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Comment by mwseibel | Hacker News Reader

Hey folks - Kat and I so excited to announce this new program - happy to answer any questions

Thanks for having a general session. It's really hard for me coming from a poor white family with no history of entrepreneurship to enter this space.

Thank you for this opportunity. I've noticed ycombinator has been trying a lot of new things, and trying their best to reach out to as many people as possible. You guys are great!

thanks!

Hi! Thank you for posting and doing this! I was wondering if I could still apply even though what I'm working at the moment is still just a side project that I work on on nights and weekends. It's generating revenue and I'm hoping to pursue it full time in January/February. The problem is that I only qualify for the general office hours. Would you suggest that I apply or wait until June for the next general office hours?

Apply :)

Thanks for this awesome opportunity, you should set up a system with the other companies blessing to release to remote office hours online. I am going to apply!

Please try to have a Midwest office hours. We all have the same problems/opportunities: 1. mediocre startup scenes/investment options. 2. lots of technical talent. plenty of enterprise companies with experienced IT. So, what if we use C#/java. 3. Better test market. SV is great for early adopters but if you want a really big company it needs to work here too.

It sounds like you can do the office hours remotely via Skype so the Midwest shouldn't miss out.

I was thinking of an office hours that are specific to the Midwest or maybe not SV, NY, Boston etc.

Thanks for offering this service.

What determines which founders you meet with? Since you had 650 founders apply the first time around and met with 50 teams there must be some filter and I assume its not random.

We are looking for folks who are actively working on their startups. Having a technical co-founder is helpful, working full time is helpful, and trying to solve a large problem is helpful.

Awesome! Since the first round is for all founders and subsequent rounds are targeted at specific groups, are people encouraged/allowed to apply for multiple? Or should we pick?

Feel free to apply as many times as you'd like

How'd you decide what groups you wanted to focus on? Vets, Women, URM, International.

Any other demographic categories you think are important to especially reach out to?

At least a few should be, like Native Americans, Muslims, and disabled. Perhaps LGBT, if they're underrepresented in SV.

How much time do you anticipate going into sorting through applications versus the actual sessions?

We have a lot of experience reading applications so it doesn't take us too long

Thanks for doing this! Any plans for an open office hours session focused on LGBT founders?

the program is 2 months later, is anyone available for some coffee today :)

Any chance of opening: How about Other Person of Colour who are of First Generation Immigrants Status of a Country, which isn't the US in the future? That would really be electrifying ;P

I don't understand why this is getting down voted? Someone explain?

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