Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Y Combinator Partner Pete Koomen led his startup, Optimizely, to $100M ARR. In this video, Pete breaks down the enterprise sales funnel and shares his top tips on how a technical founder can start closing real deals for their startup.

A little over ten years ago Paul Graham published the essay "Do Things That Don't Scale." At the time, it was highly controversial advice that spoke to the drastically different needs of an early startup versus the needs of a much larger, more established company.

YC Partners discuss PG's essay, its influence on Silicon Valley, and some prime examples of YC founders that embraced the mantra "Do Things That Don't Scale."

Read Paul Graham's essay here: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

Over the past decade crypto has been declared dead hundreds of times. But with the price of Bitcoin surging over the past few months it’s clear that there are still enormous opportunities in this space. And few people know that better than Chandan Lodha, the co-founder of CoinTracker (W18), a crypto asset management and tax filing platform. He and his team have navigated several boom and bust cycles over the years and in this latest episode of The Main Function, you’ll hear about how they built their company, the time it nearly fell apart, and how they used a crypto winter to retool and emerge stronger than ever.

In this episode of Startup School, YC Partner Tom Blomfield dives deeper into the metrics that matter most for consumer startups. Tom discusses paid and organic user growth, unit economics, net promoter scores, and the "magic moment" in your product that is most important to track.

When you’re making important decisions as a founder — like what to build or how it should work — should you spend lots of time gathering input from others or just trust your gut? In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we talk more about this and how to know when you should spend time validating and when to just commit. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

One trait that many great founders share is conviction. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll talk about finding confidence in what you're building, the dangers of inaccurate assumptions, and a question founders need to ask themselves before they start trying to sell to anyone else. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Startups need to innovate to succeed. But not all innovation is made equal and reinventing some common best practices could actually hinder your company. In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the common innovation pitfalls founders should avoid so they can better focus on their product and their customers. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Within the world of startups, you'll find lots of discourse online about the experiences of founders bootstrapping their startups versus the founders who have raised venture capital to fund their companies. Is one better than the other? Truth is, it may not be so black and white. Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the virtues and struggles of both paths. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, the biggest common element between all successful startups is having technical talent on the founding team. But what do you do if you don't know how to code? You may think you can get by using no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops to bring your startup idea to life. But that thinking is wrong. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll discuss exactly why that is and why recruiting a technical co-founder is the single biggest way to create value as someone trying to start the next big thing. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield discusses one of the most important elements of running any startup: metrics! Tom shares what key metrics to track and how to use them to make the best decisions for your company. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Social media often promotes a doom and gloom outlook about our future society. But is that worldview accurate? In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the best ways for founders and aspiring founders to think about weighing optimism and pessimism in their day to day lives. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Casetext started out in 2013 as a crowdsourced law library — a sort of “Wikipedia meets Reddit” for the law. Ten years later, Casetext is one of the biggest wins to date in AI, capable of turning weeks of arduous legal work into hours or minutes. Just months ago it was acquired for $650 million dollars.

What happened between those two points?

For this episode of Main Function, YC President Garry Tan sits down with Casetext co-founder Jake Heller to learn the real story of their 10-year “overnight” success: the 3 a.m. origin story, how the company evolved as fast as tech would allow, and the “magic demo” that helped turn Casetext into a rocket ship. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/MainFunction-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/MainFunction-jobs

The stories are true: technical founders (and early technical employees!) often end up with the short end of the stick when starting a company. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll discuss the questions and best practices that an aspiring technical founder should think about — whom to start a company with, and how to think about things like equity split and division of responsibilities. Know what you are worth and act accordingly! Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

If you’re an employee of a late stage company right now, how would you know when it’s time to move on vs. time to double down? The fact is there isn't an easy answer — it can really vary from person to person and situation to situation. In this video, YC Group Partners, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell share some suggestions on what sort of things an employee of a late stage startup should be looking for — the good signs and the bad — to best make this decision. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply

Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Should you and your startup live in San Francisco? Y Combinator Partners, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell, debate their different opinions on whether startups are more likely to succeed in the Golden City or elsewhere. Where do they find common ground? Watch to find out. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

How will the rise of AI impact startups and entrepreneurs? Join Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell for a discussion on the opportunities and challenges AI brings for founders. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply

Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

When it comes to building a startup you’re never doing it entirely from scratch. Inspiration and ideas can come from a variety of places, including other successful startups. But there’s a thin line between borrowing smart ideas and copying them blindly - otherwise known as Cargo Culting.

In this episode Dalton and Michael break down the problem with Cargo Culting and offer advice on the right way to draw inspiration from other successful companies. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

YC Visiting Group Partner Divya Bhat talks about how to set your KPIs (key metrics) and how to prioritize your time. This talk helps founders launch faster and set goals in order to make real progress. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

YC Group Partner Diana Hu was the CTO of her YC startup Escher Reality, which was acquired by Niantic (makers of Pokemon Go). She shares her advice for being a technical founder at the earliest stages - including topics like how to ship an MVP fast, how to deal with technology choices and technical debt, and how and when to hire an engineering team.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Successful startups don’t just build technology – they solve human problems. The key is listening to the people who really matter: your customers.

In this episode, Michael and Dalton discuss how spending real time with your users can unlock insights and growth. Hear the stories of how Airbnb and Brex built billion-dollar companies by forging genuine connections with their customers and learn why having too much money and too many people can actually slow down learning.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

If you're a high school or college student with big dreams of starting your own company, this video is for you. Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel, two startup founders who started in the early 20s and are now top investors, sit down to share the hard-won advice they wish they had known back in high school. Whether you're already running your own startup or just have an idea you can't stop thinking about, Dalton and Michael cover the skills you need to learn now and how to set yourself up for success after graduating school.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Y Combinator is well-known for producing companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase and more. But what's the real story behind the success of YC and the companies they fund? This is everything you need to know about the program.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/MainFunction-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/MainFunction-jobs

YC Group Partner Brad Flora has seen startup fundraising from every angle: as a founder, as one of the most prolific angel investors in Silicon Valley, and now as a YC Group Partner. Brad has coached hundreds of companies on fundraising. In this talk, he shares stories and advice on how modern startup fundraising works.

Paul Graham Fundraising Essays:

http://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/convince.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/herd.html

Geoff Ralston's Fundraising Guides:

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4A-a-guide-to-seed-fundraising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcevHkNGrWQ

YC Fundraising Resources:

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/2u-how-to-build-your-seed-round-pitch-deck

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6q-how-to-pitch-your-startup

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/71-how-to-get-meetings-with-investors-and-raise-money

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4O-raising-money-online-advice-for-startups

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3u-different-types-of-investors-and-their-incentives

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

YC Group Partner, Michael Seibel, explains how to build a minimum viable product (MVP) for your startup idea. Using examples from real YC companies, Michael walks through how to determine your MVP feature set, build prototypes and demos for user testing, and present your MVP to early customers or investors.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

In this first in-person episode, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell reveal how startups can gain a competitive advantage by doing something deceptively simple. They share compelling stories of companies that built loyal relationships and achieved success by making personal connections with users. In contrast, they discuss the traps early-stage founders make by trying to emulate big tech. If you want to build a business that customers love and that thrives in the long run, this advice on why caring deeply about your customers is key.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

What is a large language model? How can it be used to enhance your business? In this conversation, Ali Rowghani, Managing Director of YC Continuity, talks with Raza Habib, CEO of Humanloop, about the cutting-edge AI powering innovations today—and what the future may hold.  They discuss how large language models like Open AI's GPT-3 work, why fine-tuning is important for customizing models to specific use cases, and the challenges involved with building apps using these models. If you're curious about the ethical implications of AI, Raza shares his predictions about the impact of this quickly developing technology on the industry and the world at large.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Y Combinator group partners Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell discuss the importance of having honest and difficult conversations with startup founders. While having hard conversations can be uncomfortable, Michael and Dalton argue that this transparency is essential for founders to grow and ultimately, these experiences help founders have their own hard conversations that they've been avoiding with the people around them.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

YC's Kat Mañalac wants to change the way you think about launching. In her talk, she shares the multitude of ways to launch and get attention for your product, with tangible strategies and examples from companies like Airbnb.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the advantages of being a first-time founder and the instances when it pays to have experience founding a startup in the past.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Work at a Startup: https://www.workatastartup.com/

What happens when the unconventional becomes conventional? Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell discuss how the startup world has changed from being dominated by outsiders and nonconformists to now attracting more mainstream conformists looking for status and money. They share stories of what the tech scene was like when they were in school - and how radically different it is today, while offering their advice around navigating a world that doesn't always reward nonconformists embarking on risky entrepreneurial journeys. Don't just think different, act different.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the many different mistakes founders make when they approach hiring for their startup and how to grow your team the correct way.  
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

How do you find a co-founder and build a great partnership? YC's Catheryn Li (who also built our Co-Founder Matching tool) and Visiting Partner Divya Bhat cover the importance of having co-founders, how to get & vet one, and the ways to build a successful working relationship with them.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs
Looking for a co-founder? Sign up for Co-Founder Matching: https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the traps founders often fall into when looking at the competition. They identify the particular types of companies you should watch out for and many more you are wasting your time worrying about.  

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

If you're looking to maximize your startup's potential, start by setting the right goals. Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell provide tips and strategies for setting goals that will help keep you and your new business focused on success—plus provide examples of bad goals to avoid.  
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss how you should handle rejection from investors and why you should "believe the no, not the why."  

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Step inside the group partners' lounge to hear Y Combinator Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss how startups should approach launching and the exceptions to the rules.  

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

How do you get your first customers? YC Group Partner & former Head of Growth at Airbnb, Gustaf Alströmer, gives tactical advice to answer this question for all kinds of companies — whether you're B2B or B2C — and discusses why it's important for founders to do sales early on.
Apply to Y Combinator: ⁠https://yc.link/SUS-apply⁠

Work at a Startup: ⁠https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

One of the most common topics that founders ask us about is pricing and monetization.  In this talk, YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein outlines 9 different business models, and highlights lessons from top YC companies on how to best monetize and price your product.
Business Model Guide: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Gh-business-model-guide
Apply to Y Combinator: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-apply⁠⁠

Work at a Startup: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

YC often says "talk to your users", but actually doing that is surprisingly tricky. YC Group Partner Gustaf Alströmer gives non-obvious advice on how to talk to both current and potential users, how to run a great user interview, and how to interpret the feedback in these conversations.  
Apply to Y Combinator: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-apply⁠⁠

Work at a Startup: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

YC's Jared Friedman shares a framework for how to get and evaluate startup ideas. He delves into examples of YC companies and the inside stories of how they came up with the ideas that turned into billion-dollar companies. Even if you have an existing idea, this talk helps founders confirm that their idea is good and/or provides a framework for a future pivot.
Apply to Y Combinator: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-apply⁠⁠

Work at a Startup: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Harj Taggar shares his advice on the types of people best suited to be startup founders and how to prepare to start a company in the future.
Apply to Y Combinator: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-apply⁠⁠

Work at a Startup: ⁠⁠https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Thinking of a new startup idea? Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the types of ideas to stay away from—what we commonly refer to as "tarpit ideas."   
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

With the YC S22 batch coming to a close, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel reflect on the recent batch and their experience fundraising. The two group partners also clear up some misconceptions about Y Combinator based on feedback from founders.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the qualities that make a founder overly optimistic or far too pessimistic about their startup. Where is the right middle ground?
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the problems with zero sum games within tech culture. Is your startup making a positive impact on the world or are your business practices a net negative in society?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the best approaches to developing a healthy lifestyle that ultimately helps you run and grow a successful startup. Funders, take care of yourselves out there.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel on the midwit meme, how it applies to startups, and the best example: Elon Musk.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel on software hacks that don't scale. Companies discussed include Google, Facebook, Twitch, and imeem. Watch the first video on doing things that don't scale here: https://youtu.be/4RMjQal_c4U

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel on common pitfalls in the advice from different types of investors and why you, the founder, are ultimately responsible for the success of your company.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about Paul Graham's essay "Do Things That Don't Scale" and what it really means for founders. Read the essay here: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about the importance of understanding incentives and doing research when it comes to building a world-changing startup.  

