt, do you think you would have been accepted
into YC? Or Alexis Ohanian / Steve Huffman with Reddit in its primordial
phase? It seems like YC has become so competitive that it cuts out some of
those promising (risky) founders that don't have as much to show.

~~~
mattkrisiloff
On that note, would you ever consider starting a YC 'minor league' farm? It'd
be interesting to do 12-15k investments on young, very scrappy founders, a la
original Summer Founders Program. Perhaps mentored by alumni rather than full-
time partners for bandwidth purposes.

~~~
sama
Yes, I've thought about trying something like that.

------
jpmcglone
Hey Sam, can you give please tell us about the time you, sama, most
successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage?

~~~
sama
Sure. When I was running my startup, we got catastrophic news that the first
big customer in the space (Boost Mobile) was signing a deal with a competitor
instead of with us. This would have killed us.

The competitor was a much larger and better funded company that had been
around for years. I was a 20 year old CEO. Most big companies do not like to
make risky decisions, so this was not entirely surprising.

We got this news at about 11 pm. The next morning at 6 am, I was on a flight
to Orange County. I sat in the lobby until the guy responsible for the deal on
their side walked in. He was polite but said the decision was made.

I convince him to look at our demo (in the past few days, we'd done some
research to figure out exactly what features he really cared about). As soon
as he saw it I knew we had a chance.

Ended up hanging around for about two weeks. Eventually, the other company
overplayed their hand and we got the deal, and then the deals with every other
major US telecom company.

~~~
suyash
That sounds a bit creepy. How did you know which guy it was and what flight he
will be taking? To track him like that seems creepy.

~~~
natch
I think it means he (sama) took a flight to be at the guy's office first thing
in the morning, to wait for the guy to show up at the office.

------
johndoe42
Hello Sam,

First, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.

My question is about confidentiality of applications. Today I am working at a
YC startup. I (and two other friends) have a project in mind. But what
prevents me from applying to YC is the fear that my application would fall in
the inbox of our founders. Obviously I would prefer our application to remain
confidential until if they we get accepted (which, I understand, is against
the odds :)).

How can I ensure that this won't happen? How private and confidential are our
conversations with YC partners and team?

I have also heard that YC alumni sometimes help filtering/interviewing the
teams/projects that apply. Is this correct?

To be completely transparent, I have heard from 2 persons closed to YC that
there is no way our founders won't know that I have applied. So this point
really worries me a lot.

Thank you for your answer and again, thank you for taking the time to answer
the questions of the HN community.

~~~
sama
We do have some alumni help us review applications. There is a chance the
founders of your startup would randomly see your application.

HOWEVER, you should not only start a startup if you get into YC. If you're
into this startup, you should be doing it whether or not YC funds you. It's a
big red flag for us when people only want to work on a startup if they get
into YC.

Also, in general, if you're planning to start a startup at some point, talk to
the founders of the startup you're currently working at. They'll generally be
very understanding.

~~~
asdfasdfa
Anecdotally, I was rejected by YC and in the following year my startup has
grossed over $100,000 and is acquiring new users at a stable 20%+ MoM. Point
being YC is a nice-to-have, not a need to have.

------
freyr
You have suggested that Silicon Valley is successful, in part, because workers
accept a notion of "long-term compensation" [1]. Long-term compensation,
perhaps better called maybe-someday compensation, requires SV software
engineers to work for relatively less (factoring in cost-of-living) than many
other skilled professionals, with hopes that they'll be rewarded with a big
windfall in the future.

With the rising cost of living in SF/SV, young engineers are expected to
shoulder much the risk of startups while putting their long-term financial
stability on the line. All in hopes of maybe-someday being compensated. And
let's face it, the lion's share of these rewards will not be passed to these
workers who put all their eggs in one basket, but to financially-secure VC's
who have hedged their risk across many companies. If this is how SV works, do
you truly believe this is a strong foundation for the industry? Obviously it's
good for founders and VCs, but I'm considering the perspective of engineers.

We seem to be enjoying go-go years of investment and profits, everyone is
starry eyed, and the system is working. What happens when the present-day
strain on workers exceeds the allure of maybe-someday compensation? Also, why
shouldn't talented workers move to an industry that provides guaranteed
compensation for hard work in real time?

Of course, start-ups have a much different risk profile than banks, consulting
agencies, large corporations, etc. And as a result, the long-term compensation
model may be a necessity. But in the end, it sounds like SV works because
there's a large supply of people willing to gamble on their future financial
stability.

[1] [http://blog.samaltman.com/why-silicon-valley-
works](http://blog.samaltman.com/why-silicon-valley-works)

~~~
sama
It's a personal choice for workers. If you're an engineer and you want a
guaranteed $250k per year, go work for a financial firm. Nothing wrong with
that decision. Everyone gets to make his or her own.

Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people
are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain.

It is indeed "maybe-someday" competition. When you work at a startup, you're
acting like an investor but investing your time instead of your money. If you
choose well, the upside can be pretty crazy.

~~~
latj
>Engineers at startups make $100k+, sometimes much more. I don't think people
are being asked to subject themselves to unreasonable financial strain.

Is $100k enough for a person to live without roommates within 20-30 minutes
commute from said startup? Eat healthy food? Pay student loans? Have health
insurance and build savings?

I'm not from the Bay Area- this is a serious question.

~~~
physcab
Apartments in SF now are $1800 / studio - $2200 / 1br. so...

    
    
      $100k:
      - $30k taxes
      - $24k rent
      - $12k food and misc
      -------------
      $34k
    

$34k is about what you have to play with for investing, transportation,
entertainment, fitness, saving, student loans, other debt

~~~
getsat
1br is around $3,000 now: [https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-
francisco-ren...](https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-francisco-
rent-trends)

100k = 25% marginal tax rate for Fed, but effective rate of 17.3% + 6.8% State
tax rate = 24.13% = $24130 (assuming you are single)

    
    
      $100k:
      - $24.1k taxes
      - $36k rent
      - $12k food and misc
      -------------
      $27.9k
    

So you basically have $2,325 left over after expenses each month to play with.

~~~
samspenc
Make sure to account for medicare and social security. That's an additional
$10K-$15K in "expenses".

~~~
getsat
Good point, thanks!

------
oskarth
What is your advice for people who don't have co-founder material friends
(mostly non-technical/non-sales people, or conservative) and are out of
college? I've experience starting companies with acquaintances, something
that, predictably, didn't go so well.

Is there any alternative - that you have seen in YC - to getting new friends,
getting to know them really well, and starting a company in a few years time?

~~~
sama
I have a good answer for this! Go work at a breakout medium sized tech company
(i.e. a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand people).

You'll meet lots of potential cofounders. The people that are attracted to
these companies are usually 1) really good and 2) interested in starting a
company down the line.

~~~
atroyn
This is my plan B and it's heartening to hear you share this view.

~~~
puranjay
I'm heading off to B-school later this year. It'll be relatively cheap for me
(non-US location) and I got into the top school in the country. Would this be
a good place to meet founders, because I have the same dilemma as you - too
many friends who are not interested in building businesses.

------
jwanner
Since you probably can't spend too much time on each YC application, what is
the most common issue you see that causes companies to not get further
attention?

~~~
sama
Great question! The biggest mistake founders make is burying whatever it is
that's exceptional about them or their company deep in the application.

We are optimists. We want to believe. Help us by putting whatever it is that
is going to make us want to fund you early in the answer to each question.

Also, be concise.

------
tehansen
Do you think that YC could ever invest or advise startups / founders that
can't move to silicon valley for 3 months for one reason or another?

Is there something inherent in the in-person experience that cannot be
overcome by technology (in general too i suppose, rather than just the type of
work ycombinator does)?

Personally i believe we're not quite there yet. I have some hope, that within
our life time communication and collaboration tools can become both
sophisticated and intuitive enough to make physical presence for most type of
work completely irrelevant)

~~~
sama
There is for sure something about in-person interaction that cannot be
replaced by any current technology. Alan Kay recently told me he thinks it's
something biological.

Our model just doesn't work well for people that can't move to the valley for
3 months.

Remote work is good in many cases, but early-stage startup advising is not one
of them.

~~~
jfarmer
There's evidence that babies acquire phonemes when "taught" in-person
differently than via video:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius...](http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies)
(this topic starts at about 7m08s)

~~~
tehansen
wow, very awesome link. As someone who grew up in Germany, speaking Danish at
home, then moved to the US when I turned 19 to go to college, and is now
getting to watch my 2 pre-schoolers learn absolute insane amounts of things in
such short timespans this definitely resonated!

In a lot of ways, startups are like parenting I guess. Certainly parenting is
another example of an activity that depends absolutely on physical presence :P

------
pyrrhotech
I frequently see the stat that YC companies are worth 30 billion in total.
While this is very impressive, it's still less than say Uber at 40 billion for
a single company that's about the median age of the group--so it seems like a
fair comparison, though an obvious outlier.

For the Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. outlier startups, how much pure
luck do you think plays into their success? AirBnB and Dropbox are YC's
biggest outliers. Have you found any actionable patterns in the way the
founders of these outliers work/think/operate compared with the more
moderately successfully and unsuccessful founders?

~~~
sama
We haven't updated our numbers in awhile. Current total is more than Uber.

We'll update again at some point.

It's not a perfect correlation, but the founders that build huge companies are
extremely determined and smart, they have a very clear vision, they see things
other people miss, etc etc.

That said, there is definitely a luck multiplier for the humongous companies.
You cannot have a clear plan to build a $200B company.

~~~
ssharp
It may go without saying, but potential market has a lot to do with it as
well.

A company like Uber is entering a huge transportation market; Airbnb a huge
lodging market. They can be big fish in big ponds. I think there are lots of
YC companies in smaller ponds.

~~~
ecuzzillo
Only those with the very wildest imaginations (which happened to include PG
and the founders) realized that Airbnb was entering a huge lodging market.
Most thought it was just dumb to think many people would want to stay in other
people's apartments. See
[http://paulgraham.com/airbnb.html](http://paulgraham.com/airbnb.html)

------
wlfsbrg
Hi Sam,

Not a YC-specific question, but I was wondering what advice you have for
someone who lives outside of a major technology center and doesn't have the
ability to move? I'm eager to get something started here in the next year but
I'm pretty much on my own, thanks!

~~~
jbhatab
I have a slack channel I'm growing that's open to all aspiring developers and
entrepreneurs to eventually solve this exact problem. Check this page for more
info,
[http://www.openmindedinnovations.com/about](http://www.openmindedinnovations.com/about).
Just email me at jbhatab@gmail.com if you're interested :).

------
delaneparnell
What are your thoughts on teams applying pre-product (but in development) with
an experienced/diverse team compared to teams with product/initial traction?
Do you weigh them differently during application reviews?

~~~
sama
It's hard to give a standard answer to this--it depends entirely on the
specifics of each case.

~~~
delaneparnell
Thanks for doing this AMA Sam.

As a follow-up, what would you recommend applicants who are in this position
do before the end of next week to increase their chances of being
interviewed/accepted? (i.e. get feedback from as many YC alum as possible,
iterate on their video, etc). Obviously without specifics, I'm sure your
answer may be similar to the above, but any general recommendations here?

~~~
sama
Talk to users, and tell us what you learn from them.

------
mcintyre1994
The average yc founder in this batch is about 30, but the average
college/university graduate is much younger than that. What did a successful
30 yr old applicant do for those 8ish years after graduating?

~~~
derrida
What game can I play?

------
upquark
Possibly naive question:

I'm a married guy in his 30s working at a major investment bank in NYC (lead
quantitative role). I have a graduate degree from a non-elite school. No
experience at top tech firms (had offers but didn't go).

