[MichaelGG]

What has he done? I haven't heard of him outside of YC. Wikipedia lists Loopt, then YCombinator. If Loopt had failed, would things be significantly different?

(I don't mean this in a rude way, just curious. He's obviously exception in some way if YC selected him as president.)

[hillis]

I have no direct or personal knowledge of him, but he comes across as extremely smart, ambitious, and well-intentioned in his writing and in profiles of him. Here is one I read this week that I thought was an interesting portrayal: http://www.fastcompany.com/3044282/the-y-combinator-chronicl...

I didn't realize there was so much angst directed towards Sam Altman here. I think there is an unfortunate feeling that he was just ordained by PG, and doesn't deserve what he has. I sincerely doubt that's the case.

Regardless of his previous record, he's already been doing an impressive job growing YC. Sure, some of this is the result of pre-existing path dependency and network effects, but do you really think that Sam didn't have anything to do with it?

-The YC companies funded since he has taken over have gotten more ambitious.

-The 'How to Start a Startup' class was a huge success, and provided a fantastic knowledge base to the greater startup community.

-The number of applications to YC has increased dramatically, particularly from under-represented areas.

-He's personally funded interesting companies, including leading an innovative round for Reddit that set aside shares for the community itself.

...and he seems to be just getting started.