To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about OpenSea, Gusto, and the importance of building simple products that solve a real problem.  

To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about where the ideas for Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe came from. Then they discuss what you can learn from these founders.

To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel on the importance of talking to your users, why successful founders are ok with rejection from potential customers, and how protecting your ego by not talking to your users can kill your startup.

To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about solutions in search of a problem, whether or not to follow your passion, how to figure out what to work on, and how to motivate yourself.

To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about investor terms and incentives.
To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell are back for episode 2 of Rookie Mistakes to discuss common mistakes founders make when fundraising, and how to avoid them.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/  
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Gusto (YC W12) provides growing businesses with everything to take care of their team. Today, more than 200,000 businesses use Gusto for payroll, employee benefits, talent management, and more. And with the recent addition of Gusto Embedded, developers now use Gusto’s APIs and pre-build UI  flows to embed payroll, tax filing, and payments infrastructure into products.  

YC’s Anu Hariharan sat down with Gusto co-founder and CPO Tomer London to talk about building for new customer segments and the future of embedded finance — sharing advice for startup founders and CEOs along the way.  

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

In the first episode of Rookie Mistakes, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss co-founder mistakes. To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/  
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the best approaches to managing the many setbacks startup founders can face over the lifetime of starting and running a business.  

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/  
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss Paul Graham's essay "Default Alive or Default Dead." They share strategies to cut your company's burn rate and keep your startup alive to see another day.   

Paul Graham's essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/aord.html  
Trevor Blackwell's startup growth calculator: http://growth.tlb.org  
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/  
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the struggles of working at FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and how to strategize leaving a big tech job to become a founder at a startup.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel take a look at Paul Graham's essay "Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule" and share tips on how to be more effective and productive on the journey to creating a billion dollar business.

Read PG's essay here: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Diego Saez Gil is the founder of Pachama. Pachama is building a marketplace where companies can support carbon offset projects.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ 

***

Topics

00:00 - Welcome Gustaf and Diego
01:19 - Diego's background
06:50 - What is Pachama?
09:25 - Using remote sensing to track carbon
11:37 - Connecting disparate groups
13:04 - How much carbon does a typical company offset?
15:28 - How big is the reforesting opportunity?
17:09 - What are the incentives to offset carbon?
18:40 - Why don't people trust carbon offsets?
20:33 - What are the different forest conservation methods?
25:20 - How does Pachama use technology?
29:00 - Growth challenges
30:20 - Who are the customers?
32:12 - The future of the carbon market
32:48 - Fundraising for a climate startup
37:50 - Advice for people that want to start working in the climate change space.
41:38 - Climate policy
43:23 - What are the most important things happening in the space?
45:10 - The benefits of agroforestry and permaculture

Amber Atherton is the founder and CEO of Zyper (YC W18).

Iba Masood is the cofounder and CEO of TARA (YC W15).

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/  

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

1:16 - Seed fundraising for Zyper and Tara

3:26 - Tara's pivot

4:31 - Series A fundraising for Zyper and Tara

18:11 - Evaluating investors

23:46 - Meeting with associates and partners

30:35 - Raising a Series A as a female founder

39:31 - Fundraising psychology

41:46 - What not to do when fundraising

45:01 - Talking to portfolio companies about investors

46:21 - What it's like to run a Series A stage company

1:00:41 - The most important piece of advice for fundraising

Laks Srini is the cofounder and CTO of ZeroDown. Before that he was the cofounder and CTO of Zenefits.

You can find him on Twitter at @laks_srini.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:30 - What is ZeroDown?

1:50 - How did they test the idea?

3:50 - What did they learn from companies that failed in the space?

8:00 - Breaking down the product

11:25 - ZeroDown's customers

13:35 - Expanding to other markets

15:50 - What if a downturn happens?

17:10 - ZeroDown's hiring strategy

20:10 - What are their hardest technical challenges?

22:05 - ZeroDown's breadth and product strategy

26:40 - Customer interviews

28:35 - Should everyone own a house?

29:50 - Home ownership in the future

32:45 - Build something you really want to see in the world

34:40 - Working with his cofounders was the most important consideration

Matt Cutts is the Administrator of the US Digital Service and previously he was the head of the webspam team at Google.

You can find him on Twitter at @mattcutts.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:36 - Working at Google in 2000

2:48 - Did Google's success feel certain?

3:53 - Building self-service ads

7:23 - The evil unicorn problem

8:23 - Lawsuits around search

10:48 - Content moderation and spam

14:38 - Matt's progression over 17 years at Google

17:18 - Deepfakes

18:43 - Joining the USDS

21:03 - What the USDS does

23:43 - Working at the USDS

26:43 - Educating people in government about tech

28:58 - Creating a rapid feedback loop within government

31:48 - Michael Wang asks - How does USDS decide whether to outsource something to a private company, or build the software in house?

32:58 - Spencer Clark asks - It would seem that the government is so far behind the private industry’s technology. To what extent is this true and what can be done about it? How should we gauge the progress of institutions like the USDS?

36:03 - Stephan Sturges asks - With GANs getting more and more powerful is the USDS thinking about the future of data authenticity?

38:23 - John Doherty asks - How difficult was it to communicate Google’s algorithm changes and evolving SEO best practices without leaking new spam tactics?

40:18 - Vanman0254 asks - How can smart tech folks better contribute to regulatory and policy discussions in government?

42:38 - Ronak Shah asks - What's your best pitch to high-performing startups in the Bay Area to adopt more of human centered design (something that the government has been moving towards surprisingly well, but that some fast moving startups have neglected resulting in controversy)

49:58 - Adam Hoffman asks - What are legislators, the government, and the general populace most “getting wrong” in how they conceptualize the internet?

51:33 - Raphael Ferreira asks - Is it possible to live without google? How do you think google affected people in searching for answers and content, now that’s we find everything in just one click?

55:23 - Tim Woods asks - Which job was more fun and why?

57:13 - Working in government vs private industry

1:00:48 - Snehan Kekre asks - What is Matt's view of the ongoing debate about backdooring encryption for so called lawful interception?

Cory Doctorow is a blogger, journalist, and science fiction author. He’s also the co-editor of Boing Boing.

Joe Betts-Lacroix is the CTO of VIUM and an Expert at YC.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ 

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:32 - Adversarial interoperability

7:55 - So what should founders do?

13:55 - Copyright

19:55 - Remixing

27:00 - AT&T

29:50 - Firms and state-like duties

31:25 - Medium-term suggestions for founders

39:25 - Conspiracy theories

51:50 - Science fiction and predictions

56:55 - Peak indifference model

We've cut down the tenth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Ali Rowghani. Ali is a partner at YC. His lecture covers how to lead.

Then a lecture from Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung. Kevin and Adora are both partners at YC. Their lecture breaks down this year’s Startup School by the numbers and they share tips on what helped companies most.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:36 - Ali Rowghani - How to Lead

1:36 - Ali's background

2:56 - There's no single archetype for a great leader so be yourself

5:16 - Great leaders think and communicate clearly

9:56 - Great leaders have good judgement about people

12:56 - Great leaders have strong personal integrity and commitment

13:46 - The transparency test

14:41 - The best way to measure great leaders is in terms of the amount of trust they engender in the people that work with them

15:21 - The science of trust

16:08 - The art of trust

16:36 - Optimize for trust

17:40 - Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung - Startup School 2019 by the Numbers

19:24 - Startup School grew during the course

20:24 - Did SUS make a difference?

21:14 - 106 SUS companies were accepted into YC

23:17 - How can you replicate their success?

23:44 - Be clear and concise

26:59 - Edit your company description

28:04 - Weekly updates submitted

28:39 - Top 7 biggest obstacles for SUS companies

29:04 - Top 7 KPI movers

29:59 - Top 7 user insights

31:04 - Average startup weeks to launch

31:54 - Average hard tech or biotech startup weeks to launch

32:54 - % of weekly updates from launched startups

33:34 - Group sessions

33:59 - Companies got better at explaining their ideas, selling themselves, and getting others excited

35:09 - Founders like qualitative feedback

36:09 - No shows

37:19 - Morale

37:49 - Technical, launched, full-time, revenue generating, non-flaky, non-solo founder startups that talk to users are happier

41:14 - Summary

We've cut down the ninth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Carolynn Levy. Carolynn is a partner at YC. Her lecture covers modern startup financing.

Then a lecture from Jared Friedman. Jared is also a partner at YC. His lecture focuses on advice for hard-tech and biotech founders.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:33 - Carolynn Levy - Modern Startup Financing

1:33 - The basics: form a corporation, need money to grow?, sell a part of the company

2:58 - Fundraising terms

3:58 - What has changed: structure, access, focus

5:10 - What hasn't changed: preferred stock financing, valuation and dilution, communication

6:42 - Old way of raising early money: Series A preferred stock financing

8:33 - What was broken?

9:33 - The transition: bridge loan financings

10:46 - Realization: convertible promissory notes are a better way to fund early stage startups

12:01 - Modernization of the convertible - SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)

14:03 - When do priced rounds happen?

15:12 - Is modern early stage financing perfected?

18:01 - Takeaways

19:30 - Jared Friedman - Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders

20:25 - What is a hard-tech company?

21:35 - Why start a hard-tech company?

25:06 - YC is the largest bio and hard-tech seed investor in the world

25:49 - How much of YC's advice applies to hard-tech founders?

26:33 - How do you make progress when you have a "heavy MVP"?

31:49 - How do you prove people will want your product, if you haven't built it yet?

32:57 - Letter of Intent

34:10 - Fundraising for hard-tech and biotech companies

36:15 - Final thought

We've cut down the eighth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First a lecture from Adora Cheung. Adora’s a partner at YC. Her lecture covers how to prioritize your time.

Then a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is also a partner at YC. His lecture is the second part of his talk on how to evaluate startup ideas.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:32 - Adora Cheung - How to Prioritize Your Time

2:12 - Real vs fake progress

4:10 - How to determine if you're prioritizing the right tasks

4:42 - Keep a spreadsheet of ideas related to moving your primary KPI

7:32 - Grade the new and old ideas once a week based on potential impact

9:52 - Consider the complexity of each task

11:32 - Don't try to do everything at once

11:52 - How do I know I'm prioritizing my time well?

13:42 - What if I can't complete my tasks in time?

14:02 - Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule 

15:32 - Moving fast

16:47 - Kevin Hale - How to Evaluate Startup Ideas Pt. 2

18:52 - How to apply to Y Combinator

20:17 - As a YC partner, you don't need to sell me

21:12 - Can I understand the idea? Am I excited by it? Do I like the team and want to work with them?

21:47 - How do I describe my company in a very efficient manner?

