Great quote about ‘Unicorns’ (lightly edited from verbal form):<p>“I looked through the list of companies that have an over a billion dollar valuation recently, and more than half, I think, were valued between like a billion and 1.5 billion, and something like a quarter were valued exactly at a billion. So people are clearly obsessed with getting to this mark, and they are willing to put all sorts of weird structure on their terms to get there. If you were looking at the financial data, you would say something is amiss. You’d say there is some fraud going on or something, if you were just looking at the numbers. Because they don’t fit the distribution you’d expect. There is this huge desire to get right to a billion or just over. I don’t care about it. I think it’s dumb, but that’s not going to make a company great or not.”<p>As a sidenote, Sam should probably stop antagonizing his interviewers by dismissing the business pontification featured on their shows :) I agree with him but it’s also a bit unnecessary.
> <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-09-24/y-contributor-s-altman-what-i-worry-about" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-09-24/y-contributo...</a><p>Ahh yes, Dan Altman, a recent hire at SV clone "Y Contributor", talks about attention to detail, and working with the Samwer bros.<p>Edit: << pun intended.
Good job dodging those landmines. It's always nice to hear him talk about this stuff. What I would like even more is to just hear people knowledgeable about this kind of stuff just chat. Doesn't even have to be able what they're good at. I just want to witness their mindset.
I agree with the comment about diversity; "Everyone talks about diversity in tech. I think the best thing you can do is not talk about it but just act on it".<p>With over 40% of women leaving tech, we (<a href="http://keepwomen.com/" rel="nofollow">http://keepwomen.com/</a>) have been doing research into this topic and talked to lots of women in tech. One of the things we found out was the importance of finding a company culture that’s right for you.
Those women who persisted and changed jobs eventually found a company that was a good match for them. So we think one of the ways to "act on it", is to help women find a company culture that's right for them.
I would like to see a YC clone for Dude's businesses, companies that interested in building a profitable business that pays dividend yearly. No exit, No billion dollar valuation, actually no valuation necessary.
My view is that the ones, who first hand know will succeed are the founders and co. (even if they sometime doubt)... Investors, etc..., on the other hand, once they invest will always put the right spin and word to fullfill the prophecy. Before they invest, most of of them have no clue, hence invest in large numbers of startup projects with the hope, at least one of each portfolio will make boom for the entire portfolio.<p>"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." dixit Niels Bohr.<p>Good interview from Sam though.
Great interview, but my advice for Sam would be to drop the use of "like". I think it makes him sound a little bit like a high school student :)