Now, I have some cool side projects that I believe could become great consumer
apps given enough care and resources. Is there any reason for me to apply to
YC, and any chance of getting seed funding from you, or am I completely out of
your profile for typical candidates / startups?

~~~
nwenzel
I'm mid-30s. Dangerously close to upper-30s. Married. Two kids. Non-elite
school. No graduate degree. I was in the YC Summer 2013 batch. I wasn't an
outlier.

The one thing all YC founders have in common is that we are all incredibly
determined. Creating a company is easier than ever but still basically
impossible.

------
TheDong
Does YC consider the potential of bad press to itself when funding a company?
If a founder were to apply with a startup such as Bad Dragon (dildo
manufacturer), abortion clinic-specific software platform, wikileaks-esque
platform, or any other such controversial idea, would it reduce the founder's
chance of being accepted?

Are there any startups that have been funded by YC that led to publicity
fallout?

------
atroyn
What's something common that partners have to repeat over and over until
founders 'get it' ?

~~~
sama
The most common thing is getting founders to focus on the right thing. At this
stage, nothing but building a product that users love matters. Founders want
to focus on anything else, and have wonderfully detailed excuses for why
whatever it is is so important.

"Write code and talk to users" is not sexy, but it's the road to success.
Seeing your name in the press is sexy, but unfortunately has nothing to do
whatsoever with actual success.

There is no shortcut for the hard work of building a great product.

~~~
atroyn
One thing my company struggled with in ImagineK12 was attracting enough users
to know if we were making something they loved - how can founders focus on
both?

~~~
puranjay
Did you try talking to the customers you already had, or folks who did not
sign up but were in the same demographics?

I'm currently building a tool for writers and emailing writers individually
(sometimes, even buying 30 minutes of their time) and talking to them has been
really insightful.

------
jorge_leria
YC is famous for funding startups at a very early stage, even at a pre-
traction stage, which seems to contradict the popular knowledge that an idea
without a good execution is worth nothing. With just an application form and a
10 minute interview, how can you tell if the founders will be able to execute
the idea properly? What are the most important traits that you look for in an
application from a very early stage startup?

~~~
sama
Even if the company is only a few weeks old, we look for signs that the
founders are determined, getting things done week by week, and improving
quickly.

If it's just an idea, then we look at what the founders have done in the past.
Most people don't magically start doing great things for the first time when
they start a startup.

------
thescorer
When you held Startup class in NYC. You brought up a few founders who were
invested in... and what struck me was that each of them had previous
relationships to their investors.

For example I heard at least twice from an investor: "I've known john for
years prior to him coming to me with [insert company name here]."

So my question is, do you think there exists a "good ol boy's club" in SV that
increases the chances by a great deal of getting funded? Or do you believe the
playing field is even for those who don't have those kind of connections?

~~~
sama
For sure it helps to get to know investors over long periods of time.

However, the investors that invested in my company knew me for 45 minutes
(YC), a few weeks (Sequoia), and a few months (NEA).

It's important as a founder not to make excuses for yourself. Sure, it's
easier to get money if you've known investors for a long time, but it's
certainly possible to get it without knowing them for awhile.

In YC's specific case, we don't know the great majority of the people we fund
at all.

------
mastratton3
In terms of "How will you make money", are you interested in the market for
the initial product/use case or what we think the product can eventually grow
into?

ie: We think our total initial market has the potential to be around $30M/yr
but can grow to take on other use cases.

~~~
sama
Both. The best answer is something like "we have a path to be be doing enough
revenue to cover our expenses in a year, but if things really work, here is
how we could make $1B a year in 10 years."

~~~
gok2
I think it was a bad idea to write the best answer here :)

~~~
walterbell
The important part of the answer is _" here is how"_.

------
bherms
How was your meal at Delifina the other night? Just kidding :)

I don't really have a question, but my girlfriend and I were seated next to
you and I wanted to introduce myself and thank you for your insights, writing,
and contributions to the startup community, but didn't want to disturb your
meal. Now I have an opportunity. Thanks!

~~~
sama
Delicious. One of my favorite restaurants in SF!

------
chuckcode
Could you comment on why start ups with remote teams anecdotally do poorly but
many open source projects with very remote teams succeed? Do you see any tools
on the horizon to help people coordinate remotely at a new level?

~~~
sama
I think it's because startups have to make small changes to their idea several
times per day. Very short cycle times do best with in-person interaction.

------
ninebrows
If the product is good and if the product has a single co-founder, what are
the chances of getting accepted?

The reason is that I live in a place where it's very hard to find a good co-
founder and I don't want to team up with the only options that I have. I don't
want to make wrong choices. In my place, people tend to join companies and
look for jobs rather than start companies.

~~~
sama
We will fund a company with 1 founder, but the bar is very high.

Have you thought about working at a startup first as a way to meet potential
cofounders?

~~~
ninebrows
Thanks Sam. Yes. I have worked in a startup for few years. I made very good
friends, some technical and some management.

I found a good guy who is on the management side, I asked him whether he is
interested in startup. He is just married, from a middle class family and he
is not willing to take any risk.

I also know technical people. Unfortunately I did not find good people on
technical side but they are very talented. When I say good, I mean honest
people.

------
jes5199
How do you feel about what the constant influx of 22-year-olds making six-
figure salaries is doing to the culture and social fabric of San Francisco?

~~~
sama
I think the biggest problem is that it's making housing totally unaffordable.
I think it's critical SF fix this, and that the only real solution is more
supply.

Unfortunately, homeowners are the ones that vote, and they are loving the
increase in home values and don't want to see a lot more supply get built.

~~~
suyash
The supply can't just be produced out of the blue. There isn't enough land in
San Francisco to build a whole bunch of housing. The key is to expand out of
city or create zones in city for affordable housing.

~~~
epicureanideal
There's plenty of land if you build vertically instead of flat. There's a
bunch of 2-4 story buildings that could be 10-20+ story buildings.

~~~
suyash
Right but this is not China, we need to follow guidelines as bay area is
earthquake prone.

~~~
jcdavis
Earthquake concerns are a red herring, the lack of height is entirely self-
inflicted. We know how to build tall buildings safely, but choose not to

------
mej10
How do you factor in possible technological advancements that could render a
company's business model obsolete?

For example, if someone develops a distributed web-of-trust/payment platform,
a lot of the value of Uber and Airbnb goes away.

The basic model behind some of these sharing companies can be factored out
into (network effects + domain knowledge + web of trust) = profitable
monopoly. You can adjust how valuable you consider each of these, but to me it
seems like most of the value isn't in the domain knowledge area. What if
someone figures out a way to not have all of the value captured by a
monolithic entity?

------
lquist
We are a bootstrapped ~2.5yr old company that is doing $5M in Revenue and ~$2M
in PBT. We have fallen into a bit of a funk in the past 6-12M or so growth-
wise and basically flat-lined. We are talking to a few funds to raise a ~$10M
round (mostly secondary) to bring the PBT down to 0 and really swing for the
fences. We've thought about applying to YC but the 7% seems high for us at
this stage. Is YC interested in co-investing the standard YC amount in such a
round at the market valuation instead of standard YC valuation?

~~~
sama
Unfortunately we don't do that--it just doesn't fit our model. Plenty of
companies have done YC at a later stage and still thought we increased their
value far more than the 7% we take, though.

------
mallyvai
What's the most exciting non-traditional segment (bio, energy, manufacturing,
etc) you're looking forward to funding startups in?

~~~
sama
I imagine each partner will have different answers. One thing I say is that we
should be willing to fund anything that could be a $10B company, and that is
such a difficult restriction we shouldn't have any other restriction.

Personally, I am very interested in nuclear energy and solar (I think energy
is the highest-impact single thing to fix--it's remarkable how many other
problems reduce to the energy problem), biotech, AI, education, healthcare,
and online communities.

Interestingly, those first three categories are also where I think the biggest
dangers to humanity are. High-risk high-reward, I guess.

~~~
puranjay
What do you think about wind energy? A leading wind energy company here in
India just had a $160M IPO here and it was oversubscribed. Wind is also
growing faster than solar in large parts of the world.

------
dataker
Hello Sam,

Amid a never-ending war between anti-AI and pro-AI , you've recently shown
strong positions( [http://blog.samaltman.com/machine-intelligence-
part-1](http://blog.samaltman.com/machine-intelligence-part-1)) about it.

As an 'AI applicant', I can't stop wondering whether such position could
influence an application decision.

What's your take on it?

~~~
sama
I still want to fund a lot of AI companies.

------
EGreg
Hey. This may sound like an unusual question, but I thought I'd ask.

We started our company about 4 years ago. Since then our apps have been
downloaded by 3 million people in over 100 countries (see
[http://qbix.com/blog/](http://qbix.com/blog/) ) Every year we've been
applying to YC, and never even making it to the interview. I know that YC
likes to invest in teams and the ideas sometimes change ... and as far as
teams go, I think we've done some impressive things. (For example,
[http://qbix.com/about](http://qbix.com/about)) So I would think that at least
we'd get a chance to be invited. We applied about 4-5 times in the last 4
years. The weirdest thing is that most of the times the founder video didn't
get any views on YouTube (we tracked it).

Could it be that YC just gets so many applications that they don't really have
time to go through them all, and watch all the videos?

Does it make sense to apply again? Are we blacklisted for some reason?

Sorry for being so blunt, but we really do like YC and we were just curious
because there's very little feedback as to what goes on in the application
process.

~~~
sama
can you send me an email?

~~~
zkhalique
Sure, sent!

sama@ right ?

------
Gozu
Hey Sam,

I'm working on this idea on my free time but for now it's in an early stage.
We believe strongly in it but we don't have yet a ready prototype which means
we don't have any structure, users, revenue, etc..

I'm wondering if YCombinator's goal is to encourage people from initial
concept or help existent startups to grow and go further ? Knowing our story,
do you honestly think we have a chance at this time to be selected by
YCombinator ?

Thanks.

~~~
sama
Why don't you have a prototype? That'll be an important question.

That said, we make most of our money backing companies at the "initial
concept" stage, so we'd love to hear from you.

~~~
Gozu
We're working on a prototype but it takes time and having a full-time job
limits our commitment and progress. It's good to know because being funded
will literally help to be focused on this idea.

------
FiatLuxDave
There are a number of questions on here about remote/non-US/non-SV startups,
and whether there is any place in YC for these.

Based upon my experience in the 90s running a DFJ funded startup which was
located in Florida, I completely understand why YC would not want to try to do
startup advising non-locally. Some things are hard enough to explain or
understand even when you are there in person.

That said, YC also has the HN community, which includes many non-local
founders and potential founders. For many of these founders, the YC value
proposition may not meet their needs. This might be because of YC requirements
(3 months, $/equity ratio) or because of Silicon Valley issues (I hear the
rent may be too high). Either way, YC has an audience of potential founders
which its primary product is currently not addressing.

Although YC is not lacking for applications, there seems to also be a case of
unmet demand here. Do you have any prospective plans which would interest the
non-SV HNer? HN is a network that seems to have some value to those of us in
the hinterland, but perhaps this network of people could offer value back to
YC as more than just interlocutors?

------
FlyingLawnmower
Would you or any other YC partners consider making a trip out to Georgia Tech
to give a talk? We don't get too much love being in the south east, but there
are many hundreds of talented engineering students here that would benefit
greatly from hearing about YC and the startup world in general.

~~~
CardenB
Yes! Please! Georgia Tech is a fantastic, underrated school with extremely
hardworking, determined students.

------
atroyn
Do you think if Zuck applied to YC today with Facebook as it was in 2005 he'd
make it in? (Assuming the 'social network' landscape still looked like it had
in 2005).

~~~
sama
Yes. There are certain people that you cannot sit across from and let yourself
not invest. He is one of them, for sure. He also had great growth.

(Zuck comes to speak to the YC batch every year or so. PG used to say that
when he talked to Zuck he'd find himself saying "whoa, we should really fund
this guy". I had the same experience last time he came to YC.)

~~~
atroyn
What's something he said or did to cause the 'whoa' reaction? Any kind of
anecdote you can share?