22:52 - Making your idea legible

25:12 - Things to avoid when describing your company

27:34 - Be conversational

28:02 - Avoid jargon, no preamble, and be reproducible

28:47 - Nouns: what are you making, what is the problem, and who is the customer

32:47 - Using the X for Y formula of explaining your startup

36:57 - Be concise without leaving out the key nouns

40:47 - How to adjust a description

We've cut down the seventh week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

Kevin Hale gave both lectures this week. Kevin’s a partner at YC and cofounded Wufoo. His first lecture is on how to improve conversion rates and his second lecture is on pricing for startups.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:27 - Kevin Hale - How to Improve Conversion Rates

1:02 - Why we care about conversion rates

2:02 - Shareware conversion rate is .5%

2:22 - Casual download games is 2%

2:32 - Freemium SaaS range from 1.5 to 5%

3:57 - Knowledge spectrum

5:52 - The one button interface

6:37 - What is the call to action? And the magic moment.

8:02 - What is it?

8:38 - Is it right for me?

9:02 - Is it legit?

9:22 - Who else is using it?

9:52 - How much? What's the catch?

10:39 - Where can I get help?

11:30 - Kevin Hale - Startup Pricing 101

13:15 - Monetization gives you the biggest bang for your buck

14:35 - Price thermometer

16:35 - Mistake 1 - Prices are too low

16:55 - Mistake 2 - Underestimate costs

17:08 - Mistake 3 - Don't understand your value

17:27 - Mistake 4 - Focus on wrong customers

18:05 - Sales and profit over a product's life

19:20 - Why is pricing innovation hard?

21:27 - How to optimize prices

22:32 - $1B formula

24:05 - Price and complexity

26:55 - 10 - 5 - 20 rule

28:20 - Summary

We've cut down the sixth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First a lecture from Tim Brady. Tim’s a partner at YC. His lecture covers the importance of building a good culture early and shares six things that you can do now to help create a solid foundation for your startup.

Then a lecture from Dalton Caldwell. Dalton is a partner at YC and he’s also the head of admissions. His lecture covers pivoting and his advice on how founders should think about it.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:38 - Tim Brady on Building Culture

1:13 - Culture is behavior and the right behaviors support a good business

4:38 - Six things new startups can do now

5:00 - 1. Be proud of the problem you are solving

7:31 - 2. Create a long term vision that others will follow

9:36 - 3. List your values then model the behavior

12:34 - 4. Align your culture with your customer

14:49 - 5. Discuss the importance of diversity to your company

16:43 - 6. Put a hiring process into practice. Plan to evolve it.

18:24 - Dalton Caldwell on Pivoting

18:53 - The term "pivot"

20:20 - Why pivot?

21:33 - Good reasons to pivot

22:35 - Good reasons not to pivot

23:13 - Why people take too long to pivot

26:01 - Anecdotes

27:22 - Product market fit

28:34 - How to find a better idea

30:40 - It's ok to not work on an idea that requires venture capital

31:34 - Venture vs. non-venture scale ideas

32:52 - When is the best time to pivot

33:48 - More pivoting thoughts

35:07 - Idea quality scores

37:11 - Brex

39:51 - Retool

41:37 - Magic

43:22 - Segment

45:16 - Dalton's summary

We've cut down the fifth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First a lecture from Kirsty Nathoo. Kirsty is a partner and CFO of YC. Her lecture focuses on the most common mistakes startups make with their finances and how they can avoid making them.

Then a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is also a partner at YC and he’ll talk about the importance of building a successful working relationship with your cofounders and processes you can use to do so.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:38 - Kirsty Nathoo - Startup Finance Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

2:08 - #1 - Not knowing what to look at: bank balance, money coming in, and money going out

2:56 - Burn

3:41 - Runway

4:59 - Growth rate

5:48 - Default alive - http://growth.tlb.org and http://paulgraham.com/aord.html

8:09 - #2 - Not looking often enough: every week

9:04 - #3 - Under-Representing Expenses

12:27 - #4 - Out-sourcing responsibility

15:11 - #5 - Scaling too quickly

20:08 - #6 - Letting runway get too low before fundraising - https://blog.ycombinator.com/advice-startups-running-out-of-money/

23:21 - Kevin Hale - How to Work Together

24:49 - Everyone fights

25:43 - Four things to avoid: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling

27:40 - Make a plan before you fight: divide and conquer

31:11 - Know thyself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s9ACDMcpjA

34:12 - Document a process

36:20 - Use nonviolent communication

37:19 - Observation vs evaluation

39:16 - Emotions vs thoughts - https://www.slideshare.net/nonviolent/evaluative-words-list-nonviolent-communication

41:50 - Universal needs

43:38 - Requests vs demands

45:46 - How to Deliver Constructive Feedback in Difficult Situations - https://medium.com/s/please-advise/the-essential-guide-to-difficult-conversations-41f736e63ccf

46:01 - Pay down your emotional debt

47:18 - Practice having level 3 conversations

We've cut down the fourth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First a lecture from Kat Manalac. Kat is a partner at YC. Her lecture focuses on how startups should think about launching and why you should do it repeatedly.

Then a lecture from Gustaf Alströmer. Gustaf is also a partner at YC and in his lecture he covers how to measure product market fit and growth channels.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:35 - Kat Mañalac - How to Launch (Again and Again)

1:51 - Ways to launch

2:14 - Why launch continuously?

3:15 - Silent launch

4:25 - Friends & Family

5:40 - Strangers

7:03 - Online communities

12:08 - Request access

13:29 - Social media

15:13 - Pre-order

16:13 - New Product or Feature

17:42 - Build your own community

19:20 - Launching isn't one moment in time

19:48 - Gustaf Alströmer - Growth for Startups

21:06 - Most startups have nothing

22:13 - Do things that don't scale

27:13 - Startups take off because founders make them take off

28:23 - Measuring product market fit

31:20 - Retention

34:33 - Worse ways to measure product market fit

35:23 - Bad metrics to measure as product market fit

36:18 - Growth channels and tactics

38:17 - Conversion rate optimization

41:26 - Growth channels to explore

45:33 - Referrals and vitality

48:05 - Paid growth

50:09 - Search Engine Optimization

53:00 - Making decisions using A/B testing

55:02 - Summary

We've cut down the third week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Anu Hariharan. Anu is a partner at YC. Her lecture covers nine common startup business models and the metrics investors want to see for each.

Then, a Q&A with Anu and Adora Cheung. Adora is also at partner at YC. During their Q&A they’ll answer questions from Startup School Founders on how investors evaluate startups.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:39 - Anu Hariharan on Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want

1:44 - Enterprise

4:09 - SAAS

8:55 - Subscription

11:33 - Transactional

14:44 - Marketplace

19:04 - E-commerce

21:14 - Advertising

23:12 - Hardware

23:44 - Common mistakes

25:35 - Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung on How Investors Measure Startups Q&A

26:07 - Team, product market fit, and market opportunity

27:10 - What if the founder doesn't have experience in the are in which they're building a product?

28:19 - How do investors know you're moving fast?

29:40 - Local vs remote

30:40 - Evaluating solo founders

31:45 - Clarity of thought

33:35 - International founders

35:17 - Solo founders

36:21 - Should I fundraise?

38:33 - How does an investor evaluate a company with a heavy MVP?

39:36 - How do you avoid investors who say "it's too early for us"?

40:06 - Is it sensible to engage with investors before product market fit?

40:26 - How do you find the perfect investor?

41:21 - What are the best approaches for minority female founders to gain visibility within VC?

42:36 - How do investors come up with valuations?

We've cut down the second week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Michael Seibel. Michael is CEO and a partner at YC. His lecture is about How to Plan an MVP.

Then, a lecture from Adora Cheung. Adora is a YC partner and a cofounder of Homejoy. Her lecture is about How to Set KPIs and Goals.

Last, a lecture from Ilya Volodarsky. Ilya is a cofounder of Segment. His lecture is about Analytics for Startups.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:43 - Michael Seibel - How to Plan an MVP

1:25 - The goal of a pre-launch startup

3:10 - Iterating vs pivoting

3:59 - Lean MVP

5:06 - Heavy MVP

6:19 - Launching

7:35 - Learning is easier with an MVP

8:07 - How to build an MVP quickly

10:17 - Adora Cheung - How to Set KPIs and Goals

11:51 - What are the right KPIs to set?

15:50 - Revenue or active users

16:28 - Why choose active users?

18:55 - Biotech or hardtech KPIs

20:25 - Secondary metric

21:25 - What if you haven't launched?

22:20 - Setting goals

23:47 - How fast should you grow?

25:13 - Defining your own goals

28:40 - Tracking progress

30:27 - Ilya Volodarsky - Analytics for Startups

30:46 - Why analytics?

31:36 - Funnel

32:51 - Collecting data, analytics, and data flow

34:16 - Metric - Signups per week

35:28 - Metric - Retention cohorts

36:30 - Which metric to pick?

36:57 - Have I reached product market fit?

37:27 - Metric - Revenue

37:51 - Dashboards

38:35 - Advisor updates

39:01 - The startup stack

42:13 - Recommendations for the MVP process

We've cut down the first week of Startup School lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is a YC partner and a cofounder of Wufoo. His lecture is about How to Evaluate Startup Ideas.

Then, a lecture from Eric Migicovsky. Eric is a YC partner and the founder of Pebble. His lecture is about How to Talk to Users.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:43 - Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas

2:04 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?

2:50 - A startup idea is a hypothesis

5:44 - Problem

6:59 - Solution

8:16 - Insight

8:57 - Unfair advantages

13:45 - Two beliefs about startups

15:19 - Eric Migicovsky on How to Talk to Users

17:36 - Three common errors people make when talking to users

20:20 - Five questions to ask in a user interview

20:28 - What's the hardest part about doing the thing you're trying to solve?

21:02 - Tell me about the last time that you encountered this problem

21:22 - Why was this hard?

23:08 - What, if anything, have you done to try to solve this problem?

24:10 - What don't you love about the solutions you've already tried?

25:21 - Three stages in which talking to users is extremely beneficial

26:07 - Idea stage

30:40 - Prototype stage

33:41 - Iterating towards product market fit

Diana Hu cofounded Escher Reality, which went through the Summer 2017 batch of YC. They were acquired by Niantic and she is now the head of their AR platform.

She's on Twitter @sdianahu.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:40 - Getting into AR

2:55 - Her first exposure to AR

4:40 - AR's future role in media

7:45 - Deciding where to go with the product

9:55 - Innovations that enabled AR

14:25 - Building a product in a new market

17:25 - Raising money for a new market

21:40 - Advice for founders after an acquisition

26:40 - Immigrating to the US

31:10 - Advice for Immigrant founders

33:49 - Advice for founders in/after YC

Aaron Harris is a Partner at YC and before that he cofounded Tutorspree.

He’s on Twitter @harris.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:42 - Seed fundraising process

3:32 - Emailing investors

9:32 - Parallelized fundraising process

12:17 - Meeting with investors

14:17 - Overcapitalization

17:07 - Communicating your plan to investors

19:02 - Evaluating investors

22:57 - Fundraising process for a Series A company

27:02 - Meeting Series A investors

28:57 - Post-Demo Day psychology

Jay Reno is the CEO and founder of Feather. Feather is a furniture subscription service. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC.

You can check out their furniture at LiveFeather.com and if you live in LA, SF, or New York you can try out the service.

Jay is on Twitter @jayjreno.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:49 - Opting out of owning furniture

6:29 - Feather's prototype

9:19 - How much did he make from his MVP?

9:59 - How many products did they have?

