Of the partners announced today, a lot of people know Alexis and Dalton, but my guess is that few know Qasar. I worked for him for over two years at Google. He was one of the product leads I respected the most because he was really good at product management and managing people. He'll definitely be missed.
But the truth is that I've always thought of him as a coach. I've grown so much since my time as a fresh new grad and Qasar was a huge part of that. It's crazy to think about how many hours he spent listening to my problems and I'll always be thankful for that (it's funny to think that in retrospect he was just doing office hours).
Of course he's good at what he does, but his genuine helpfulness and energy is what I've always respected and appreciated most about him. And it's that energy that finally gave me the confidence to quit and finally try out all the things I learned from him. The cycle continues...
Agree with this 100%. Qasar is one of the most dedicated and hardworking people I have ever known. I recall first meeting Qasar several years ago. We were introduced by a mutual friend and met at Google. Within a year of that meeting, Qasar put together a team, applied and successfully got into YC, and sold TalkBin to Google.
While at Google Qasar was one if the sharpest Product Managers on the team. I joined his team within a few weeks after the TalkBin acquisition. As the team, product, and scope grew, Qasar focused on building excellent product, never compromising quality. As a result he quickly rose the ranks because of his unique ability to balance product and business objectives. All the while he took great care of the people on his team.
It's truly sad to see him leave Google but he will be an incredible force of nature at YC. His passion and energy has always been on helping startups and founders succeed. He spent a tremendous amount of time mentoring and coaching his team at Google and will bring this same enthusiasm to YC. Above all else, Qasar is the quintessential example of someone that has more grit than anyone I know.
He's a no bullshit kind of person that's always helping getting things done. YC is very fortunate to have him. Even if you are not in his batch, Qasar is someone you want to get to know.
Alexis just told me about these comments. You guys know that I can't impact your careers anymore right! :) Jokes aside, thank you for the kind words. It was an amazing few years.
I'd love to receive some advice on this topic, Qasar, any chance you could forward me your pointers, too? Plenty of specifics I'd like to know, if there's potential for follow-up.
Y Combinator is on a roll. I’m in engineering and worked with Qasar and he was no doubt one of the best product managers at Google. Actually sad to see him go.
We’ve known Qasar since PG first introduced us to him during our YC summer 2011 batch. Qasar had just sold Talkbin to Google.
Though it wasn’t stated outright from the start, I believe we were used as guinea pigs to test Qasar’s potential as a future target for the YC partnership. We must’ve been one of the first such companies, though there were likely other guinea pigs in our batch as well.
Qasar’s sincere, direct, no-BS attitude blew us away from the start, and we came to understand that he genuinely wanted us to succeed. We had strategy sessions on Castro Street in Mountain View, at Qasar’s own house, and even at Google lunch when scheduling was tight.
Having provided seriously powerful insights and introductions that helped get us off the ground back then, Qasar continues to be supportive through all phases to this day - rain or shine.
I’m proud to call Qasar an advisor and couldn’t be more excited to congratulate him on becoming YC partner.
I've recently gone through a YC batch and Qasar was extremely helpful. Even though he was a part-time partner at the time, he was definitely the guy we spent the most time with at YC. I can't even begin to thank him.
Since the first time we spoke with Qasar, my co-founder and I realized how smart and knowledgeable he is. Then we spent the rest of the summer trying to learn as much from him as we could.
He knows everything about the local space, is an operations expert, helped us greatly improve our Demo Day presentation and coached me regarding how to approach our market opportunity among many other things.
I'm glad he's become a full-time partner. This is great news for YC.
Having worked with Qasar for about a year, I only wished he would have met earlier. If you are in bay area and are thinking about products or startups, Qasar is definitely a guy to talk to. He always makes the time to talk about ideas, startups and products.
Among the few things that I learnt from Qasar which has pretty much reshaped my career, few things that have stood out the most is
1. Care about the team the about the product and users.
2. Get things done. No Bullshit, no excuses!
3. Work Ethics. Weekend, Nights..whatever
Its awesome to see his as a partner at YC, his experience in startup and Google will tremendously help YC startup founders!
+1. I worked with Qasar at Google. He's a brilliant product guy and a great manager. Uncanny ability to cut through the political bullshit and get things done. Congrats to Qasar; we will miss him, but he'll do great things for YC.
Met Qasar at Startup School last year. He was happy to talk about my idea and even gave his e-mail for me to follow up. Down to earth guy and super approachable.
Completely agree with you and Shabih. Didn't work with Qasar as long as either of you two but pleasantly surprised by this news, in all the best ways. Awesome! Lucky YC. :)
But the truth is that I've always thought of him as a coach. I've grown so much since my time as a fresh new grad and Qasar was a huge part of that. It's crazy to think about how many hours he spent listening to my problems and I'll always be thankful for that (it's funny to think that in retrospect he was just doing office hours).
Of course he's good at what he does, but his genuine helpfulness and energy is what I've always respected and appreciated most about him. And it's that energy that finally gave me the confidence to quit and finally try out all the things I learned from him. The cycle continues...