~~~
baristaGeek
Watch the Startup School video on Youtube. It's when he talks about what he
built before/parallel to The Facebook (Wirehog, Synapse, ZuckNet, etc.)

~~~
xtrumanx
For the lazy, here's the link[0] where Mark talks about building a site that
got students to upload their notes that helped him pass an exam for a course
he hadn't studied for.

PG remarked that this was fitting answer for the "Tell us how you hacked a
system" question in the YC application and added he has to constantly remind
himself its too late to accept Mark into YC.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGsalg2f9js?t=6m10s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGsalg2f9js?t=6m10s)

~~~
waterlesscloud
There's some very interesting things in that video. It set me to thinking
about things Facebook isn't actually doing that Zuckerburg says he cares
about. Which are things worthy of some further thinking to see what
opportunities exist there...

------
swasheck
> anything else

i know i'm late to the party, but it just seems like place like HN, with a
group of people who so vociferously speak in favor of online privacy and
person data ownership, would have no methods of completely removing one's
identity/posts to the site. could you please address what appears to be a
discrepancy between HN's policy and the audience?

------
atroyn
What is the #1 cause of failure of YC startups and how long does it usually
take to materialise?

~~~
sama
The apparent cause is running out of money, but the real cause is failing to
build something users love. It is usually apparent in the first 6 months, but
not always.

Another big cause is cofounder tension.

------
encontreumnerd
Hi Sam,

I have a startup in Brazil which is a marketplace for technical assistance.
Within 5 months we have over 2k geeks (in 102 cities) and over 200 clients and
we're only on MVP. Unfurtunately I cannot find my aquisition channel (also I'm
not sure about the profile of my clients since they are very random). All the
investors say's they'll invest only when we find this acquisition channel.
Would you recommend me any cheap way to test my channels? We're running out of
cash (which we have almost 0).

Thanks in advance

------
jantos8
I am currently applying to the summer batch and I was wondering about my
setup. I came to the U.S. about four years ago and immediately built a
marketing agency and after a year added software development services to it.
We grew rapidly to a stable stage and now I am at the point where I can step
back from taking care of the company and let my other partners manage it (We
are four partners). My question is, I am applying as the only founder and was
wondering if having a company already might be a deal-breaker, due to you
thinking that I would not be able to invest 100% of my time into the startup?
My reason for not having a co-founder yet, is because I want to make sure that
I really add somebody that will 100% benefit the startup. I do have a pool of
people available from my current company, but would also like to branch out
first. Any thought from you would be really appreciated.

~~~
sama
Make it clear in your application you're going to spend 100% of your time on
this new business.

~~~
jantos8
Thank you and I did. I was just wondering if there is already a certain
penalty towards me. 1) Only founder 2) Owner of another company....

Thx, for your prompt answer. Enjoy the rest of your AMA and have a great
weekend!

------
danenania
On evaluating applications: assuming you're looking at a solid team and a
seemingly good idea, how much does having a working prototype and early
traction help a startup's chances of getting into YC? Is there some level of
traction that makes any application a shoo-in? Are there categories of
startups that you won't even consider without demonstrated traction?

On the flip side, what does it take to make you consider a team that has
nothing built and no users yet?

~~~
sama
A prototype helps a lot.

Traction helps too, but we tried not to get fooled by graphs. In fact, I
always ask the other interviewers "would we fund this company if they had no
traction at all?"

To fund a company with nothing built and no users, we have to believe 1) the
idea is great and 2) the team is unstoppable.

------
suyash
Hi Sama,

You have a CS degree from Stanford and you're now running YC. Do you wish you
had a MBA or management degree or some sort? How did you learn about
management even at your previous startup? In general how do founders specially
who come right out of college without business degree learn to manage team as
a leader? Just wondering as I'm a programmer myself and would like to be in
management role someday but don't plan to get degree like an MBA.

~~~
sama
No, I don't (I don't have a CS degree either--I dropped out after two years).

I'm skeptical about how much one actually learns in business school, and I
think it's a bad investment of time and money. I think management is one of
those things where you learn much more by actually doing it.

That said, I don't manage much at YC. Part of what being a partner means is
that you're at the point in your career where you don't need a manager.

~~~
dragonwriter
> I'm skeptical about how much one actually learns in business school, and I
> think it's a bad investment of time and money.

From what I've seen (and I haven't myself gone to B school), I think the
people who seem to get the most (in terms of apparent skill improvement) out
of B school are the ones that do it _while working in management_ ; I think
that the combination of theory and practice is probably valuable.

OTOH, a major purpose of B school (and this is true of many other areas of
formal education) is credentialing, networking, and social signaling, which
can be important to success independent of (even if it is taken by others as a
sign of) actual skill development. So, it may be a mistake to assess the value
to the student as simply being about what one actually learns.

------
virde
What is the one company that applied to YC and was rejected, that you wish had
been selected?

------
atroyn
Funds need a 10x return from one company to cover the entire fund. Is that a
philosophy YC subscribes to, and if so, how long until it becomes evident
which (if any) company in a given class will be the 10x ?

~~~
sama
10x returns don't help us much. Our entire model is driven by occasional
10,000x returns.

It usually takes about 2 years to have a good sense for who is on a trajectory
to maybe get there, and then about 10 years to see if they actually do.

~~~
matheweis
Any recommendations for getting funding for growing projects with
proven/consistent revenue streams that do have those smaller returns?

Seems there should be groups interested in lower risk/lower return models, but
they don't seem to exist.

------
scottmwinters
How much do you think moving to the valley improves the odds of a startups
success as opposed to another city, say Atlanta or Raleigh on the east coast?

~~~
sama
At least 10x.

~~~
mpdehaan2
And it's misguided, unfortunately. Companies go to the west cost because
investors want them to (which is somewhat one of the same types of problems as
tech culture diversity), and you're failing to tap some MAJOR tech centers. It
also massively increases costs of living, and reduces diversity of ideas.

SF talent is on the same level of experience and variability, though if
anything it's easier for people to job hop.

But what it really does is fail to capitilize on the assets of an entire
nation (or nations, in the case where people from other countries think they
also need to move).

------
knicksjets121
Sam,

What would you say is the average amount of times a company applies before a.
getting an interview at YC and b. actually getting in?

~~~
sama
It is often on the first time. The 7th time is the highest count I know of.
It's common for it to be on the second or third time.

If we reject a company at interviews, we'll say what our objection is. If you
reapply and that isn't fixed, you're unlikely to get in.

More generally, fast progress is something we really look for when deciding to
fund startups.

~~~
kaolinite
Besides applicants ignoring feedback, do prior failed applications influence
your decision at all?

------
redshirtrob
Hi Sam,

Does YC take any position on founders in a long-term, personal relationship,
e.g. married? Has YC funded companies with such founders? If so, can you say
anything meaningful about these company's success or failure?

Note: I'm specifically thinking of companies with two founders.

~~~
kirsty
We have funded many companies where cofounders are married or cofounders are
dating. The fact that they are married / dating doesn't generally impact our
decision. The same things apply that we look for in any founding team -
ability to get stuff done, determination, drive....

~~~
vqc
Any data on whether founders with this type of relationship have a lower, the
same, or higher probability of having founder disputes that destroy the
company?

------
annelutz
If we get an interview but aren't accepted, will you still reimburse the
traveling expenses for us poor people?

~~~
sama
Yes, of course. We reimburse travel expenses for everyone who comes to
interview with us, and I think it's shameful when other accelerators don't.

I probably would not have interviewed at YC if I had to pay for the trip--I
was super poor at the time.

~~~
awalGarg
Also, what if we cannot arrange for the trip initially...?

~~~
kirsty
We never want there to be a situation where a founder doesn't come to an
interview because of money (or any other) concerns. Contact us directly when
we invite you to interview and we will do our best to help you.

------
revorad
Some of the advice YC partners give seems harmful because of survivorship bias
(Basic for the Altair -> Microsoft). I've seen some people criticise you for
it, but I've never seen any of you address it directly. Do you mind doing so
now?

~~~
sama
Most startups don't work--everyone understands the odds are long. What makes
it worth it is that when they work, they really, really work. So we try to
give advice about how to maybe become a huge company.

~~~
revorad
I understand your motivation. My point is that your advice on how to become a
huge company seems a bit flawed - specifically because it ignores all the
companies which failed even after following that advice.

Anyway, there is so little data on the topic that I don't feel anyone has good
advice on it.

~~~
dazmax
He didn't say it was advice on how to become a huge company, he said it was
how to _maybe_ become a huge company. They're going for high returns on
successes, not high chance of success.

------
mej10
What are your thoughts on advertising as _the_ way to make great services
available for free (Google, reddit, Facebook, Stack Overflow)? What problems
do you see with this model? When should this be preferred? Does it only work
for massive sites?

~~~
sama
It does indeed only work for big sites. It's not the only model, but it was
one that is proven and easy to understand.

~~~
mej10
As a follow-up, do you think it is unethical to use AdBlock?

~~~
giftgaming
We're a non-intrusive advertising startup (giftgaming) -- I personally do not
think it is unethical, as they provide no value, and if anything, detract from
the website's value and sometimes are plain annoying.

I cannot believe that in 2015, we still have intrusive ads, such as banner
ads, popups, interstitials, pre-roll videos -- all technologies from the 90s?
There must be a better solution.

~~~
mej10
They provide value to the company providing the content. Many great sites are
only possible thanks to advertising revenues. The world would be objectively
worse-off if everyone used adblock.

~~~
giftgaming
But wouldn't it be great if the world didn't feel the need to use adblock?

Telling people not to use adblock is like telling people to not torrent, or to
not bite their fingernails; it's too easy to do.

Instead, the core problem needs to be addressed: which is advertising seldom
does anything except slowdown page/game loading times, cause privacy concerns
or annoy/distract.

We're offering a solution which makes people want to opt-in more.

------
wayfarer2s
Competition is a tricky concept. If there is competition, that can be seen as
verification of the concept, but at the same time it offers valid
counterpoints. If there is no competition, it might be because the idea is so
hard that nobody else has figured it out or so unpromising that everyone else
dismissed it.

What role does competition play in your evaluation of a startup?

~~~
sama
I have never cared too much about "validation" or "verification of the
concept". I trust my own judgment, and the companies I've made the most money
on had far, far more people saying the idea was stupid than validating it.

I just try to evaluate every idea on its own merits and potential, and not
worry about anything else. I suggest you do the same.

------
suyash
Btw Kudos on doing AMA on HN vs Reddit. We should do more AMA's here.

------
sanketsaurav
Hey Sam,

I have a product which is a direct competitor of one of YC11 companies. We
have pretty decent traction, and we are solving the same problem significantly
different from them. What are our chances? Does YC accept competing companies?

~~~
sama
We won't accept a direct clone, but competing companies are fine.

~~~
sanketsaurav
Of course, goes without saying. Thanks!

------
DeanTheHacker
Hi Sam. If the company applies for the second time with some progress made, is
it treated differently, like "Ahhh... the same guys. Let's see what they have
done since last time"? Does it matter at all?

~~~
sama
Yes. If you reapply with the same idea, the first thing we look at is progress
since last time.

~~~
DeanTheHacker
Follow up question then. Last time we were applying with no product and no
customers. Now we have product and customers (even some YC partners and many
of alumni). I heard that YC alumni can vote up on the application of the
startup they believe in. Is that true? I guess it might help:)

------
foobarqux
How does the partnership structure work at YC? What does it mean to be a part-
time partner? Do all partners get carry?

~~~
sama
It's a flat partnership--we all get the same economics (including me). If you
want a salary, it trades off against your equity.

Part-time partners get less equity and spend less time on YC.

~~~
antongm
Of course, the cash vs. equity exchange rate is a subject of curiosity. :)

------
atroyn
As a proportion, how much of the value of YC is in the advice partners give,
how much in the 'brand name' and network, and how much is just being around
tons of smart focused people for 3 months?

~~~
sama
I tell founders it's about 50% advice and 50% network value.