12:14 - Legacy competitors

14:04 - Changing branding from RentFeather.com to LiveFeather.com

15:59 - Customer interviews and learnings

18:29 - Scaling a company with physical products

21:29 - Why expand to other markets vs focus on one?

23:59 - Who to hire and when in a logistics-heavy business

26:09 - Unexpected learnings from scaling Feather

27:54 - Feeling his role change over time

29:44 - Counterintuitive advice

35:19 - Advice for YC founders after Demo Day

Russ Roberts is the host of the podcast EconTalk (iTunes, RSS, and YouTube), a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and the author of several books, including How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life.

You can find Russ on Twitter @econtalker.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:29 - What are his thoughts on “meaning, spirituality, or sense of belonging” in regards to creating your own company?

3:34 - Capitalism bearing the burden of human nature

4:04 - Why Russ started EconTalk

7:44 - Key economic concepts for founders after 700 EconTalk episodes

13:49 - Helpful methods for teaching economic concepts

18:09 - "Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely" - Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments

19:39 - Why Russ wrote How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life

24:14 - How EconTalk has changed since the beginning

26:14 - Steve Adema asks - Russ Roberts has emphasized the limits of "only looking where the light is" when it comes to studying well-being. How
can economists incorporate the aspects of well-being that aren't easily quantified?

34:34 - Warren Buffett's gift to his son

36:09 - Founders and unintended consequences

39:44 - The emotional aspect of giving your company away

44:19 - Anthony Y. asks - Has a guest on his show ever made him change his mind on a topic?

50:54 - Has Nassim Taleb convinced him to deadlift?

52:59 - Russ often quotes David Foster Wallace's speech, “This is Water”. Specifically, he quotes the phrase, “everyone worships.” What does Russ worship?

Today’s episode is a preview of the Startup School podcast. 

We’re putting all the Startup School lectures on their own podcast feed. You can subscribe here:   
iTunes  
RSS  

This is the first lecture from Startup School 2019. It’s Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas.

It’s also not too late to sign up for Startup School.

The course just started and the deadline to sign up is August 4th. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:42 - Why we're starting with evaluating ideas

2:07 - YC doesn't just fund companies with traction

3:31 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?

5:57 - A startup idea is a hypothesis

7:37 - The problem

11:37 - The solution

13:07 - The insight

14:42 - Founder's unfair advantage

15:42 - Market growing 20% a year

16:22 - Product 10x better

17:12- Acquisition model

18:37 - Monopoly

19:32 - Threshold belief

19:52- Miracle belief

20:42 - Example: YC

24:02 - Example: Wufoo

Anu Hariharan is a partner at YC. Today’s episode is about her recent post, How To Manage a Board.

You can find her on Twitter @anuhariharan.

If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org. The course just started and the deadline to sign up is August 4th. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:57 - Why Anu wrote How to Manage a Board

2:27 - Board composition

4:27 - Adding independent board members

6:27 - The responsibilities of a board member

9:12 - Productive board meetings

12:52 - Sharing materials before the meeting

13:42 - Bringing executives into the meeting

16:57 - Dealing with board conflict

18:22 - Following up after a board meeting

21:12 - Dealing with difficult board members

23:57 - Reality distortion

24:52 - Agustin Feuerhake asks - What does it take to be a great board member?

27:22 - Dave Bailey asks - To what extent should the board culture reflect the company culture?

29:42 - Connor Abene asks - How do you think about adding board members who haven't worked in your industry but you think are good?

33:22 - Rhina asks - Could you address managing a board during product market fit time/ pivot times?

Camille Fournier is a Managing Director at Two Sigma and the former CTO of Rent The Runway. She’s also the author of The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change.

You can find her on Twitter @skamille.

If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org. The course begins on July 22nd and goes for 10 weeks. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:47 - Why do many individual contributors (ICs) never experience a good manager?

3:27 - How did the ideology of management being bad become pervasive in startups?

5:27 - What should a new manager do in their first 90 days?

8:57 - Getting better at 1:1s

11:17 - More tips for the first 90 days

13:17 - Remote management

15:12 - Mistakes rookie managers make

19:27 - Letting people go

23:37 - Being a manager and still wanting to write code

27:57 - Feeling overwhelmed as a manager

31:27 - Getting a team to gel

38:42 - Giving people kudos

39:57 - Non-engineers running engineering teams

42:07 - Staying legit technically as a manager

43:27 - Management vs leadership

Sarah Nahm is the CEO and cofounder of Lever. Lever builds modern recruiting software for teams to source, interview, and hire top talent. They were in the Summer 2012 batch of YC. You can try Lever out at Lever.co.

Holly Liu is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before that she cofounded the gaming company Kabam.

You can find Sarah on Twitter @srhnhm and Holly is @hollyhliu.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:41 - Did Sarah grow up thinking she'd be a founder?

8:01 - Why did she decide to leave Google and start Lever?

13:56 - Thinking about product in the early days of Lever

15:51 - Fundraising and figuring out the team

24:06 - How do you figure out someone's career motivations?

27:26 - Getting concrete when interviewing

29:31 - Hiring remote employees

32:11 - Writing job descriptions around impact

37:41 - Eva Zhang asks - What's the biggest roadblock you faced in trying to make hiring more inclusive to diverse candidates?

42:06 - What does thinking about inclusion mean at a small company?

47:21 - Not buying into technical and nontechnical people

50:26 - Setting up a culture that allows for conversations about diversity and inclusion

Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.

Kevin’s on the podcast today to do some Office Hours and talk about this year’s edition of Startup School.

If you’d like to sign up or learn more, check out https://StartupSchool.org.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:51 - Stats from Startup School 2018

2:11 - Updates for Startup School 2019

8:41 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org

9:16 - Sean Maina asks - In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience?

11:56 - Design affordances

14:11 - Sunil Tej asks - How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started?

18:11 - Building an audience before a product

20:41 - Wufoo's growth

23:56 - Coming up with the idea for Wufoo

27:56 - Companies pivoting during YC

29:26 - Building a product in an unsexy space

32:56 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you know if you've achieved product market fit? Or if your product just isn't noticed yet?

43:56 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you gauge the size of a market?

46:26 - Tips for Startup School success

50:41 - Advice on vetting cofounders

54:11 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org

Dan Hockenmaier is the founder of the growth strategy firm Basis One. Prior to Basis One he was the Director of Growth Marketing at Thumbtack. You can learn more at BasisOne.com.

Gustaf Alströmer is a Partner at YC. Prior to YC he was the Product Lead for Growth at Airbnb.

You can find Dan on Twitter @danhockenmaier and Gustaf is @gustaf.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:50 - Dan's most unpopular advice

1:45 - What growth strategies do people jump on too soon?

2:20 - Questions Dan asks a company he's advising

3:50 - Traits Dan looks for in early growth hires

6:30 - How product and growth are tied together

11:30 - Good/bad learnings from Facebook's growth team

14:00 - A/B testing

17:00 - Retention and other metrics

20:45 - The importance of experimentation

23:45 - Getting ideas for A/B tests then choosing which to do

25:00 - Advice for employees who want to get a growth program going

29:00 - B2B vs consumer growth tactics

34:00 - Pricing experiments

35:30 - Paid marketing

39:30 - Launching in new markets

40:15 - Hiring for marketing

43:45 - Metrics for marketing hires

45:45 - Toni asks - Why did Airbnb grow so fast?

48:45 - Step function growth changes for companies that already had scale

49:55 - Michael Savage asks - It would be great to discuss growth into new regions for example Africa and UAE. What would their approach be, how does it differ from region to region, culture to culture?

52:30 - Justin LaRosa asks - What are some of the most common drivers of viral growth?

55:20 - Hiring a growth agency vs building your own team

58:20 - How do you think about growth in the context of improving humanity?

Jeremy Rossmann is the cofounder of Make School. Make School is a college for computer science headquartered in San Francisco. Make School students don't pay until they have a job after graduation. They were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch.

You can find MakeScool on Twitter @MakeSchool.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:32 - What is Make School?

01:12 - How is their intensive track different than a traditional college course load?

2:22 - How are their students differentiated from students educated in a traditional CS program?

3:12 - Interacting with the parents of Make School students

8:12 - William Triska asks - What are some ways to encourage greater independence and autodidactic behavior in students pursuing technical skills and knowledge?

10:02 - The autodidact myth

15:57 - Two stakeholders making purchasing decisions: potential students and parents

20:07 - The education landscape 20 years from now

23:57 - Education stacking

25:02 - Vikram Malhotra asks - When are we going to do away with degrees?

32:42 - Evan Ward asks - Should liberal arts colleges consider adopting ISA's?

35:17 - Are there instances of predatory ISAs?

37:27 - Make School students who want to be entrepreneurs

40:27 - Advice for people in YC

Tracy Young is a cofounder and the CEO of PlanGrid. PlanGrid makes mobile construction productivity software. They were acquired by Autodesk in 2018 and were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch.

Kat Manalac is a Partner at YC.

You can find Tracy on Twitter @Tracy_Young and Kat is @KatManalac.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:46 - How Tracy got into the construction industry

2:51 - What convinced Tracy and her cofounders to build PlanGrid?

3:31 - Finding a technical cofounder

6:26 - Tracy still sees herself as an engineer

7:16 - PlanGrid's MVP and their first customers

11:56 - Their sales process

13:46 - Product breakthroughs

17:21 - Not firing fast enough

20:31 - What does she look for when hiring someone?

26:01 - Tim Cook's closing statement at WWDC

28:46 - Fredi Fernández asks - Does Tracy track wellness levels of the team?

29:26 - At what point did Tracy hire an office manager?

30:16 - How does Tracy take care of herself?

31:46 - Founding a company with a partner

33:31 - Managing a company as a new parent

35:46 - Seyed Rasoul Jabari asks - What's your big plan to go from 1.5 to 10 million projects?

36:46 - Holly asks - What has been your single largest influence in helping you scale?

38:06 - Why do some executives not work out?

38:56 - What skills did Tracy have to work on when scaling?

42:41 - What do a lot of startups get wrong?

46:21 - Tracy's recommended books

48:01 - What Tracy wishes she knew when she started out

Simone Giertz describes herself as a maker/robotics enthusiast/non-engineer. She’s also known as the Queen of Shitty Robots. She runs a YouTube channel about those robots and is a cohost on Tested with Adam Savage from MythBusters.

You can find her on YouTube and on Twitter @SimoneGiertz.

She also has a Patreon.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

1:41 - "Whatever feeds the ego kills the soul."

4:21 - Maintaining passion for your work

7:16 - Building a sustainable business as a creator

9:01 - Shipping a real product - The Every Day Calendar - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonegiertz/the-every-day-calendar

18:01 - Being scared to step away

19:31 - Generating ideas

20:46 - Finding out she had a brain tumor, having surgery, and sharing it

26:01 - Returning to work after brain surgery

28:01 - Learnings from taking time off

29:01 - Asking for help

30:31 - Evaluating how she's spending her time

32:16 - Giving herself permission to try other things

34:21 - Challenges as a creator and entrepreneur

36:01 - Not feeling guilty about play and pursuing the things you enjoy

41:01 - Becoming less disciplined in certain areas over time

42:46 - Ali asks - How to get started when dealing with imposters syndrome?

43:06 - beep boop asks - What's your favorite robot?

43:46 - Beste asks - Are there any moments where she is bored and feels like giving up on creating new things?

44:56 - Khawar Shehzad asks - What thing do you wish you knew when you started your career?

46:06 - Olaf Doschke asks - What would have happened if Simone's toothbrush helmet wouldn't have gone viral?

