It doesn't have to do with funding. The codebase is just efficient so it doesn't need much to run very fast.
3,440 karma · joined October 10, 2006
Contact: jared at ycombinator.
You are right that mental health is a consideration, but the bigger problem is both simpler and easier to fix: the number of shelter beds (and other forms of supportive housing - including long-term housing) has decreased since 2004 and is woefully inadequate for the number of current homeless.
For more reading on this topic I recommend this detailed analysis: https://medium.com/@josefow/the-one-stat-that-explains-sfs-s... Also Mayor London Breed's analysis and approach: https://medium.com/@LondonBreed/a-bold-approach-to-homelessn...
You're right: if YC had a crystal ball where we could somehow only invest in the $10B kind of company and never in the $10M kind of company, we'd do that.
But I don't think such a crystal ball is possible, because companies morph too much. Famously, Microsoft's first product was an interpreter for Altair Basic, which had a total market size probably < $10M.
So when we see a startup that has an idea that seems small, we ask ourselves, "What Microsoft is this the Altair Basic of?" (http://www.paulgraham.com/altair.html). Most of the companies that today seem like moonshots started with mundane, even trivial ideas.
So if you don't currently see how your idea can become a $100B company, that doesn't mean that you won't figure it out later.
Y Combinator has a small ~4 person team in San Francisco that build all the software that runs YC. We don't hire for this team very often, but we're looking to hire a couple of people now. We last posted on this thread about a year ago, and successfully found someone who now works on the current team, so we're trying it again.
Despite our small size, we're in charge of a number of important products. We run the software that powers YC's application process, software that almost every investor in silicon valley uses (https://blog.ycombinator.com/investor-day-software/), and Bookface, a private community site that is very actively used by YC founders. This year we launched two big new projects - Startup School (http://startupschool.com/) and Work at a Startup (http://workatastartup.com/). Those new projects are going very well - we have over 26K founders signed up for Startup School - and we want to double down on them.
An unusual aspect of being on the YC software team is that you'll get full access to the YC program, founders and partners - from our dinner talks to demo day. You'll learn the ins and outs of how YC works, and you'll get to know and learn from hundreds of companies. If you want to start a startup someday, working at YC would be an excellent jumping off point.
We also offer highly competitive compensation and benefits, including equity in YC's portfolio. You can read more and apply here: http://bit.ly/1Od0T2l. You can also email me with any questions: jared@ycombinator.com
I'm as excited about the theoretical concept of a space elevator as anyone. But the problem remains that no one can produce a cable even close to strong enough. This article has a good description of the material science problem: http://www.spaceward.org/elevator-when. Basically, we would need to find a material that is at least 10x, probably 25x as strong as any cable today.
Carbon Nanotubes are theoretically strong enough, but no one knows how to manufacture them. The longest carbon nanotube tether that has ever been manufactured is only a few inches long, a millimeter in width, and not particularly strong due to imperfections in the manufacturing process.
Obayashi is planning a 10m cable. Even building a 10m cable made of carbon nanotubes would require a Nobel Prize worthy breakthrough.
We're talking to our partner companies and working hard on securing access to credits for all 15,000 companies. You'll definitely get a lot of credits and we're going to make it as close to the original list as we can.