~~~
Kinnard
And 30% cash?

------
bhayden
I forget which speaker, it may have been Peter Thiel, was discussing how
difficult starting a startup is at one of the startup school talks, and said
"there are easier ways to make a lot of money". I would be curious if you knew
what he (or whomever said that) would consider easier.

~~~
sama
I think I was the one to say that.

Working in finance is an easier and more predictable way to make a lot of
money, as long as you can deal with the deep existential angst the comes from
adding no value to the world :)

~~~
tarikjn
I would argue that things like markets/arbitrage/HFT actually add value to the
world and down the line are important enablers for the startup ecosystem. It's
just that finance jobs are fungible to some degree -- just like low/middle
level developer jobs after all.

------
trequartista
Hi Sam,

What about people who are in the US on an H1-B visa and have a great
idea/working prototype (built as a side project while working at a big co)?
Will you invest considering the H1-B visa restrictions?

Thanks!

------
noahlt
Your recent stats blog post told us that 32 YC companies are worth more than
$100 million. How many YC companies, including those acquired, are worth more
than $10 million?

~~~
sama
Counting companies that have raised with SAFEs but not equity rounds, probably
about 250-300.

~~~
hollerith
I hope this is not a dumb question, what method are you using the estimate the
worth of the ones that have raised with SAFEs?

If the answer is that you made guesses not backed by calculations, then how
long have you been writing down your guesses, then going back periodically to
compare them with valuations calculated from exits and equity rounds?

------
cm2012
Have you guys followed the alternative lending IPOs recently? (Lending Club
and OnDeck in December, both with billion dollar valuations). What does YC
think of the industry?

~~~
sama
Personally, I think it's super interesting. LendUp is a company we funded a
few years ago, and we've done more recently.

~~~
mbesto
What are your thoughts on the risks to pay-day loan type companies given Wonga
in the UK has just taken a huge hit due to regulation.[0] Are they at risk to
be regulated here in the US too?

[0] -
[http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31603152](http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31603152)

------
bbayer
Hi Sam, How does YC look to foreign applications? Do you have any plan to make
improvements for participation of foreigners like visa support, logistics etc.

~~~
sama
We help with visas. But part of being a founder is figuring out how to
overcome obstacles by yourself.

------
baristaGeek
Is there a lower preference for college-dropouts today in YC? The average YC
founder age has increased considerably and I think there might be some
relation.

~~~
sama
No, if anything it's higher. I think the median age increase has more to do
with us funding companies in different spaces that require more experience.

If you're starting an Internet company, I'm more convinced than ever that you
don't need to finish college.

~~~
Alex3917
> If you're starting an Internet company, I'm more convinced than ever that
> you don't need to finish college.

For your typical web startup you probably don't need college to learn the
technology or the design patterns. But there are certain areas of social
science that can be hard to pick up on your own because they are basically
oral traditions, and there isn't really an obvious list of books to get on
Amazon or whatever. Finishing a degree is still probably overkill though.

~~~
mazeway
In social sciences, the stuff you learn in formal education is less useful. I
think the example should be in hard sciences, for example, if you want to
start a company building quantum computers, a PhD in physics would be very
helpful.

------
mej10
What are your thoughts on drug use among the entrepreneur/tech communities?

Specifically modafinil, amphetamines, psychedelics.

~~~
sama
The only one of those (not counting caffeine) I've tried is modafinil. The
side effects are weird, but man do you get a productivity boost.

Personally, I'm scared to screw with my brain chemistry too much and am
supersensitive to psychoactive drugs of any sort.

------
wonderful1970
Hi Sam, I'd like to apply to YC, but my market is not in the US. Is it
something rational? Does it worth?

~~~
sama
We've funded many companies working only on non-US markets. Razorpay is an
example of one in the current batch.

~~~
wonderful1970
Thanks

------
Kinnard
What do you and the rest of YC think of dynamic equity splits? They're
described in Slicing the Pie:
[http://www.slicingpie.com/](http://www.slicingpie.com/)

[http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-12-18/grunt-
funds-...](http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-12-18/grunt-funds-are-
trending-in-startup-circles)

~~~
sama
In general, I think fixed equity splits WITH VESTING are the way to go.
Probably the optimal split is something like 51/49 (to prevent deadlocking) or
33.3/33.3/33.3 but anything near even is good enough.

~~~
Kinnard
Why do you think this is better than dynamic equity splits?

~~~
limeyx
Maybe it lets people stop focusing on how much equity they do/don't have (or
gained or lost in a given week) and get on with actually building the company
? :)

------
andrewlynch
Hi Sam,

In the Winter 15 class there was not a single startup from the African
continent. Are you guys interested in startups that are targeting emerging
markets?

~~~
sama
Yes!

------
viiralvx
Does YC have any initiatives planned for a Founders Conference that revolves
around founders from URM groups, I'd love to see a conference for URM
Founders, similar to the Female Founders Conference.

~~~
sama
One of my partners is planning to do something here, but I'm not sure exactly
what it's going to look like. (We run an extremely decentralized partnership.)

~~~
viiralvx
Awesome, looking forward to it! Thanks for the answer.

------
gok2
What do you think about companies which have their main office in SF and
engineering office at their home country?

Obviously these companies spend a lot less money on talent and on paper they
can get more stuff done with less funding.

What are the success rates of these companies, compared to full SF companies?
Is it logical to start to whole company in SF or have a product office
somewhere else?

------
new_user_name
Having slow organic growth for our startup reduce our chances of an interview?
What is the average growth week-over-week YC looks at?

~~~
sama
Slow growth is bad, yes. A lot of our questions will be about why it's slow
and how you plan to make it faster.

We tell startups during YC to shoot for 10% weekly growth in their key metric.

------
perphywoo
Just want to say thanks to YC for rejecting my previous terrible startup
twice, or I won't have the oppy to pursue a more promising one now. When a
startup is not ready, YC can smell it.

------
greedoshotlast
Honest question on how profitable Y Combinator really is.

What is Y Combinator's average portfolio return before management fees and
carry?

~~~
sama
We don't have outside investors, so there isn't fee or carry.

Our returns are very good (triple digit IRR) but still mostly unrealized.

~~~
greedoshotlast
Thanks Sama.

This is something I've always been curious since VCs are an investment
structure and measuring performance is critical when selecting the right VC.

------
kriro
1) How common are applications from companies that have bootstrapped to a
certain size in a non-US market where local knowledge helps (showing some
early traction but could still grow in that market) and want to expand to the
US? What are you mostly looking for in these companies, do you see them
"diluting their markets" as a potential red flag (assuming the idea is
transferable culturally etc.)?

2) I get the feeling there is some mild prejudice against academia in the
startup community. What is the general reaction if a founder comes from
academia ("dropping out to persue the startup")? Tone wise it seems like
there's a "why did you waste your time in academia and not build stuff" kind
of attitude. Strikes me as strange because on an abstract level good academics
do very "startupy" things (form hypothesis, test, act on results) except
slower/more deliberate.

~~~
jamiesonbecker
> except slower/more deliberate.

------
lettergram
I think most of the YC funded startups have good ideas, but some of the more
recent batches (past three years) seem to have a much smaller market than the
earlier batches.

Has there been a conscious decision to move to more niche markets, or has that
just been where the chips fell?

Also, why has the average age of the founders YC funded slowly been rising?

~~~
sama
Ideas look niche when the companies are starting out. As Peter Thiel says, you
first want to dominate a small market.

Most great companies were derided for focusing on a small niche when they
first started.

I think the average age has risen something like 3 years over the past 10
years. Part of it is that we're funding companies in other spaces. I bet the
average age for founders of Internet/mobile startups hasn't moved much.

------
brunobarcelos
My startup is trying to serve ALL the families that live in an apartment
building or in a neighborhood (to get economy of scale and make delivery as
cheap as possible), but is really hard to get older people to trust and use
the internet to buy online. What are your advice to deal with this
demographic?

~~~
falsestprophet
There is a reason advertisers can't be bothered with people outside of the
18-49 demo

------
atroyn
What is the most common mode of failure in the interview stage?

~~~
sama
Unclear communication. It's surprising how often we get 5 minutes into an
interview without being able to really understand what a startup does.

------
camdenre
Hey Sam,

What is the problem/market that you think about most when you aren't at work?

~~~
sama
Energy, existential risks to humanity, and wealth inequality.

------
baristaGeek
Independent of the fact that there's currently a tech bubble or not. If it
hypothetically exploded, would Y Combinator stop its investment activities?

~~~
sama
No, I totally ignore this. We'll keep funding good companies no matter what
the macro does.

~~~
tyang
This is basically what Warren Buffett does w/r/t Berkshire's portfolio cos.
Though he invests less in frothy times and more in times of pessimism. But
he's bottoms up too.

------
nickysielicki
Where do you see YC 10 years from now?

~~~
sama
The evolution of the university. But I think it's a much better model--it's
got just the right amount of decentralization, it attracts the best people in
the world to one place because of the network effect, we pay you instead of
the other way around, instead of asking for donations of our alumni in the
future we'll let them invest in the ecosystem, etc. And I think you learn far
more in 3 months of YC than 3 months of university.

YC is fundamentally just a hub of smart people that help each other.

I think there is some chance that the total aggregate market cap of YC
companies by then is approaching the largest market cap of any company (though
a safer bet would be 20 years from now). I hope that we'll have funded many of
the most important companies, and been able to help them quite a bit. I'm
pretty sure the network will be powerful.

I'm sure we'll also do new things that seem crazy today, e.g. a fundamental
research lab.

~~~
nickysielicki
Thanks for the response.

------
ggonweb
Does more than 1 partner review an application? and how do you maintain
quality in screening applications and interview teams? Is recommendations from
current partners have weight-age in the screening process (from instacart
application hack)?

~~~
ggonweb
How much weightage does hackernews involvement add to the application (PG used
to say he had some weightage)?

~~~
sama
Very little.

------
MichaelGG
If someone has an idea or seed of a company, but is only aiming for a mid-high
8 figures as a reasonable exit, would YC consider funding them? Or must it be
a shoot-the-moon endeavor? I've written a prototype in use at a large company,
and recently found that Oracle acquired a less-performing competitor (yet in
market, so not not bad!) product for $20M.

I'm working on my idea anyways, just wondering if YC and the like are a
complete waste of time for me. I've got a verbal commit on $120K annual
revenue already, but having seed money to focus full time to launch is
appealing.

------
mdarshay
How much traction do you usually look for when evaluating applicants / are
most businesses reasonably validated?

------
rcconf
The tech around banking seems to move really slow. For example, just grabbing
your financial data from your bank is really hard right now.

Do you have a lot of applicants trying to fix problems in the financial
sector?

------
lsllc
There's a well known theory that non-competes stifles innovation and in
particular CA's ban on these has allowed SV to flourish.

There have been moves afoot in MA to enact a similar ban, although recently it
seems to have been somewhat defanged through lobbying by the likes EMC
(despite still being protected by copyright, trade secrets and patents!).

What are your thoughts on this; if MA is able to pass a ban on non-competed of
any substance, how do you think it'll change the startup/VC scene in Boston.

~~~
sama
I think it'd be good to do this, but that the startup scene is really broken
in Boston for many other reasons. I'm not very optimistic this would be enough
to fix it.

~~~
tashmahalic
How else is the startup scene broken in Boston?

~~~
shrig94
Boston's startup scene is dominated by MBAs who think hackers are cogs you put
red bull in to get code out and technical cofounders are only worth 5% of the
company. I think YC actually has done a lot to change this in the last few
years as someone who interacts with the scene often, though these MBAs will
never go away.

~~~
lsllc
Sounds like my job! I'd love to see more YC activity back in their home town
to try to fix this. However, the YC programs seem to have a tremendous amount
of inertia so it's hard to see how they could run a program similarly-
successful on the east coast despite starting out here.

------
sajjadk
Sam,

Whats your take on startups targeting opportunities in developing countries (
difficult to operate terrains)? These are of course markets that have the
potential of affecting billions of people.