48:36 - Johnathan Nader asks - What is the best version of yourself?

Michael Babineau is cofounder and CEO of Second Measure. Second Measure analyzes billions of credit card transactions to answer real-time questions on consumer behavior. They were in the Summer 2015 batch of YC and you can check them out at SecondMeasure.com.

Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.

You can find Michael on Twitter @mikebabineau and Kevin is @ilikevests.

The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:35 - What idea did Mike apply to YC with?

01:20 - Where did the idea come from?

4:35 - From project to company

10:20 - What info did investors want to know that Second Measure could provide?

12:05 - Their first customers

14:35 - The primary use case of Second Measure for VCs

15:20 - What questions are they trying to answer?

19:35 - Data examples from their blog

21:05 - Post: Fashion retailers have nothing to fear (yet) from the rise of Stitch Fix

23:35 - Post: Holiday sales rocket Peloton memberships ahead of SoulCycle active riders

25:05 - Post: Prime members deliver for Amazon every day

27:35 - Second Measure's product development process

29:35 - Finding good data scientists who work from first principles

37:05 - Why is credit card data so messy?

42:05 - Cleaning data

44:20 - Using their product for competitive analysis

47:35 - Their sales process

49:05 - Raising money from Goldman Sachs and Citi

52:05 - Focusing on a specific problem

54:05 - Keeping the product compelling when it's table stakes

Vidit Aatrey is cofounder and CEO of Meesho. Meesho is a platform in India that allows people to resell products using their social networks. They were in the Summer 2016 batch of YC and you can check them out at Meesho.com.

Adora Cheung is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC she cofounded Homejoy.

You can find Vidit on Twitter @viditaatrey and Adora is @nolimits.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

01:20 - What is Meesho?

3:20 - Why not just sell directly to consumers?

5:05 - What are the macro trends in Meesho's favor in India?

7:30 - A trust deficit market

8:55 - How does Meesho help users get online and start selling?

11:45 - Most impactful user stories

13:50 - Growth drivers

15:50 - Balancing growth and quality

17:25 - What if Facebook copies Meesho?

18:50 - When did Vidit and his cofounder know they wanted to start a startup?

21:20 - Their first startup idea and the inspiration for Meesho

25:40 - When did they know Meesho was working?

27:20 - How hard was it to pivot the business and how did they manage it?

30:05 - As a CEO how does he stay in touch with users?

34:50 - How has Vidit's role changed over time?

36:55 - How has he learned to be a CEO?

38:30 - What mistakes have they made?

39:35 - What was his best decision?

40:15 - What's a strong opinion he had about running a startup that he's changed since running Meesho?

41:45 - How has the Indian startup ecosystem evolved?

43:20 - Big problems worth solving in India

43:05 - Can foreigners come to India and start a startup?

45:10 - Best advice for aspiring Indian founders

46:20 - After Meesho, what's the most exciting startup in India?

47:20 - Why is Delhi the best IIT?

48:15 - What's a must read book and why?

49:10 - What's a startup idea he'd be working on if Meesho didn't happen?

49:25 - In 100 years, what does he hope Meesho is?

Chris Best is the cofounder and CEO of Substack. Substack makes it simple for a writer to start a paid newsletter. They were in the Winter 2018 batch of YC. You can check them out at Substack.com.

Jonathan Gill is the cofounder and CEO of Backtracks. Backtracks is a podcast analytics and hosting platform. You can check them out at Backtracks.fm.

Chris is on Twitter @cjgbest and Jonathan is @jgill333.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

1:03 - Paid vs advertising in podcasting

3:33 - Are advertisers overpaying for podcast ads?

6:13 - What percent of the market will ultimately be paid content?

8:13 - Payment mechanisms

9:48 - Price anchoring

12:28 - Individual creators vs brands

17:23 - Deplatforming

18:53 - Spotify

20:23 - Discovery and growth in newsletters

22:53 - Public and private feeds

25:23 - Apple's role

26:38 - Will education be the driver of paid content?

30:23 - Educational podcasters in China

32:23 - How are their newsletter and podcast customers growing?

36:18 - Jack Ryder asks - In 5 years time, are personal newsletters going to replace social networks like Facebook?

38:13 - Debdut Mukherjee asks - Do podcasts actually work? If so, how do startups calculate the ROI & the CAC?

43:38 - Measurement

45:23 - Best practices for new podcasters and newsletter creators

Brian Halligan is the CEO and cofounder of HubSpot. HubSpot builds software for marketing, sales, and customer service. You can try it out at HubSpot.com.

Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC and cofounder of Wufoo.

Brian is on Twitter @bhalligan and Kevin is @ilikevests.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.
  
Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:27 - Brian's an introvert that likes to work from home. He also runs a public company. How does he do both?

2:12 - How does he manage his calendar as an introvert?

4:12 - How Brian met his cofounder Dharmesh

6:12 - The first project they worked on together

7:27 - What was their unique insight when starting HubSpot?

8:52 - Pricing in the early days

9:27 - How would he have priced HubSpot differently knowing what he knows now?

10:27 - HubSpot's first customer

12:27 - Important early features

14:47 - At what point did they shift entirely away from consulting?

15:32 - Providing advice as content vs in the product

16:27 - SEO is underrated

17:12 - Trends in B2B and marketing

21:57 - Inbound marketing and audience building advice

26:52 - How did Brian know that his cofounder was right for him?

28:12 - The internet disproportionately benefiting small businesses over big ones

29:12 - Keeping your company hungry when you're big

29:52 - Building assets for your company

30:47 - Freemium

34:27 - Structural pieces of HubSpot Brian would have changed if he did it again

37:27 - Creating the voice of your company

39:57 - Early metrics they tracked

40:32 - Having a coach and reviews

41:57 - How Brian's changed as a CEO from the beginning

42:51 - What was the hardest thing to give up as CEO?

43:57 - Humility

Jarvis Johnson was previously a software engineer at Patreon, Yelp, and Google. He’s now a YouTuber.

You can find him on YouTube at Jarvis Johnson and on Twitter @jarvis.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:20 - Jarvis' intro

00:50 - Where his videos first got traction

1:30 - Being part of the software industry while critiquing it

4:05 - How he got into programming

6:30 - Moving to California

7:50 - Interning at Google then Yelp

9:20 - Interviewing multiple times at the same company

10:20 - Moving from Yelp to Patreon

14:30 - Switching from individual contributor to manager

18:35 - Learnings from managing that he applies to himself

21:45 - What made Jarvis want to do YouTube full time?

30:20 - Investing in yourself

31:25 - Making what you want vs talking to viewers

35:55 - When did things really start to click for his channel?

38:20 - Choosing to make multiple genres of video

44:00 - Nathan Allebach asks - Are content creators responsible in any capacity for their audiences?

51:05 - Taylor asks - In what ways do you think content creation can benefit one's career in the tech industry?

54:40 - Jarvis made a podcast when he was a teenager

56:30 - Octopus Blues asks - What lessons did improv teach you/who would you recommend it to, if anyone?

58:45 - Predictions for YouTubers and content creators

Harry Zhang is the cofounder of Lob. Lob makes it possible for enterprises to programmatically send physical mail. They were in the Summer 2013 batch of YC.

Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC.

Harry is on Twitter @harryzhang and Kevin is @ilikevests.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:31 - Harry's intro

00:41 - What did Lob have when they applied to YC?

2:01 - Documentation as an API company

3:16 - Where did the insight to create Lob come from?

4:26 - Lob's first version and first customer

7:26 - Closing their first big customer then signing others

12:31 - Did Harry always know Lob would be an API company?

14:01 - How long did it take to work up to enterprise customers?

15:31 - Pricing

19:46 - Creating a product roadmap

21:26 - Tradeoffs when building product

22:21 - Competing for top engineers as an API company

24:31 - Options vs RSUs

28:01 - Sales mistakes

32:21 - Building out features for enterprise clients

34:16 - Why did Lob choose to not vertically integrate?

39:31 - How has Harry had to change as a founder over the life of Lob?

Max Rhodes is the cofounder and CEO of Faire. Faire helps retailers find and buy unique wholesale merchandise for their stores. They were in the Winter 2017 batch of YC.

Anu Hariharan is a Partner at YC.

Max is on Twitter @MaxRhodesOK and Anu is @AnuHariharan.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:32 - Max's intro

01:06 - Leaving Square and coming up with the idea for Faire

7:37 - Changes to SMBs in the past five years

9:37 - What is Faire?

11:57 - Max’s vision for Faire

15:12 - Finding product/market fit

18:12 - Switching to try before you buy

21:22 - What separates the great companies

22:32 - Scaling as a CEO

26:32 - Calming down

29:42 - Faire's first hires

33:42 - Faire's first executive hire

38:27 - Fundraising and fundraising advice

43:32 - Ryan McCarthy asks - Why did Max study history at Yale?

44:32 - Why does Max think Square Cash became a successful app?

Austen Allred is the CEO and cofounder of Lambda School.

Lambda School provides a CS education that's free until you get a job. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC.

You can learn more about Lambda School at lambdaschool.com.

Austen is on Twitter at @austen.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

1:01 - Encouraging people to do something that they're scared to do

5:16 - Where did the insight for Lambda School come from?

6:26 - College vs developer schools

10:26 - Building a network

12:16 - Does Austen see value in a traditional liberal arts education?

14:56 - Steven Klaiber-Noble asks - As competitors begin to copy your model what front do you believe you'll be competing on?

17:56 - Why did Austen choose to raise money?

20:06 - Fundraising falling through on Austen's first startup

21:36 - Moving back to Utah and writing a book about growth

23:26 - Why Austen wrote a book

26:26 - "Starting a company is by definition saying, I think what I can do is worth more than what other people will pay me for."

27:26 - Mispriced human capital

30:21 - Other opportunities for Lambda School

32:46 - Modeling risk

35:36 - David Kofoed Wind asks - When Lambda School is incentivized to take in people that will land high paying jobs, how do you think about the diversity of candidates? One would imagine that it quickly becomes a game of pattern matching the stereotypical SV people.

37:51 - Will Lambda School ever not be remote?

41:16 - Dave Dawson asks - You appear to be on the successful path now, was there a point early in Lambda School when you wanted to stop?

43:46 - Helping everyone become an autodidact

46:46 - Rethinking where to start on an online course

48:11 - Dave Dawson asks - What keeps you up at night at this point?

49:46 - Dayo Koleowo asks - “I have made remarks I do not agree with” - from Austen's Twitter bio. What is that one remark you wish you didn’t have to disagree with?

53:26 - Choosing remote work as a core problem to solve in your company

55:56 - Analysts aren't good at measuring product quality

57:36 - Teaching taste

Amy Buechler is an executive coach for startup founders.

Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC.

In this episode we talk about coaching and use examples from Michael’s time working on Justin.tv and Socialcam.

You can find Amy at her site foundercoach.io and on Twitter at @amybue.

Michael is on Twitter at @mwseibel.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:41 - What is coaching?

01:11 - How is coaching different from therapy?

2:31 - What are the most common challenges founders in coaching have?

3:26 - Challenges with roles and responsibilities at Twitch

7:46 - How would Amy have coached Michael around roles and responsibilities?

9:41 - Not being disruptive as a leader

11:31 - Switching roles at Twitch

12:46 - Uneven equity splits

15:01 - Distributing and negotiating equity

21:16 - Communicating your own value

22:51 - Can there be too much communication?

