<story><title>I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA</title><text>The application deadline for our winter 2016 batch is next Tuesday, and people frequently have a lot of questions about applying.  Also happy to talk about anything else!&lt;p&gt;EDIT 11:15 AM PDT: I have to go.  This was fun!</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>sama</author><text>1. Never say never, but no current plans (and honestly, it might make more sense to do something outside the US next).  The hardest part would be convincing some of our partners to move out there, or finding new ones we could train out here first.&lt;p&gt;2. Not ready to talk about specific areas, but I promise they are interesting ones :)&lt;p&gt;It will be super super easy for our researchers to collaborate with outsider researchers because of our IP stance!</text></item><item><author>mindcrime</author><text>1. Would &amp;#x2F; will you ever consider opening an East Coast branch?  I understand all the &amp;quot;stuff&amp;quot; about why SV is great for startups, but there will always be people who can&amp;#x27;t &amp;#x2F;won&amp;#x27;t get up and travel completely to the other side of the country for an extended period of time. And while the EC might not be &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; startup hotbed that SV area is, it&amp;#x27;s quite clear that there is a LOT of startup activity and some great startups being formed out here.   Wouldn&amp;#x27;t you want to tap into some of that?&lt;p&gt;2. In regards to YC Research, can you tell us anything  more about the (general) topic area(s) you will be interested in?  And maybe expand a little bit more on what kind of mechanisms might be put in place to facilitate working with outside researchers (hopefully including independent researchers and &amp;#x2F; or other startups).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>listic</author><text>Once you go outside of the US, it makes sense to go to the country with easiest immigration policy, so that you can work with all the smart people who can&amp;#x27;t get to the US.</text></comment>
<story><title>I am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator – AMA</title><text>The application deadline for our winter 2016 batch is next Tuesday, and people frequently have a lot of questions about applying.  Also happy to talk about anything else!&lt;p&gt;EDIT 11:15 AM PDT: I have to go.  This was fun!</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>sama</author><text>1. Never say never, but no current plans (and honestly, it might make more sense to do something outside the US next).  The hardest part would be convincing some of our partners to move out there, or finding new ones we could train out here first.&lt;p&gt;2. Not ready to talk about specific areas, but I promise they are interesting ones :)&lt;p&gt;It will be super super easy for our researchers to collaborate with outsider researchers because of our IP stance!</text></item><item><author>mindcrime</author><text>1. Would &amp;#x2F; will you ever consider opening an East Coast branch?  I understand all the &amp;quot;stuff&amp;quot; about why SV is great for startups, but there will always be people who can&amp;#x27;t &amp;#x2F;won&amp;#x27;t get up and travel completely to the other side of the country for an extended period of time. And while the EC might not be &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; startup hotbed that SV area is, it&amp;#x27;s quite clear that there is a LOT of startup activity and some great startups being formed out here.   Wouldn&amp;#x27;t you want to tap into some of that?&lt;p&gt;2. In regards to YC Research, can you tell us anything  more about the (general) topic area(s) you will be interested in?  And maybe expand a little bit more on what kind of mechanisms might be put in place to facilitate working with outside researchers (hopefully including independent researchers and &amp;#x2F; or other startups).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>karlosferra</author><text>I agree with 1. Especially in countries that don&amp;#x27;t have anything like this available.&lt;p&gt;I can speak from Cuba, since I am originally from there. 
Cuba has been closed for 50 years to America, but that is changing now. There are really smart people, that just don&amp;#x27;t have the necessary access to capital or good advice.&lt;p&gt;Creating a branch of YC there would have a tremendous impact for local economy and people in addition of being a great business venture in a market that has been closed for half a century and is finally open. 
It&amp;#x27;s also worth mentioning that given the current economic situation, funding a startup in Cuba would only take a small fraction of what it takes to fund it in the US, with a lot of potential ROI since almost every industry can be disrupted significantly.</text></comment>