~~~
sama
Really depends on the specifics, but generally it's something we like.

------
37e6457accf0
Hi Sam Altman, What would you suggest to a new college grad? Should I go work
for a big companies, save some money and then go into start ups or just go
into start ups ?

~~~
sama
I wrote something related: [http://blog.samaltman.com/advice-for-
ambitious-19-year-olds](http://blog.samaltman.com/advice-for-
ambitious-19-year-olds)

If you have a low personal burn, you can jump right into a startup. If you
have a lot of personal expenses, you probably need to save money before
starting a startup.

As a side note, people sometimes criticize YC as being unfriendly to older
founders because we don't provide enough money. I always encourage founders
with big financial obligations to save up some money before starting a startup
--it'll make things far less stressful.

This is a huge advantage of being a recent college grad--you generally have
very little in the way of obligations.

------
ValentineC
Do you think the increasing cost of living in the valley is detrimental to
starting up?

~~~
sama
Yes, I think it's the biggest long-term risk to the valley's continued startup
dominance.

[http://paulgraham.com/marginal.html](http://paulgraham.com/marginal.html)

------
toddsaunders
How has the relationship between mentors/companies changed since the batches
have grown? Are there still ample opportunities for office hours, etc?

~~~
sama
Unlike most other programs, YC does not have mentors--just partners that spend
all their time advising startups (and some part-time partners).

This is really important--most people give terrible startup advice, and people
that do nothing but select and advise startups all day are probably the best
source of good startup advice.

We split into 4 groups, and each company gets 2-3 "group partners" as their
main points of contact. We encourage you to talk to these partners at least
once a week, and then other partners whenever you need their specific
expertise.

~~~
liyanchang
The group split was something that happened after S12, which was at the time
the largest batch[0]. As the numbers of startups scaled, connecting all
partners to all startups was order o(n^2).

I was in this batch - there didn't seem to be any negative impact on the
companies given that most/all the founders figured this out and naturally
distributed themselves to optimize for talking to the same couple partners
week on week. It just meant that every once in a while, you'd be sitting
across from a partner that you've never really interacted with and explaining
what you do (probably good practice)[1]. Formally grouping partners sounds
like a great scaling patch.

[1] Not sure exactly how they did it, but the partners had some internal
communication. You'd be halfway through your pitch and then they'd be like
"Oh, you're THOSE guys who did X, Y, Z". And then proceed to still give you
great advice.

------
jamespitts
Could you elaborate on what external factors and/or internal improvements are
driving you and the team to again develop a larger number of companies per YC
batch?

Is the scale-up going well?

Background:
[http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/05/05/y-combinator-...](http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/05/05/y-combinator-
ready-to-accept-more-startups-into-program-again/)

Thanks!

~~~
sama
There are just so many good companies applying. As long as we can keep upping
the quality bar, I'm happy for us to fund more companies.

I think there is good chance that there are more than 1 billion-plus dollar
companies in the current batch.

YC is fundamentally a network, and so the value goes up O(n^2) with the number
of good companies.

~~~
jamespitts
That is good to hear!

Your last point resonates with me. The YC classes create subnetworks with a
strong sense of identity within the greater YC network. It reminds me of how
interns/trainees bond into these clusters in various industries (Hollywood's
talent agencies and Wall Street for example). The trust and sharing of
experience helps participants function far more effectively.

------
D_Segundo
Hi Sam,

My cofounder and I are applying to YC Summer 2015. We're both juniors in high
school - I'm 16 and he's 17. We're hungry to learn and execute and are both
technical, but dont quite have the skillset needed to fully implement our
idea(although we're learning more every day) like many technical groups that
apply to YC. Will this small hurdle prevent us from being considered to YC?

------
kcole1508
Is the "uber for ...." market too saturated or do you think there are still
problems that can be solved by on demand marketplace apps? Are the
opportunities for these type of companies to get accepted based primarily on
market traction?

We're a company looking to create 1M jobs with 10 percent being military
vets..Do you have any previous history of funding companies founded by
military vets?

------
arsalanb
"Harsh conditions make the best soldiers". How true is this when this comes to
startups?

I mean, living in a country with a dead/non-existing startup scene. Bogged
down by stupid irrelevant problems like lack of internet access, etc. Can a
startup kick off in these conditions? (obviously moving to a better place
after initial traction) or does it HAVE to take birth in a thriving startup
hub?

------
xspectre
Hi Sam,

I've heard you mention a few great things about University of Waterloo (They
even have you in a video on their Engineering channel
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQz5hj8y1TE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQz5hj8y1TE)).

Waterloo has such a vibrant startup scene and several groups from the region
have gone through YCombinator.

When is the next time you are coming to visit Waterloo?

~~~
sama
I need to book a trip soon. Maybe in May.

------
fweespeech
How do you feel about the fact you employ the co-founder of a company that
sells technology to the government that assists in the management of espionage
data and has been associated with people crafting proposals to engage in
industrial espionage? [e.g. Palantir]

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/02/11/palanti...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/02/11/palantir-
apologizes-for-wikileaks-attack-proposal-cuts-ties-with-hbgary/)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8236762](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8236762)

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/corporations-
spy-o...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/corporations-spy-on-
nonpr_b_5701894.html)

[http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/02/17/144678/chamberle...](http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/02/17/144678/chamberleaks-
malware-hacking/)

------
waiquoo
What stage would be ideal for considering moving a project from research (at
the graduate university level) to a startup? In this case I'm referring to a
project that is based on custom nanoscale hardware components that rely on
some pretty groovy physics. The applications are pretty immediate and the
market already exists in the biotech/healthcare field.

~~~
sama
I think startups are not well-suited for open-ended R+D unfortunately (hoping
to do something about this). The best time to move from research to a startup
is when you've developed technology and have a plan to make it into a product
people will want.

~~~
waiquoo
Does this mean that startups are limited with regards to the level of
innovation? I notice that a lot of startups don't really do anything new
technology-wise, but have more of an emphasis on organization (for example,
Uber reorganizes transportation, Bitcoin reorganizes money, but both use
existing technology in the form of software languages). If I'm doing something
really new (and I think I am because I sometimes have trouble convincing
people that what I do is even possible), then the only recourse is to use the
dated patent and licensing model with large established companies. If this is
the case, then the startup model of innovation has failed at a fundamental
level; ie the advantage of a small group doing something difficult only exists
for an intermediate level of innovation, don't try to do something 'really'
new. Would you agree?

------
t27
For hardware cos applying to this batch, the Bolt collaboration sounds
awesome. Since Bolt has super expertise in prototyping, is it an indication
that hardware ideas with an idea only Or partial prototype can get accepted?
How can such co.s improve their chances further, compared to software co.s
where making a proof of concept barely costs any money?

~~~
sama
Yes, we will fund hardware companies with only an idea in some cases. However,
the cost and time required to make a prototype has come down so much that most
applicants have something built.

------
ceeK
What are your thoughts on pre-accelerators such as Entrepreneur First
(www.joinef.com) that take people pre-team, pre-idea?

------
igauravsehrawat
Tip: if you can't track each question and reply. Ctrl+ f in browser type
"sama" and keep hitting enter.

------
nathanielwj
What is the most critical element in driving growth for a startup?

~~~
sama
Making a product that users love.

[http://blog.samaltman.com/the-only-way-to-grow-
huge](http://blog.samaltman.com/the-only-way-to-grow-huge)

------
vishalzone2002
thanks for doing this..are there any plans to do a YC program for people who
have to keep their job to maintain their visa status. I am not sure how can
one apply when on H1B..?

------
CzechsMix
You say a lot that startups should collect revenue very early. If my startup
is currently just a side-project and I haven't yet incorporated, what's the
legal concern of collecting payment?

I feel like startups like Door Dash have dealt with this, but I was just
wondering if there's anything I should be aware of.

------
haneefmubarak
Had you not been accepted into YC, what was your plan of action?

~~~
sama
I was going to work on my startup either way. I had a plan B investor that
would have been not nearly as good.

------
baristaGeek
We know you have a blog, but will you ever write a book sharing your secrets
at a deeper and broader level?

------
brunobarcelos
What are the chances of getting funding if I want to focus on my home country
(Brazil) as my main market?

~~~
sama
That's a feature, not a bug.

------
vh
Hey Sam,

What would you recommend to entrepreneurs from post-Soviet states and the 3rd
world, where they have almost no VCs and limited access to global resources.
Should they think big and target the global market or just copy the ideas that
work in the US for the local market?

------
icpmacdo
Are you going to do another semester of "How to start a startup" classes at
Stanford?

~~~
sama
I might do a sort of graduate school version--i.e. "How to scale a startup"

------
benologist
How would you spend this week if you were applying?

~~~
sama
Talking to users, and telling us what you've learned from them.

------
josu
Hello Sam,

Any plans to open up a YC hub in Mexico. The startup scene is in an infant
stage but it seems to be growing very fast. 500 startup is already funding
companies here[1].

Thank you!

[1] [http://500mexicocity.com/](http://500mexicocity.com/)

~~~
cvander
Silicon Valley is very open to risk-taking Mexicans willing to do the program
in Mountain View.

~~~
josu
How about risk-taking Spaniards currently living in Mexico? ;)

I am building a startup that will cater to the Latin American countries, and
while I would love to move to the SF area, I think that it would hurt my
business, since currently I have no interest in the American market.

------
trevmckendrick
\- How much does previous entrepreneurial success improve your odds of getting
an interview? I.e. selling a bootstrapped company for $500k? $5M?

\- If previous success is in an industry with a negative image like, say,
title loans, does that hurt odds?

------
annelutz
What is your favorite interview question to ask?

~~~
sama
Why do you want to spend the next 10 years of your life working on this?

------
niche
Do you work with remote teams? That is, teams that are remote. Can you believe
the remote.ly page is not available? Tech only? Have you ever hosted an
incubator? Y Combinator NE? Or is that X Combinator? Quantum Combinator?

------
as2fadf123
What do you think of the bitcoin blockchain? Do you believe in it's hype?

------
MitziLaszlo
My social enterprise is a combination of a Foundation and a Company. Why? To
make the social ideologies independent from shareholder pressure AND to make
sure we can commercialise effectively towards a sustainable business model. I
don't want to be an NGO reliant on donations! Should I apply to YC as the
foundation or the company? My social ideology is to extract the value of data
without compromising identity privacy. Innit is a system that allows users to
own and trade in their own data (particularly health and financial data)

------
knicksjets121
When applying to YC, if you have a four or five person start-up team, if one
member isn't able to come to Silicon Valley, but the rest are (3/4 or 4/5),
how much does that penalize you?

~~~
sama
The big problem is a 4 or 5 person founding team. That's a high bar to get
over (but possible, one startup I really like in this batch has 5 founders).

Be so good we can't ignore you.

~~~
knicksjets121
Thank you! Why would you say 4 or 5 person founding teams are a big problem?

~~~
CHaro
It is difficult to keep 4-5 people perfectly aligned which is necessary early
in a startups life, especially if all of them have equal say.

Losing days to arguing over what the best course of action is a startup killer

------
austenallred
What frustrates you the most about YC? What would you like to see change?

~~~
sama
It seems like a bad thing that YC has gotten to the point where people stop me
on street and ask to take a selfie. I'm not sure what to do about it, though.

------
njays
Do you encourage people on a work visa to apply (like H1b)? If they get in, do
you have any legal partner that will help them join the program on a valid
visa or at least guide how to proceed?

------
pnathan
Do you anticipate that putting together a structure for companies looking to
perform long-term technology development ( i.e. three years, five years) is
something YC would have on the board?

~~~
sama
We fund a lot of 3-5 year horizon companies.

10-20 years is harder. This does not work for startups. I have a few ideas I
want to try, though.