24:11 - Productive arguments

28:11 - Talking about performance issues

30:16 - Setting clear goals and managing motivation

33:16 - Enjoying the work

34:01 - Conversations about runway

36:51 - Digging your company out of the grave and continuing

40:21 - Michael being against coaching initially

42:31 - How to have hard conversations

44:16 - Removing a responsibility from someone

49:51 - Returning to roles and responsibilities

50:41 - Jeanie McCallister asks - What’s the single most important piece of advice you can give a founder?

Marques Brownlee is a YouTuber. He has over 8 million subscribers to his channel MKBHD where he reviews electronics, drives electric vehicles, and interviews people such as Kobe Bryant and Bill Gates.

You can find Marques on YouTube and on Twitter at @MKBHD.

The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:26 - What does Marques attribute his channel's success to?

2:41 - The early days

5:11 - How does he go about evaluating a product?

7:31 - Features that Marques thought were great that didn't catch on

8:41 - Peak smartphone?

10:31 - Folding phones and new trends

11:26 - Tesla and the EV market

15:46 - Getting older and staying relevant

17:06 - New kinds of videos and podcasting

22:26 - Does Marques feel limited by gear?

26:11 - Storytelling techniques

28:16 - Tech vs Marques as the star of the show

29:56 - Marco Castro asks - What advice do you have for new creators on YouTube?

30:56 - When did Marques find his voice as a creator?

33:56 - Overcoming perfectionism

34:56 - Gut instinct vs data

37:26 - YouTube comments

39:31 - Austin Ryder asks - In the early years of his channel, Marques took a several month hiatus from YouTube, but then came back with a new video format and seemingly renewed drive. What happened during those months off that led to the channel becoming what it is today?

40:41 - Winston asks - What’s your daily schedule?

43:06 - Ultimate frisbee injuries

43:26 - Amad Khan asks - Are there any problems that you see or face that you really wish engineers/developers would solve?

44:51 - Christian Giordano asks - Any tips on how to engage/work with influencers when you are a very early stage startup with little or no money?

46:41 - The future of creators supporting themselves financially

49:31 - His biggest challenge as a creator

50:31 - Long-term goals

Craig Cannon is the Director of Marketing at Y Combinator. He usually hosts the YC podcast but is the guest on this episode about podcasting.

Adora Cheung is a Partner at YC.

You can find Adora on Twitter at @nolimits and Craig at @craigcannon.

***

Topics

00:21 - Adora's intro

1:26 - Craig's intro

4:06 - Starting the YC podcast

5:21 - Podcast metrics

6:21 - Tips on creating a podcast

8:31 - Picking episode topics

9:21 - Order of operations for finding guests

10:51 - Preparing for interviews

14:11 - How to keep an episode engaging

16:26 - Analytics

18:51 - Gear

23:21 - Software

24:16 - Listening to your own voice

25:41 - Favorite interviews

26:41 - Most surprising things Craig's learned about startups on the podcast

29:21 - What has Craig learned from guests that he's put into practice?

32:01 - Non-consensus things about building startups

34:21 - If Craig had to start a podcast from scratch, how would he structure it?

37:01 - Clipping the show

42:21 - Monetizing podcasts

45:51 - Will podcasts become saturated?

46:21 - What's missing in the podcast world?

48:21 - Influential podcasters

52:11 - Adora's podcast picks

53:11 - Patrick Benders asks - What idea do you believe in that your social group would think is crazy?

58:11 - Zachary Canann asks - Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.

1:00:11 - Being at YC, do Craig and Adora feel pressured to go start a company?

1:06:21 - When is an opportunity good enough to quit your current job?

Domonique Fines is the Director of Events at YC.

Cadran Cowansage is the cofounder and CEO of Elpha. Elpha is a private online community for women in tech.

Join Elpha to read Dom's AMA.

You can find Dom on Twitter at @domoniquefines and Cadran at @cadran_c.

***

Topics

00:30 - Dom’s intro

00:50 - How Dom started in events and her background

2:25 - Deciding to not go to law school

3:55 - Choosing to work on tech events

6:00 - Outreach to underrepresented founders

9:15 - Common misconceptions about getting into tech

10:35 - University outreach

11:55 - Identifying problems to fix and not being blocked

14:35 - Reflecting on accomplishments

15:40 - Dom’s career plans

17:10 - Will Dom do a startup?

17:35 - Avoiding burnout

20:55 - The importance of just getting started

Mike Knoop is cofounder and Chief Product Officer at Zapier, which was in the YC Summer 2012 batch. Zapier moves information between your web apps automatically.

Kevin Hale is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before YC Kevin was the cofounder of Wufoo, which was funded by YC in 2006 and acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011.

You can find Mike on Twitter at @mikeknoop and Kevin at @ilikevests.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:43 - Kevin's intro

01:03 - Mike's intro

2:03 - How Mike and Kevin met

4:03 - Market sizing for consumer software

5:13 - Zapier's growth strategy today vs 2012

6:28 - Jumpstarting a platform like Zapier

9:03 - Building an app directory before building a product

11:03 - Applying to YC twice

13:23 - Zapier after Demo Day

14:48 - Zapier's first remote hire

16:48 - Remote companies not being perceived as legitimate

18:48 - Noticing remote was working then committing

21:28 - Qualities to look for when hiring remote employees

24:28 - Nina Mehta asks - What’s the best way to share work and knowledge across designers working on different parts of product without distracting from focused working time?

25:58 - Remote mistakes in the early days

27:33 - When to change modes of communication to allow for deep work

29:28 - When to ask for someone's full attention

31:33 - Product and design practices at Zapier

34:38 - OKRs for teams vs individuals

39:48 - Tools for remote teams

43:48 - No internal email at Zapier

46:53 - Keeping morale high in a remote team

49:28 - What happens at a Zapier retreat

51:43 - Remote design critiques

56:43 - Serendipity and over optimizing for it

58:33 - Setting up a remote company for success

Karn Saroya is the CEO and cofounder of Cover, which was in the YC Winter 2016 batch.

Cover is a nationally licensed insurance brokerage. You can use their app to take a picture of property you want to insure and they’ll connect you with their insurance partners so that you can get the best price and coverage.

You can find Karn on Twitter at @karnsaroya.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:36 - Karn’s intro

01:01 - Using computer vision to identify and catalogue property

2:28 - How Karn ended up starting Cover

3:48 - Being a maker vs. an advisor

5:58 - Stylekick, Karn’s previous startup

9:28 - Joining Shopify

10:08 - How the idea for Cover happened

11:58 - The capital-light way to start an insurance business

16:28 - Underwriting

17:58 - Lead generation

20:18 - Product development

21:28 - Buying Cover.com for $750k

24:53 - Being engaged to a cofounder

28:43 - Managing two offices and cultures

30:58 - Being an international founder in YC

31:58 - Advice to people in the current batch of YC

Caterina Fake hosts the podcast Should This Exist? which is about how technology is impacting our humanity. It launches today on iTunes. She also cofounded Flickr, Hunch, and Findery and is an investor at Yes VC.

Kat Manalac is a partner at YC.

You can find Caterina on Twitter at @Caterina and Kat at @KatManalac.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:32 - Caterina's new podcast, Should This Exist?

2:32 - Is there a process for considering if something should exist?

4:02 - Who should be part of these conversations?

5:17 - Wait But Why and the Human Colossus

7:22 - Episode 1 of Should This Exist?

10:17 - Having conversations before things exist

11:42 - How might employees think about their role in whether or not something should exist?

14:32 - Caterina reflecting on her creations and if they should exist

19:02 - Considering whether things should exist as investors

23:32 - Cofounder charter - What you will and won't do

26:03 - Questioning the VC model

27:22 - Working on Wall St, feeling herself change, and quitting

31:22 - Caterina as a student

34:02 - Peculiarity and entrepreneurship

35:22 - "Don't fight to win prizes that aren't worth winning"

38:32 - What was once fringe is now mainstream

40:52 - Kat looking up to Lea Salonga

42:42 - Evgeny asks - How did she get her first 100 paying users?

49:27 - How does she advise founders to find investors?

54:47 - What questions should founders ask themselves while making something?

Ryan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt which was in the Summer 2014 YC batch and was acquired by AngelList. He also invests in startups through his Weekend Fund.

Dalton Caldwell is a Partner at YC where he runs admissions.

Ryan is on Twitter at @rrhoover and Dalton is at @daltonc.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:27 - Ryan's intro

00:52 - Dalton's intro

1:27 - Forming Product Hunt and applying to YC

5:17 - Product Hunt's growth rate when they applied to YC

6:27 - Raising money for the right reasons

9:42 - Maker communities

11:27 - Why raise money for Product Hunt?

13:12 - Having buzz during the batch

18:12 - Brex changing their idea during YC

20:17 - Pivoting into something you know well

21:32 - In retrospect, how would Ryan have advised himself around monetization?

28:27 - Trying to build out other verticals

34:27 - Don't act like you have infinite runway

35:57 - Creating urgency and developing products within AngelList

40:17 - Tips to launch on Product Hunt

45:07 - What Dalton looks for in applications

46:57 - Giving people the opportunity to start

48:47- What motivated Ryan to leave his job before Product Hunt

Jake Klamka founded Insight. Insight provides intensive 7 week professional training fellowships in fields such as data science and data engineering. Insight was in the YC Winter 2011 batch.

Kevin Hale is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before YC Kevin was the cofounder of Wufoo, which was funded by YC in 2006 and acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011.

You can find Jake on Twitter at @jakeklamka and Kevin at @ilikevests.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:37 - Kevin's intro

01:07 - Jake's intro

1:42 - Applying to YC with one product then changing it

4:07 - How Insight started

4:57 - Jake's first students and initial coursework

8:37 - Finding out what companies want from data scientists

10:37 - Picking the first class of students

12:07 - Common pitfalls for people transitioning into data science

15:07 - Types of data science roles

17:22 - What data scientists should look out for in companies

18:17 - Chuck Grimmett asks - When do you know you need to bring in seasoned data scientists?

20:37 - How Insight has scaled and changed

22:37 - What happens in the program

23:57 - Examples of a good project for a data science resume

26:27 - Will more data scientists be founders in the future?

28:37 - Teaching product

29:37 - Cleaning data

32:07 - Tools for tracking data

32:57 - Track what are you trying to optimize

35:57 - Churn and conversion

39:37 - Is there an ideal background for a data scientist?

41:37 - Which startups recruit well at Insight?

43:37 - Contracting

46:17 - Fields Jake is excited about

Avni Patel Thompson founded Poppy, which helped parents book the best caregivers. They went through the YC Winter 2016 batch and recently shut down. Avni asked to come on the podcast to talk about what the process of shutting down was like.

Kat Manalac is a partner at YC.

You can find Avni on Twitter at @APatelThompson and Kat at @KatManalac.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - @CraigCannon.

***

Topics

00:35 - Kat’s intro

01:15 - Avni’s intro

2:15 - When did it become clear that scaling Poppy wasn’t working?

5:50 - Experiments Avni tried with Poppy

9:55 - The last six months of runway

13:25 - Choosing to shut Poppy down

17:25 - Pivot or shut down?

20:10 - Who did Avni have these hard conversations with?

24:35 - Communicating with investors during the process of shutting down

31:20 - How does Avni feel since shutting down Poppy?

38:30 - Tying self-worth to your accomplishments and how it feels after shutting down

39:30 - “This is what trying looks like.”

44:00 - The effects of having raised money

46:00 - Starting to think about what’s next

49:00 - Struggling with unstructured nothing

49:45 - Kindness

Samantha Bradshaw is a researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project and a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. She’s been tracking the phenomenon of political manipulation through social media.