~~~
pnathan
Thanks for answering, Sam. Perhaps I should clarify: does YC accept companies
whose core tech is only buildable in 3-5 years - i.e., 3 months of work on the
tech gives no salable product.

I am following the YC adventures with interest, and look forward to seeing the
long-range horizon ideas.

------
hipcactus
What should founders do about the rent?

~~~
sama
It's really just way too damn high. Live in somewhere like Sunnyvale or San
Jose, maybe.

------
shortnamed
Hi Sam!

As a high school student / developer with a (seemingly great) idea and no
same-age peers, would you suggest waiting until college to find a cofounder,
or going through with the idea now alone?

~~~
sama
Tough one. I'd probably suggest going to college to meet cofounders.

------
flipside
I haven't had much luck finding the right cofounder despite meeting thousands
of people over the past few years so clearly there's a problem. A few months
ago I decided that the problem was probably me since I'm far from perfect so
I've been spending considerable time on self improvement by working to define
and embody our vision, mission and culture (while continuing to hammer away on
product).

Is quality the right thing to focus on at this stage or should I just play the
numbers game?

~~~
JesseAldridge
Hey Mat. We met a few months ago (through Weave). I thought you seemed like a
decent guy. IIRC, the main problem I saw was that you seemed strongly
committed to an idea that I didn't find very interesting. I meant to follow up
with you, but more promising leads took priority and I never found the time.
Just FYI.

We should meet again sometime. Send me an email?

------
newstargazer
What percent of YC founders decide against relocating to Silicon Valley after
demo day and any correlation between future success and being in Silicon
Valley after coming out of YC?

------
andrewlynch
One thing which surprised me about the current YC batch was the average age of
the founders. Have you seen a gradual increase in average founder age over the
past several years?

~~~
3pt14159
I can answer this one because I've been watching it from a unique perspective.
Every year the median founder age tracks my age. Since I first started hearing
about it in 2009 or 2010. This year they are 29.

------
njays
Is YC interested investing in international remittance startup?

~~~
sama
Yes! sendwave.com is one of our companies, and they are doing phenomenally
well. They have a chance of being the best pivot in the history of YC.

~~~
njays
Wow, that's huge! Thanks Sam.

------
Oldmonkk
@SAM : Whats most excites you in startup (1) Team (2) Team from
Harvard/Stanford/MIT (3) Idea (4) Idea with quick revenue model (5) Good idea
with Avg team

------
jorkos
What are the hardest lessons for founders to learn during YC?

------
VaedaStrike
I get the feeling that the clarity of the idea and outward, ease of discerning
progress are the principle criteria used to distinguish the promise of the
team and idea. In the case of progress, especially early progress, being full
of'black triangles', accomplishments mostly only appreciated by those in the
know, is there much effort put into trying to see that? Or do you more stick
to the clearly understandable progress?

------
e0e12bd57348
What your thoughts on renaming completely technical or being all rounder who
understands tech really well and can do above average coding etc? My question
is should I keep on improving myself as a programmer, the real worker or
trying to be decent programmer but a good manager/non-purely tech but tech
related person? So that after 30, when the Valley's ageism kicks in I can move
onto other non purely technical positions?

------
mariopt
Question: As a potential entrepreneur, the thing that scares me the most is
the lack of real world data. By data I mean: page views, sales reports,
analytics, market shits, etc. It the kind of thing that you can't find on the
internet, and if you find usually the data is incomplete and doesn't tell the
whole story. Does YC provides real world data in order to help startups to
understand how the market works actually?

------
atroyn
Given your recent comments about the potential danger of A.I, would you fund a
startup which seemed dangerously close to making superintelligent A.I a
reality?

~~~
ceejayoz
If you think it's dangerous as well as being possible, I'd imagine you'd jump
at the chance to help guide it to the least damaging end.

------
justinkwong315
How do you spot grit and perseverance in an entrepreneur?

~~~
sama
We ask about when they've done the impossible. You also get a pretty good feel
for this after asking someone hard questions for 10 minutes. Not pushing back
at all is bad, and pushing back too hard is also bad.

------
Tarrosion
I'm a PhD student in operations research interesting in working for a company
addressing a global problem via an approach with low probability of success
but high expected value. Think Helion, Ambri, Firefly (the rockets), Planetary
Resources, Immunity Project, etc. The thought being any one of these companies
will likely fail, but if 5% of them succeed, that's hugely beneficial for
society.

What advice can you give?

------
wanniepark
Hi Sam, I started a company with a few co-founders. When we started building
the product, we self-funded & raised from myself & friends/family but my co-
founders weren't in a financial position to put money in resulting in my co-
founders being diluted below 10%. Is that a major problems with applying to
YC? They are all actively involved and eager to continue building the company.

------
neurotech1
Sam: Would you consider funding an aerospace startup?

Avionics is one area that could do with some "disruption" \- especially on the
lower end of the market.

------
ytzvan
Hi Sam, I've been working in my Startup since December, with my co-founder and
even we win a local entrepreneurship contest about ideas and innovation. We're
very confident about our idea and we have a working prototype, but, we're in
the travel industry and we aren't generating any revenue yet, should we apply
to Y Combinator? Even if we aren't generating any bucks?

------
rl3
Do you think that YC's batch model will one day be eschewed in favor of
something more seamless and less dependent on timing?

One could argue that, for certain startups, the optimal play right now is to
launch just prior to submitting a YC application. It takes advantage of the
high traction surrounding launch, and avoids applying in the midst of a
typical post-launch slump, if timed correctly.

~~~
sama
We might do something like rolling admissions, but the advantage of the batch
model are huge. It's so helpful to the startups to be around other startups at
roughly the same stage.

------
baristaGeek
In case we apply to YC and don't get in, the best option is to work on the
startup anyway. Would you recommend bootstrapping until we get in? Or a
specific group of less prestigious accelerators? Do you consider other
accelerators in general a "break pedal" because they give wrong advice? Or
because there's less equity to supply a potential exit in the future?

------
inverba
As a long time reader, it seems like the content on Hacker News has been
consistently trending towards "lighter" material (more articles about drugs,
work flow, business concepts) and away from technical, actually "hacker"
material. What are you thoughts on this trend? Is there anything we can (or
should) do to prevent this forum from becoming reddit?

------
Gaessaki
Hey Sam,

Re solo founders. Would you consider a team with one founder and 1-2
"employees"?

The reason I ask this is because my partners and I have more of a mentor-tutee
relationship and although we all share perks and they get equity (considerably
less than my share, but still sizeable), they see themselves more as learning
than being at the same level as myself in terms of responsibility.

------
chiddysk
With everything said about the 'economies of scale' of launching startups in
Silicon Valley, would do you think of startups in English-speaking developing
countries? What are your thoughts on monetization(70%+ don't have bank
accounts), market size(most use dumb phones) and relevance(i.e. Another
whatsapp/facebook/airbnb? what for?)?

------
S4M
Hi Sama,

Is YC a good fit for someone targets a lifestyle business, as opposite to
having great ambitions like becoming the next Google/Facebook?

------
ngarvin
How much does it hurt our application to not have a developer as a founder? We
have an Engineer and a Business MGMT background.

------
kzhahou
An early stage startup will typically have the great majority of ownership in
the hands of investors and 2-3 founders, with maybe 10% allocated to engineers
at 1% max for any individual engineer. Do you see this ever changing where
engineer #1-5, for example, wouldn't have a 1-to-20 or even 1-to-70 equity
imbalance with the founders?

------
Di43
Hi Sam,

I am just about to send my application for the summer batch, but before I do I
would like to know your opinion on founders who are not both sharing a
programming background, especially considering that we are in the sketching
stage? Also, do you think there is any chance to compete against other
startups that already do have an established product?

------
RandomBK
The YC application asks teams to discuss their current equity split / legal
situation. What happens to teams who haven't figured that out, or are looking
for advice on those matters from Ycombinator? Will an uncertain equity plan or
organizational structure kill an otherwise exciting application, if they are
open to advice?

~~~
sama
No, you can just say "we're still figuring this out, but here is about what
we're thinking".

Leaving this question unanswered for a long time is a sign of badness, though.
It's important to resolve this quickly and move on to the real work.

------
wittedhaddock
What do you think are the most difficult problems, or types of problems, YC as
its own organization will face in the future?

~~~
sama
Scaling up the number of people in an organization and maintaining innovation
is always, always hard.

------
awalGarg
Hey sama! From the YC founder's profile application:

> Please tell us about the time you, <username>, most successfully hacked some
> (non-computer) system to your advantage.

I am so much longing to know, why a "non-computer" system? There are so many
things I could have boasted of but can't because of the "non-computer" thing
:P

~~~
matheweis
I don't speak for YC, but I'd guess it has to do with demonstrating that
you're not just a coder in a basement, and that you'll be able to get things
done in the "real" world.

Sam's answer to his own question is probably a great indicator of the type of
thing that he's looking for:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239203](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239203)

edit: also this - have you done the impossible
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239229](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239229)

------
jammess
Hi Sam, what is a good growth / revenue / number of users to have before
applying to YC? We are in a private beta for a kind of social network, 1 month
with ~700 users and ~10% weekly growth, is it good or should we wait? We are
also starting in another country (not in the US) because all our contacts are
here

------
vasilipupkin
10,000X returns are so rare, how do you guard against over-fitting your
decision making processes on too little data ?

------
ajani
YC has been branching out with it's investments with companies in areas like
charities and biotech. But it's as of now a small percentage. I understand
predicting anything into the future is mostly an exercise in failure, but what
do you think YC's mix of portfolio will be like in 20 - 30 years?

------
souriguha
I've been closely following YC and the startup scene in SF. What's your advice
to a startup, applying to YC this season, and is from a foreign country? I've
read most your writings and watched few interviews as well. It'd be great if
you have something to add! And thanks for the AMA!

~~~
sama
It doesn't hurt or help--we fund lots of founders from foreign countries (more
than 40% of the last batch was born outside the US).

~~~
vasilipupkin
that's a somewhat misleading stat - you can be an American and still be born
outside the US

------
swampthinker
Hi Sam,

I'm currently a highschool junior and the co - founder of EnerScore. I'm aware
that YC has a semi-preference for younger founders as you said so yourself,
but I wanted to know how YC might view me being this young. Will it count
against me in my application, or is YC more focused on the product itself?

~~~
sama
The only hard disqualifier is if no founders are 18 or older, because you
can't sign contracts in that case.

I generally do not think it's a good life decision to start a company when
you're 16 or 17, and I'd suggest waiting a couple of years.

------
vagab0ndk1ng
I applied to YC for the next batch as a response to one of your RFS. I would
probably not have applied at this very early stage if you had not listed a
similar idea in your RFS. If you believe in the idea but it's still pre-
product, are you more likely to give a team a shot at building it at YC?

------
FaisalRashid
Do you accept applications from Pakistan?

~~~
ahaseeb
Just pointing you to @sama response.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239370](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239370)

I am from Pakistan and was funded by YC. I know at least 6 people in current
batch who are from Pakistan however we were not running our startups from
Pakistan. I have seen startups from multiple regions.Being from PK obviously
reduces your chances because of the small market size if you are focused
locally. In addition, VC like to invest in bigger economies and a startup
close to them. Exceptions already exist.

Summary: If you are from PK, be extremely good

------
vit05
You talked about the "two founders." How do you think is the best way to
present an idea to someone else for her to help?

Many people reject the powerpoint. I decided to make a landing page. If anyone
is interested I send a greater amount of information in a PDF, while working
on a prototype.

Do you have a better suggestion than this?

tks

------
fieldforceapp
Thanks for the AMA. You haven't answered the hardware related questions in
this thread yet, so I'll try: do you think you'll see the day when YC funds a
hardware startup that develops custom ASICs or semi IP for licensing? If so,
what type of startup would be a good fit for YC?

~~~
sama
I predict that will happen in the non-distant future.

------
choppaface
Where do you see YC in 5 years? in 10 years?

Some say "the best product always wins." Can you give an anecdote where
perhaps the best product did NOT win?

Do you still advocate 10/20/30/40 grants?

Quora participated in YC and this was very unusual. When can we expect to see
something posted about how this went?

------
flipside
Should we try to communicate culture and values in the application? Are those
things that YC filters for?

------
e_alexandrian
Hi @sama, Seeing the recent developments in driverless car, do you think human
driving startups (ours is making money while making roads safer) are not
interesting for the long term even if worldwide users adopt it today (96
countries after a Buzzfeed article only)? Thanks. Eduard.

------
ccenten
With your recent hardware announcement and partnership with Bolt, are you more
likely to accept hardware companies that can benefit from the new services you
now have access to? In other words, will you be more likely to accept a larger
number of early stage hardware companies?

------
knicksjets121
What questions on the application do you look most for and you feel the other
partners look at as well?

------
znt
Would you ever consider investing startups in defense industry?

For example a startup that builds anti-drone systems etc?

~~~
sama
Yes, definitely.

------
ValentineC
Do you think knowing YC alumni gives some teams an advantage in the
application process and interview?

------
synunlimited
How often do you fund people on their secondary ideas compared to the main
idea people apply with?

------
niche
Solo founder, rebel, lots of startup ideas, 0 startups (a "tutoring
business"), flailing in corporate America, effortlessly producing psuedo
brilliance...is YC4me? Can I apply on a really nice concept? Or a set of
concepts? Like Elon's 3...ya kno?

------
CzechsMix
Hey Sam,

I'm getting married in July, If I were accepted into YC, is there anything
like deferring Enrollment?

~~~
sama
We've done it once or twice, but why not just apply for the next batch?

~~~
CzechsMix
No reason really. That's currently our intent. Thanks for the reply!

~~~
quantumtheory01
Or why not just delay your marriage?

------
rksur
Do YC encourage couples applying as co founders. One is technical and the
other is non technical.

------
glenchao
How often does YC fund early stage companies that don't even have a functional
prototype?

~~~
sama
Somewhat frequently, but we always ask why the company doesn't have a
prototype.

------
32faction
I know there was one aerospace startup in W15 but are space startups out of
YC's scope?

~~~
sama
That particular startup is building rockets, so no.

~~~
32faction
Will there be info on them coming soon?

------
matt_morgan
Sam, I know you guys support nonprofit startups. But do you donate? Does
YCombinator have a program for supporting nonprofits by the traditional means
(ie giving them money), or is that something you do as individuals only, not
as a company?

------
mahanti
More and more VC firms (GV, KPCB, Greylock, etc) are hiring
designers/engineers-in-residence to help vet potential investments and provide
guidance to portfolio companies. Is this something you've thought about
implementing at YC?

------
ValentineC
What are some of the best things that you've seen non-tech co-founders do
during YC?

------
go1979
What does YC think of founders who are working on a project on the side (of
their job), wanting to turn it into a startup? I presume there are lots of
people who have day jobs to pay the bills before they can get some initial
funding.

------
codegeek
Will YC invest in a startup that has the potential to be a billion dollar B2B
company in 10-15 years and not a quick exit ? Since it is B2B, it will never
have a million users or be viral but more like solid few thousands customers.

------
rsmsky
Once we submit our application, does making edits to our application affect
anything?

------
klinker
I saw in the recently published YC stats that you have accepted companies from
a number of countries in the current batch. Do you see any major differences
in work culture/ethics between say US and european founders?

------
chirag_kulkarni
What is the ratio between the businesses that YC funds that have revenue and
don't have revenue? What about having a significantly large amount of traction
(i.e. few thousand users in the first week of beta)

~~~
sama
Most have no revenue, or very little. Most companies we fund have some sort of
prototype, but some of the best ones don't.

------
hbbio
Do you think that startup ideas, in their general concept, can be
confidential?

Or do you think instead that a global idea, without hard details, and most
importantly before the hard work of execution is never confidential?

------
koshurinov
Imagine a hardware company doing a research which requires lab or special
equipment. Is it OK the leave about a half of the team on site and join YC
with the rest? Project lead is among those who can move.

------
dean
Have you ever considered funding enough to attract people who have financial
obligations, such as kids, a spouse and a mortgage? It seems like a huge,
untapped, resource that no one else is going after.

~~~
matheweis
Speaking as one of those people, it's not just the financial obligations. In
fact I think the financial obligations are a relatively small part of it __;
it just means a higher burn rate, which isn 't a tremendous problem in the
scope of these things.

The much bigger problems are the conflict of time spent on family vs the
startup, and/or in many cases the desire to have a stable environment for the
family.

The time can be managed for people who have a lot of energy and are equally
passionate about their startup and families. I've seen it work out... but I've
also seen it tear others to pieces when they didn't get the balance just
right.

 __I 'm not suggesting that burn rates and starting on small amounts of
capital aren't important, just that it's a small problem relative to the time
commitments.

~~~
matheweis
BTW, here's a great post from someone who did get the balance right:
[http://tiempoapp.com/y-combinator-a-two-year-old-and-a-
pregn...](http://tiempoapp.com/y-combinator-a-two-year-old-and-a-pregnant-
wife)

------
amerf1
Was there any instance where you based your judgement to fund a startup based
on gut feeling (due to great founders or whatever...)?

I understand most applicants are great so it might be difficult to
differentiate

------
0505gonzalez
What would make you fund unproven founders with an early stage product?

------
ROFISH
Which do you prefer most in an application: What the app currently does (or
will do in three months)? What the future app might look like in five years?
And/or: how it will get there?

~~~
sama
Both. Clearly explain what you do right now, and where you want to be in five
years.

------
GabrielF00
Would you rather fund one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?

------
baristaGeek
Do international founders have a better chance of getting in because of the
fact that they are willing to sacrifice something greater, or lower chances
due to immigration issues?

------
foobarqux
Why don't even the best VCs publish returns? Does YC plan to?

~~~
sama
I don't know why most don't.

Ours sound silly. The IRR is way over 100%, but on a relatively small amount
of capital.

------
incubuslondon
What's your thoughts on teams that are applying from London?

~~~
sama
We are excited about teams applying for anywhere in the world! A huge
percentage of the startups we fund come from outside the US.

------
yatoomy
How and why will Pebble win, or be one of the winners, in the "war of the
wearables". Ie. how will it be a similar to the android/ios platforms of
mobile today

------
quanpod
Hey Sam,

What would you try to optimize for in terms of learning and growth - good
mentorship or fast growing companies? Or is there some other attribute you'd
recommend optimizing for?

------
userium
When should a startup start to monetize? Currently we are building a user base
and iterating the product based on feedback. What do you think about delaying
monetization?

~~~
sama
Totally depends on the startups. In general it's good to monetize early, but
there are very important exceptions. This is the sort of thing we have to give
individualized advice about to every YC company.

------
MChorfa
Would it be possible to do a remote program mentored by alumni?

------
pariya
SO MAD I MISSED THIS!!!

------
dmazin
Hello! Are partners chosen specifically for each interview (e.g. people with
knowledge of the market), or are the tracks split up between groups of
partners randomly?

~~~
sama
We randomize everything first, and then look through each morning to see if
some interviewees need domain expertise, and then swap those around as best we
can.

------
firstdayback
How should a company approach other offers (venture funding, other programs,
etc.) prior to hearing back from YC, specifically when there are firm
deadlines in place?

------
keithwarren
Does the current partnership explicitly cap the partner count or is there some
point in the future where you think it would make sense to cap the number of
partners?

~~~
sama
No and probably not.

------
aashaykumar92
I don't want to work for a company, I'd much rather start my own. And there
are definitely some problems I'd like to solve, but I'm still figuring out
which ones will actually add value and how to go about solving them. Any
advice? If I just applied with a bunch of ideas and the YC team liked one,
would it be considered? I'd imagine there needs to be at least some progress
but still thought I'd ask.

My relevant background is that I built a social calendaring app with my
college roommate and it was eventually acquired by our university. In my eyes,
it was a failure that I learned a lot from.

------
throwaway150320
In terms of what to look for in founders, one lesson YC has learned seems to
be that determination > intelligence.

What other major lessons have you learned in the last few years?

------
troycarlson
How frequently do YC companies pivot based on feedback/inspiration/etc. from
the program and how does that affect your view of the founder/team?

------
woebtz
Thanks, Sam!

Q: I was curious what types of tools or applications YC uses to operate
(manage applications, track feedback, or schedule meetings, etc.)? Can you
share your stack?

~~~
sama
We build our own tools mostly.

------
halite
How about health drinks / food? Do you know if yc would have any interest or
expertise to help natural food companies? Like Kambucha is $600M company now.

~~~
paul
[http://www.livblends.com/](http://www.livblends.com/) and
[http://www.soylent.me/](http://www.soylent.me/) are both YC companies.

------
thanesh
What is required to apply? Do you look for a prototype? Do you look at user
growth rate over the past few months? How do you decide if an idea is really
good?

------
elsen
Good evening Sam, thanks for taking some time around.

\- What do you think of similar structures burgeoning in Europe? \- Are they a
good first step before applying to YC?

~~~
sama
In general, no. If you want to apply to YC, just apply to YC. Going through
some other program first is a negative--the advice is usually bad, there's
extra dilution, etc.

------
Podgeypoos
Dunno if you have been asked this already,apologies if it's a repeat, are you
going to do a yc in Dublin, Ireland? You should we are awesome

------
rbasha
How much time should a startup set aside per week for YC? What have you seen
in common with the most successful YC companies that sets them apart?

------
javiercr
What's your opinion on accelerators / incubators backed by big corporations
such as Wayra (Telefonica) or hub:raum (Deutsche Telekom)?

------
Udo
Would you consider funding a startup with an open source product/idea? If so,
under what circumstances (if that's even answerable)?

------
jkirsteins
Is there any point in applying last-minute with just an idea? Or focus on
building something presentable, and then apply in the next batch?

------
tima101
2 questions. 1) how many founders with PhD degree YC has funded so far? 2) Are
you looking for partners with life science background?

------
rdass1
Hi Sam

how many start-ups do you accept on average outside the U.S

------
yatoomy
What is your take on the health care industry? Where are the biggest
opportunities and leverage points? Perhaps for a YC company

------
ValentineC
Do you think the YC formula would work outside the valley, where it's harder
to find plenty of young early adopter types?

------
sunilayyaps
What according to you is most important thing for a startup to get selected in
YC? The idea, team or the market opportunity.

------
onhopwood
Hi Sam,

Do you start reading the application on the 27th?

If someone was to submitted early but was continuously updating till the
deadline, which application do you see?

Thanks.

~~~
sama
We start right after Demo Day (the 24th). It's possible we'd read an earlier
version--if you're going to make big changes, hold off on submitting.

------
Rainymood
I haven't seen this comment yet. Thank you for answering our questions. I have
read through all of them! Thanks Sam :)

------
philippnagel
Hi,

thanks for doing this!

Do you think VC money is viable option for long-term (e.g. 30 years) business
models?

What would be your advice (if Bootstrapping is not an option)?

------
padho
I'm a master CS student and start up "enthusiast" from Munich, Germany. How do
I get an internship @ YC ?

------
hectorxp
Is there a chance to be approved if my startup is an incubator/accelerator a
la YC in another region of the world?

~~~
sama
Definitely a chance, but if you want to get into YC you should just apply to
YC.

It usually hurts you if you've gone through another accelerator because our
bar is much higher. In that case, we expect you to be already accelerate _d_ ,
and we find that many accelerators are actually more of a brake pedal.

------
throwaway150320
For people with immigration issues, does YC have any plans on expanding to
Asia or Europe in the coming few years?

~~~
sama
No, but we help with immigration issues.

------
MChorfa
Are you already combined several startup's ideas into a one that has more
potential to become a unicorn?

------
d--b
What does it mean to be president of YC?