You can find Samantha on Twitter at @sbradshaww.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

:53 - What is a bot?

2:53 - When computational propaganda began

3:53 - Changes in bot tactics since 2016

5:53 - Using bots for content creation

7:28 - WhatsApp and the upcoming Indian election

9:23 - Trends in computational propaganda

10:53 - How bots integrate into platforms

13:23 - Responsibilities of platforms to remove fake accounts

14:53 - The role of governments in media manipulation

18:18 - Fake news and selecting news that aligns with your beliefs

19:53 - Are platforms getting better or worse?

21:33 - Samantha's personal internet habits

23:03 - Sentiment around tracking in the UK vs the US

24:23 - The Mueller report and US midterms

29:18 - Canadian elections

30:18 - 2020 US elections

30:53 - Deepfakes

31:48 - Optimistic thoughts for the future

33:08 - How to help against computational propaganda

Cindy Mi is the founder and CEO of VIPKID. VIPKID is a 1-on-1 teaching platform where children in China learn english from North American teachers.

Qi Lu is the CEO of YC China and Head of YC Research.

***

Topics

00:23 - Qi's intro

00:38 - Cindy's intro

1:38 - Moving to a new province as a teenager

4:38 - Being an educator and an entrepreneur

8:23 - Starting VIPKid in a hyper-competitive market

14:53 - Metrics for measuring product market fit

21:43 - How did she find the business model?

26:53 - What things did she try that didn't work?

30:38 - Strategy for product expansion

33:03 - Content expansion for Mandarin learning

34:53 - Building global companies

41:23 - Creating a global culture

44:13 - The future of education

48:08 - How should engineers and product managers think about edtech?

51:33 - Thoughts on AI

54:33 - Advice for entrepreneurs

Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a firm focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build impactful new energy and technology companies. Previously he was the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors.

How to Build the Future is hosted by Sam Altman.

***

Topics

00:30 - Vinod’s intro

01:20 - A zero-million-dollar company vs a zero-billion-dollar company

4:20 - What percentage of investors in Silicon Valley are good long-term company builders?

4:50 - Who has earned the right to advise an entrepreneur?

6:50 - Which risk to take when

7:20 - Helpful board members

8:15 - Who to trust for what advice

11:00 - First principles thinking and rate of change

13:00 - Evaluating a candidate in an interview

14:15 - How much should a founder have planned and how ambitious should a founder be?

16:30 - Recruiting great people

19:00 - Building a phenomenal early team

20:20 - Being generous with early employee equity

27:00 - Gene pool engineering

27:18 - The art, science, and labor of recruiting

28:20 - How founders should think about investors

31:00 - Doers vs pontificators

32:00 - What does Vinod want to do in the next ten years?

32:10 - Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology

Frank Lantz is a game designer and Director of the NYU Game Center. He cofounded Area/Code Games and most recently released a game called Universal Paperclips in which you’re an AI that makes paperclips.

Frank’s on Twitter @flantz and his site is franklantz.net.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:27 - "Games are the aesthetic form of thinking and doing"

6:57 - VR skepticism

9:42 - Universal Paperclips

14:27 - Explaining games to non-gamers

20:12 - Competitive gaming

22:57 - Building life lessons into games

31:42 - Teaching game design

36:17 - Inspiration, hard work, and taste

39:17 - Darker sides of gaming culture

43:07 - The indie game market

45:27 - Unexpected trends in gaming

49:17 - Benedict Fritz asks - Frank you seem much more interested in chess, go, poker, and other games with a long history than most game designers. Where do you think this comes from?

52:12 - Esports

55:37 - Inventing sports

57:27 - Pokemon Go

1:00:32 - Difficulty in predicting successes in entertainment

1:03:17 - Frank's game recommendations

1:05:47 - @fakebalenciaga asks - Why Tonto?

Reham Fagiri and Kalam Dennis are the founders of AptDeco, where you can buy and sell used furniture. They were in the YC Winter 2014 batch and you can find them at AptDeco.com.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

0:21 - What is AptDeco?

1:06 - Why did Reham and Kalam start it?

2:51 - Were they considering other ideas?

5:06 - How did they prepare to start AptDeco after business school/the corporate world?

6:21 - Getting over the fear of starting

9:21 - Communicating that they're starting something to friends and family

14:21 - Starting a startup after business school

17:21 - Helpful learnings from a more traditional business education

27:21 - Early models of AptDeco vs today

31:51 - AptDeco's customers

34:06 - Brands and customer acquisition

38:46 - Learning how to do delivery

42:06 - Deciding not to warehouse furniture

43:51 - Ideas that didn't work and some that worked on the second attempt

48:21 - Analytics

50:51 - Being a NYC company in YC

52:11 - How to make the most of YC

Leonard Susskind is a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University and he’s regarded as one of the fathers of string theory.

He’s written several books including: The Black Hole War, The Cosmic Landscape, and the Theoretical Minimum series.

He also has over 100 lectures on YouTube.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

0:26 - Being perceived as an outsider physicist
   
4:26 - The perils of becoming too mainstream

6:11 - Where his ideas come from

7:26 - Claudio asks - Do you think the graviton can be experimentally found?

10:11 - The origins of String Theory

15:41 - Why should there be a grand unified theory?

16:56 - Quantum mechanics and gravity
  
20:16 - Large unanswered questions in physics

27:56 - Holographic principle

38:26 - Simulation hypothesis

40:41 - Richard Feynman on philosophy

42:26 - Feynman and the bomb

46:26 - Improving the world by discovering what the world is

49:26 - ER and EPR - Black holes and entanglement

56:26 - Noah Hammer asks - Could quantum teleportation be used in the future as a means of intergalactic communication?

58:26 - rokkodigi asks - How do you think quantum theory will shape technology in the future?

1:01:56 - Why teach physics for the public?

Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC. He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the winter 2012 batch.

In this episode Michael comments on five of his essays. The essays are: Why Should I Start a Startup?, One Order of Operations for Starting a Startup, The Real Product Market Fit, Users You Don’t Want, and Why Does Your Company Deserve More Money?

Michael’s on Twitter @mwseibel.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

0:00 - Intro

0:42 - Why Should I Start a Startup?

2:00 - Three types of people: people highly motivated when working for themselves, people that could succeed starting a startup or within a big company, and people that could succeed within a big company.

6:00 - How do you decide what type of person you are?

7:30 - Identify bias in advice givers

10:30 - Peer advice becomes less valuable during college

14:40 - One Order of Operations for Starting a Startup

15:40 - People aren’t taught how to find ideas

17:20 - Find a particular problem that you’re passionate about

20:55 - Find some friends and brainstorm a solution

23:20 - Build an MVP

25:55 - Two failed orders of operations for starting a startup

29:57 - The Real Product Market Fit

30:57 - Why do many founders think they have product market fit when they don’t?

35:42 - Building a successful company is not a single variable problem

37:27 - Socialcam didn’t hit product market fit

38:37 - Justin.tv had $1M in profit before reaching product market fit

42:27 - Some companies take a long time

42:55 - Users You Don’t Want

44:25 - The spectrum of how users are using your product

45:55 - Users that take a lot of customer support time

48:50 - Don’t let the hijack users control the product roadmap

49:31 - Why Does Your Company Deserve More Money?

50:31 - A team, a product, and an office are all just a means to an end

51:31 - If you don’t really deserve money, what is an alternate path to create leverage?

53:16 - Breaking even at Justin.tv was a moment of infinite clarity

55:31 - Series A program and leverage

Andrew Kortina is the cofounder of Venmo and Fin. Fin is a high quality, on-demand, personal assistant and executive assistant service.

You can get a $100 credit to try Fin at https://fin.com/yc

Andrew blogs at https://kortina.nyc/

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:32 - Human dignity and work

8:07 - Creating jobs

10:07 - From The Beautiful Struggle // The Beautiful Game - You might argue that we’re already in a sort of failure mode, where our ability to assign dignity to arbitrary work and motivate people to work bullshit jobs is more efficient than our ability to allocate labor towards industry that would have greater social benefit, like education, healthcare, food, etc. If we’re already in this failure mode, it’s kind of the worst of all worlds, because not only are we assigning meaning to work that doesn’t need to be done, but, also, we could be redeploying that labor towards efforts that are actually important today.

18:32 - Travel

21:02 - Why do we want to do anything?

22:07 - Life after Fin

25:17 - From The Emperor Has No Clothes, There is No Santa Claus, and Nothing is Rocket Science - I want to preface this talk by warning you that it’s quite possible you’ll interpret much of this talk as cynicism. It is not my intention to be cynical. My goal is to treat you with respect by speaking to you honestly, without any grand illusions.

None of the companies trying to convince you to work for them will mention technological determinism. They will confirm what your parents and teachers told you, that your work and contribution will be totally unique and significant.

32:02 - From The Emperor Has No Clothes, There is No Santa Claus, and Nothing is Rocket Science - I recognize that the meditative aspect of craft is an excellent way to cope with meaninglessness

38:32 - Technological determinism

43:02 - Andrew's company Fin

48:17 - Ryan Hoover asks - When (if ever) will Fin task completion be 100% AI-driven?

49:32 - Differences between running Fin and Venmo

56:47 - Venmo's Lucas ads

58:32 - Spencer Clark asks - How did you and your co-founders decide to sell Venmo?

1:02:02 - Charlie Kaufman on Screenwriting - What I’m trying to express – what I’d like to express – is the notion that, by being honest, thoughtful and aware of the existence of other living beings, a change can begin to happen in how we think of ourselves and the world, and ourselves in the world.

1:08:30 - Get $100 credit to Fin at https://fin.com/yc

Brian Donohue is President of Instapaper and a Product Engineering Manager at Pinterest.

You can find him on Twitter @bthdonohue.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:19 - The history of Instapaper

8:19 - Free competitors enter the market

10:19 - How Brian joined Instapaper

14:34 - Transitioning from paid to freemium

19:19 - Pinterest's acquisition of Instapaper

26:34 - Moving to California

29:04 - Working on Instapaper within Pinterest

32:19 - Spinning Instapaper out of Pinterest

42:34 - Jareau Wadé asks - What types of product integrations could Pinterest have done with Instapaper?

50:04 - Ryan Hoover asks - I’m curious how he and the team balance simplicity with new feature development/product expansion.

54:19 - Raymond Durk asks - I love the rapid reading mode but would also love a voice enabled mode where the Google Assistant or Siri reads it. Speaking of I'd use it on my Google Home to listen to news if that was a skill.

57:39 - Brian Kim asks - Any growth hacks that worked well?

1:00:04 - Gustaf Alströmer asks - How does it make time for focused time to catch up on everything he saves? What are his best productivity hacks related to this?

1:03:44 - Backpacking

Sam Altman expands on ideas that have come up in several of his essays. Specifically: choosing projects, creating value, and finding purpose.

Sam’s the president of YC Group and co-chairman of OpenAI. You can find him on Twitter @sama.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

1:25 - From The Days Are Long But The Decades Are Short - Minimize your own cognitive load from distracting things that don’t really matter. It’s hard to overstate how important this is, and how bad most people are at it.

3:50 - Stepping back and evaluating your work

5:30 - Creating metrics for your projects

6:30 - Taking a year off

9:30 - Figuring out when to commit

11:30 - Poker

12:30 - From Productivity - Sleep seems to be the most important physical factor in productivity for me. Exercise is probably the second most important physical factor. The third area is nutrition.