~~~
sama
Blah blah something about herding cats blah blah.

------
kendallpark
I was wondering if YC would consider working with a startup that is
essentially owned by a medical school as opposed to the founders.

Scenario: I will be attending medical school next fall (this is after three
years industry programming). One of the surgeons I plan to work with during
med school has a for-profit medical technology project still at the seed
stage. He is currently seeking venture capital investors.

------
devy
Hi Sam, you wrote a blog post about China last month. Do you see YC China in
the plan in the near future?

------
brunobarcelos
What are the differences in YC (good and bad) between the most recent batch
and the batch you got in YC?

------
waleedzeb
How would you look at a founder who has built something for the US market, but
have never visited it?

------
sandGorgon
what is your position on non-US _focused_ startups. We are applying based on
an article on Techinasia about YC warming up to Asia focused startups as well.

We have applied to other accelerators in the US and made it all the way before
being told "oh hey.. non US focus".

------
zuck9
What do advise a jack-of-all-trades dev who can create pro grade apps and
doesn't have a job?

------
humanarity
What time in the process does the demo become really important ? So when
should it be ready by ?

------
billions
Any interest in a Y Combinator IPO?

~~~
sama
No. That got a quick involuntary shudder out of me.

~~~
alain94040
Maybe a more founder-friendly way to rephrase this, rather than an IPO with
the public: have you considered opening crowdfunding so that the startup
community self-funds the next YC semesters? I'm sure there would be quite some
demand.

Implementation could be as simple as a syndicate on AngelList for instance.

~~~
nwenzel
WeFunder offers the ability to invest in YC (and non-YC) startups.

------
goykasi
Are there any one or two questions that really stick out as most important to
the YC partners?

------
rsunder
We are a startup from Asia and what prerequisites we need to fulfill to get a
chance in YC?

------
flipside
I know a lot of YC alumni, are endorsements about quality or quantity? Are
they important?

~~~
sama
Quality far above quantity.

A large number of weak endorsements really hurts your chances.

------
Podgeypoos
Dunno if this has been asked already, ever think about doing a yc in in
Dublin, Ireland?

~~~
sama
We fund companies from all over the world. The sacrifice of moving for 3
months pales in comparison to other sacrifices you have to make to start a
successful startup.

------
edwinespinosa09
Sam,

Does every application submitted, before the deadline, get seen and on average
by how many reviewers?

~~~
sama
It at least gets seen by our alumni reviewers, and at least 3 of them. They
pass about half the applications on to the YC partners.

------
6thSigma
What's YC's valuation?

~~~
sama
A lot, but it's very illiquid.

------
hello----world
Hello Mr. Altman, Thank you for taking the time to do this, I was hoping you'd
be willing to give me some advice? I really want to be successful one day..
But I just have no discipline and I rarely work toward my goals. I know what I
want to achieve.. I just always pick short term rewards over long term ones.

~~~
chuckcode
Sam has already helped you indirectly by investing in reddit which has all
sorts of community sourced help. Check out PeaceH guide to getting
discipline[1]

[http://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/2dd7yh/advic...](http://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/2dd7yh/advice_peacehs_guide_to_becoming_disciplined/)

~~~
huhtenberg
> helped you indirectly by investing in reddit ...

... which is THE weapon of choice for anyone serious about honing their lack
of focus and procrastination skills :)

------
new2
What do you look for in hardware companies ? How do you evaluate founders and
ideas ?

------
gok2
What do you think are some of the unsolved problems in the location based apps
field?

------
krashidov
What advice do you have for junior devs who want to work at an early stage
startup?

~~~
sama
Join a rocketship. (ideally one in the YC portfolio :) )

------
rdass1
What is the percentage of applications you accept that are not from the U.S.

------
765anon
Is YC India in your plans ?

~~~
asadlionpk
I want YC Pakistan then :D

------
robot
Is it common that you fund startups with big/growing competitors?

~~~
sama
All the time.

~~~
revorad
Do you disagree with Peter Thiel on competition?

------
slaxman
what is the kind of traction that you look for in companies that you fund? Is
it an absolute number or a consistent week on week growth for a few months in
a row?

------
tfang17
How many current college student YC companies do you have?

------
ing33k
any plans to host a Startup School conference in Asia ?

~~~
sama
Yes, this year.

------
enahs-sf
what must one do to acquire one of those cool Y combinator sweatshirts I see
floating around San Francisco? store.ycombinator.com in the works? :)

~~~
sama
One gets made for each batch. Apply!

------
MChorfa
Do you accept some teams without a business model?

~~~
sama
Yes, but not without an idea.

We tried funding teams with no ideas at one point. It didn't work. It turns
out that good founders always have ideas.

~~~
MChorfa
Thank you Sam :) We already have an idea

------
free2rhyme214
I'm still working on building a prototype so I can earn a cofounder and future
employees. I'd say I'm 2-3 months off from having the MVP done. Should I apply
to YC?

~~~
sama
You could, there's not much downside and you can reapply if you don't get it.
But your chances sound significantly higher for the the next batch.

~~~
newsignup
He meant the batch in 2015 2nd half, i guess.

------
knowmevish
hello sam

How do you get the (gut) feeling that you should definitely invest in a
particular idea (or company)? (how do you make such a decision)?

~~~
sama
One thing I always think about is if I would take the CEO job at the company
if they offered it to me.

------
sajjadk
whats better these days? Get to revenue faster or build something that more
people can use and generate revenue later?

------
zuck9
Where do you see tech in the next decade?

------
ovatsug25
what is your answers to pgs dont do a startup in your 20s?

is there anything you wish you had done, recommend besides startups?

------
rksur
Does YC encourage couples applying to YC as co founders. Is that seen as a
negative. One of the co founder is technical and other is non technical.

------
lmathis
Hi Sam, Is it ok to seek advice from partners and get feedback and improve on
the application? Just would like to increase the odds. Thank You.

~~~
sama
Out of fairness, the partners can't really give you feedback. You can reach
out to alumni, though.

------
alexkavon
Y Combinator? Why not Altmanator?

------
vasilipupkin
are you going to have a fund with LPs at any point in the future ?

------
demirb
Most people fund ideas, some fund founders. What do you think about funding
dreams?

~~~
sama
Isn't that what ideas are?

------
jisagigi
Sam,

Have not seen YC investing on any Television/native Smart TV apps ...any
thoughts on why?

~~~
jisagigi
Has YC funded any Roku/Chromecast apps before?

------
devilddd
How I become a hacker

------
jamisteven
What do you think about a location-aware, food truck app with social login?

------
maheroku
Would you consider game studio startups as a valid startup application?

------
MichielNL
Do you emulate the petrichor smell, and if so, how? THX!

------
arasmussen
How hard is it to become a YC partner?

------
kitneoh
What is YC roadmap in 5-10 years time?

------
andrewlynch
What did you eat for Breakfast?

------
Backlash85
How many companies/startups will actually be chosen to enter the batch?

~~~
sama
We never set this ahead of time--it really depends on how many companies apply
that we want to fund, subject to the constraints of how hard the parters can
work.

I'd guess in the range of 100-130, based on current application volume. We had
a big spike in growth last batch (I think because of the startup class).

~~~
Backlash85
Thanks!

------
Backlash85
In your opinion do you see anything coming along that can become an
alternative to the current status of the "internet"?

------
Backlash85
Does YC fund stealth startups?

~~~
sama
Maybe we do and maybe we don't...

------
MichaelCrawford
How much is six times nine?

~~~
suyash
0b111111

~~~
MichaelCrawford
suyash,

You brought a smile to my weary eyes.

------
fragmede
Reddit is well on it's way to becoming a dominant monopoly on the web, however
there's a (subtle but important) difference between being a platform for free
speech, and promoting hate speech.

If there are a billion users, but they're horrible people (eg /r/coontown), is
that something you will look back on and consider as having been worthwhile?

~~~
dropit_sphere
This is what this account is for, after all, so:

I am a regular poster on r/theredpill(which was recently "honored" by winning
the bigotry category---but with low toxicity---in a recent sentiment analysis
of reddit comments). There is a lot of what someone might call "hate speech."
Some of that doesn't really deserve the title and is just "truths that polite
society omits;" some reflects genuine, generalized anger against women.

The subreddit has grown like a rocket. There are multiple backup plans for
where to move the community in case the subreddit gets shut down. In short:
there is something there that draws people, for better or for worse.

One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, etc.

~~~
jsmthrowaway
The Red Pill an organization of freedom fighters? We're comparing feminists to
ISIS now?

Genuine, generalized anger against women? What are you upset about, that it's
fallen out of favor to feel up a woman at a bar without permission before you
begin a courtship that ends with her in the kitchen as your property with your
dinner on the table at 5:30? Upset that you can't give her two black eyes for
finishing dinner at 5:31 and keep custody of the kids because judges are
pretty much out of patience for male shenanigans? Mad because "alpha male"
means something different today than it did throughout history, and you miss
the old ways? Do you honestly look yourself in the mirror and say "I'm
championing the causes of men by participating in a community that started as
a haven for pickup artists and uses _The Matrix_ references as
pseudointellectualism?"

Stop me, I'm laughing so hard I'm getting lightheaded.

I would have never predicted someone who speaks positively of The Red Pill
works in the subset of technology that made him aware of Hacker News, and all
that does is make me rethink what I thought was a typical level of
intelligence to work in this field.

Your organization grows because there are lot of pieces of shit in the male
gender, and everybody likes validation that there are other pieces of shit
like them. Why do you think Stormfront grew so quickly? "Yay, a whole forum of
people just like me!" That's exactly why. Believe me when I tell you that I
can't wait for the SPLC to list you, just like they did Stormfront, because
you are just about as antiprogressive and awful.

~~~
impendia
I am a pretty strong feminist, and agree that a comparison to ISIS is far off
base.

Nevertheless, I believe that one reason for the backlash against feminism is
the perception that feminists are spiteful and would rather argue against
straw men and make _ad hominem_ attacks than actually argue their point of
view.

Actually, I've found that most feminists are surprisingly patient and eager to
explain their point of view and their experiences with sexism, even to
skeptics or to ideological opponents. Although I've learned that feminists
have a very good point whether or not they are being nice, it was by meeting
and talking with such feminists that I was converted to their cause.

I urge you to please adopt their tactics.

~~~
jsmthrowaway
No. I will not back down from calling spades spades because I represent no
group, only speak for myself, and I am under no obligation to alter my views
or politicize my actions because of vague backlash reasons (you interestingly
avoided telling me _why_ you were urging me throughout that entire comment, if
you read carefully).

You might have identified a box into which to label and place me, but I assure
you that I remain independent of all labels; my opinions are not based in
feminism, yet our views happen to align in this case. I am not championing a
cause that requires me to convert anyone. I am calling a representative of The
Red Pill an idiot for attempting a cogent argument in their defense on Hacker
News. If I were defending feminism, I'd be operating much differently.

Attachment to a group and worrying about the group is a prison from speaking
about what is important to you in your own way.

~~~
dang
Please stop.

~~~
jsmthrowaway
Put yourself in my shoes for a moment. Consider, after a brief period of
calling out someone for speaking positively about a hate group on Hacker News,
coming back after moving on to find a directive to stop and a comment from a
former Reddit employee and administrator calling for the thread to be
censored.

I'm not sure what I did. If you'd like to follow up via e-mail, please do. I'm
concerned.

------
humanarity
Why are people so crafty ?

------
fakingxan
Any ideas for some innovative growth hacks?

------
siddarthd2919
Hi Sam,

I am a 28 year old project manager. How can I help YCombinator?

~~~
sama
Work at a YC startup!

------
newsignup
Sam, our YC application is almost ready, can I post it tomorrow? :)

------
siddarthd2919
I am a 28 year old technology project manager. How can i help YCombinator?