15:00 - From You and Your Research by Richard Hamming - "If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?"

16:30 - From The Days Are Long But The Decades Are Short - Things in life are rarely as risky as they seem. Most people are too risk-averse, and so most advice is biased too much towards conservative paths.

17:30 - Perspective shifts

20:15 - From Productivity - My system has three key pillars: “Make sure to get the important shit done”, “Don’t waste time on stupid shit”, and “make a lot of lists”.

22:30 - What Happened to Innovation

24:50 - From You and Your Research by Richard Hamming - He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important.

26:50 - The deferred life plan doesn’t work

31:50 - From The Merge - Our self-worth is so based on our intelligence that we believe it must be singular and not slightly higher than all the other animals on a continuum. Perhaps the AI will feel the same way and note that differences between us and bonobos are barely worth discussing.

34:10 - Weight training

35:30 - The Way to Love by Anthony de Mello

Laura Deming is a partner at The Longevity Fund. They invest in companies that will allow us to live longer and healthier lives.

You can learn more about them at Longevity.vc.

Laura’s on Twitter @LauraDeming.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:22 - Why focus on longevity now?

2:12 - How did Laura get started in longevity?

3:22 - Why raise a fund?

5:52 - What does Laura do personally for longevity?

9:07 - Worm and mouse studies

10:44 - Craig's personal habits

12:37 - Human studies

15:22 - Mica asks - Do you think immortality is going to be achieved by: 1. Curing all disease and stop aging so we could live with our own bodies forever 2. OR is going to be something like porting our brain, "mind" to a computer/robot?

17:37 - Most likely strategies to increase lifespan

19:47 - Ryan Hoover asks - Ask about the ethics of longevity. Jack J. Fernandes asks - Do people actually want to live longer?

21:44 - Mica asks - How would immortality change society? Wouldn't we become more complacent? Since we have "forever" to do things wouldn't that diminish our rate of innovation? And since less new individuals are being created we would have access to less new ideas. We would just stop creating new Newtons, Einsteins, Mozarts…

24:52 - Cognitive enhancement

25:52 - Daily habits

34:12 - Tech environment changes in the past 5-10 years

39:22 - What percentage of people in labs want to start companies?

41:37 - Pioneer

43:57 - Confidence

45:52 - Podcasting

49:12 - Choosing media to consume

52:17 - Sam Betesh asks - The last thing that led to a step function change in average life span was germ theory. What new areas of research might provide the next step function change?

55:07 - Extending fertility windows

57:22 - Jason Choi asks - What % of longevity is attributable to lifestyle choices vs genetics and the progress of technology in influencing both.

58:37 - Fatih asks - is blood transfusion a thing or just a hoax

1:00:42 - Rapamycin

1:02:27 - Testosterone

1:04:37 - Chris asks - Aubrey De Grey, IIRC, mentioned a number of times that we might, in the future, replace organs and tissues with new organic ones before they fail. Is this actually a reasonable idea, or is it more likely that we'll replace them with synthetic ones, if we replace them at all?

1:06:07 - Mica asks - Laura did a "cookie diet" for one month. Why did you do it? How did you feel? Doesn't it go against all the research on longevity? ;-)

1:08:07 - Is Laura actually not doing anything strange in her diet?

Shola Akinlade is CEO and cofounder of Paystack. Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid online and offline. They’re based in Lagos, Nigeria and were part of the Winter 2016 batch.

Shola’s on Twitter @shollsman.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:26 - What is Paystack?

01:06 - Shola's background and previous company

4:26 - Paystack's YC application

6:01 - Meeting his cofounder

7:26 - Interviewing at YC

10:21 - Joining YC as a Nigerian company

10:56 - Differences between startups in Nigeria and the US

13:26 - Nigeria's payments market

15:56 - Paystack's growth

19:26 - Expanding to other countries and hiring

25:26 - The best part of doing YC

29:26 - Crypto developments in Africa

30:21 - Creative Joe asks - How difficult is it to get into YC?

30:56 - Educating US investors

32:06 - Paul Israel asks - What gaps do you think still exist in the Nigerian fintech space?

33:01 - Nelson asks - Are there any conventional startup advice that did not work for Paystack as their target market is Africa?

35:21 - Nelson asks - What are some important lessons he learnt while building Paystack?

37:46 - Nelson asks - What are some applications he would love to see been built on top of Paystack?

39:56 - Building for Africa

42:16 - Nestor Ezeagu asks - Do you think something like GoFundMe could work in Nigeria?

42:46 - Car Joyy asks - Can I receive payments as an MVP ecommerce site before registering as a company?

44:06 - Achyut Shrestha asks - What’s your tech stack?

44:41 - Jordan Jackson asks - What are the biggest cultural differences that you account for in UX and product design?

48:41 - Shola's outlook

50:36 - What he misses about life before Paystack

52:51 - Paystack in five years

54:16 - Music recommendations

David Hua is CEO and cofounder of Meadow. Meadow makes retail and delivery software for dispensaries. They were part of the Winter 2015 batch. You can check them out at GetMeadow.com. David’s on Twitter @Hua.

Vincent Ning is CEO and cofounder of Nabis. Nabis is a cannabis services group. They offer distribution, logistics, sales, and marketing. You can check them out at GetNabis.com. Vincent's on Twitter @vcning.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:38 - What David brought with him

5:48 - Microdosing

6:48 - What are people buying?

10:38 - Customer demographics

12:00 - CBD

14:58 - Changing vocabulary around cannabis

17:13 - What is Meadow?

17:38 - What is Nabis?

17:53 - Why did they choose to not do cannabis product manufacturing?

22:38 - Fundraising as a cannabis company

26:08 - Why is there not one dominant cannabis company?

29:53 - Legalization across Canada

31:38 - Banking as a cannabis company

36:13 - Taxes

37:38 - Price sensitivity

40:14 - Brand loyalty

43:23 - What will the market look like in 5-10 years?

50:08 - Cannabis media

52:23 - Psychedelics

56:38 - Exonerations and social equity programs

Mathilde Collin is the cofounder and CEO of Front. Front is a shared inbox for teams and they were part of the YC Summer 2014 batch.

You can check out Front at https://frontapp.com/

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:25 - Tuomas Grannas asks - What's your favorite LEGO theme?

1:25 - What is Front?

3:50 - Google Inbox shutting down

5:25 - Prioritizing features

7:50 - Features that have increased Front usage

9:50 - What Front looked like at launch

12:45 - Early user acquisition

15:40 - Starting Front and meeting her cofounder

19:10 - The idea for Front

20:25 - When her cofounder was diagnosed with cancer

23:20 - Hardest moments running Front

25:25 - Employee retention

30:55 - Transparency

32:40 - Front's office in France

33:30 - KP asks - What is the one unique insight about the problem you didn’t have at the start but only discovered later after your launch?

36:15 - Did she consider other ideas Front?

37:40- Jordan Jackson asks - Email at least for me - has taken on a different meaning in a life of messaging apps and chat platforms. It is more serious in a way. How do you see email evolving and the ecosystem that encompasses in peoples lives?

39:55 - If she could remove any email feature

41:20 - When did they hit product market fit?

45:05 - Meditation

Eli Schwartz is the Director of SEO and Growth at SurveyMonkey. He came in to answer commonly asked questions about SEO.

Eli blogs about SEO and growth at elischwartz.co

You can find him on Twitter at 5le.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:23 - Does SEO matter in 2018?

2:23 - Where should a company start with SEO?

3:53 - Who’s doing SEO well?

4:48 - Why is Amazon doing SEO well?

5:48 - How should you crosslink?

7:33 - Paying for links

7:58 - SEO don’t dos

8:38 - Things that are no longer useful in SEO

9:43 - Keywords

13:08 - Reviews

13:48 - Content

17:48 - Images

23:08 - Link building

28:23 - How much time to give SEO?

28:53 - Mobile

30:58 - Ranking

32:08 - International SEO

34:18 - Translation

37:38 - International search

39:53 - GDPR

42:13 - Hiring someone to do SEO

44:08 - What to do when you organic SEO disappears

46:53 - Metrics for an SEO hire

48:53 - Tools for SEO

50:23 - Getting started in SEO

Joan Lasenby is a University Reader in the Signal Processing and Communications Group of the Cambridge University Engineering Department, and is a College Lecturer and Director of Studies in Engineering at Trinity College. Here's a list of her published work.

In this episode we talk about Joan’s research into 3D reconstruction from multiple cameras and her interest in geometric algebra.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:32 - What's a tangible example of geometric algebra?

1:52 - What is geometric algebra?

6:47 - What resparked interest in geometric algebra?

7:42 - Why is it important?

11:32 - When did Joan start working on it?

13:27 - Rotations

17:17 - Computer vision in the early 90s

19:32 - Joan's fellowship at the Royal Society

23:32 - What's changed in computer vision since the 90s to allow for Joan's drone research?

30:07 - Machine learning in computer vision

31:52 - How Joan and her students are applying machine learning

35:02 - Unifying qualities of geometric algebra

41:02 - Joan's paper ending up on Hacker News

45:32 - Where could geometric algebra take hold?

47:32 - Running and mobility

48:32 - Where to learn more

Peter Reinhardt is cofounder and CEO of Segment.
  
Segment helps companies capture data from every customer touchpoint and send it to the tools where it can be used most effectively.

They were part of the YC Summer 2011 batch.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

00:26 - What is Segment?

1:56 - Segment’s first customers

3:31 - Their YC application

4:26 - Going through YC

5:56 - Realizing their first product didn’t work

10:56 - Launching Analytics.js

12:11 - Experiencing product market fit

17:21 - Debating whether to launch or build out the product

19:41 - Evan Farrell asks - You mentioned in the SS lecture that you had to totally pivot to Analytics.js to find PMF, is it possible to purely iterate on something people kinda like to find PMF, or should it be clear from the outset if a new idea is something people want?

20:56 - The importance of having a skeptic on your team

23:56 - Customer interviews

26:56 - Benjamin Liam asks - How did they know they have the right messaging to explain their product?

28:26 - Idea generation

33:11 - Danny Prol asks - What values and standards do you have in place for your team at Segment? And how do you actively build that culture into your company?

37:26 - Ashwin Doke asks - How has GDPR impacted Segment's business model?

39:41 - Andrew Pikul asks - Any advice he has on asking for more money than you're comfortable asking for.

42:11 - Juan Carlos Garza asks - How did YC help you to where Segment is right now?

43:41 - Juan Carlos Garza asks - In an early stage, what's the thin line between ignoring a customer suggested feature or moving a customer requested feature to the core of your application?

45:11 - Biggest learnings since YC

45:16 - Important hires at Segment

Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport.

Flexport is a global freight forwarder powered by software and analytics. They are making international trade easier for over 10,000 companies in 70 countries. They were part of the YC Winter 2014 batch.

***

Topics

0:23 - What is a freight forwarder?

3:08 - Selling electric scooters on eBay 15 years ago

5:53 - Ryan’s business school experience

10:23 - Amazon competing with their vendors

13:23 - Matt Susk asks - What were the most important takeaways from Columbia Business School? Would you encourage entrepreneurs to pursue a MBA?

17:03 - Tyler Hogge asks - How did you get your first three clients at Flexport?

20:03 - Being a solo founder

23:08 - Varun Khurana asks - What's your strategy for rapidly hiring the best talent in so many different global hubs?

25:53 - Challenges of scaling Flexport

27:38 - Some of Ryan’s favorite books

29:43 - Scaling culture

34:23 - Jassim Ali asks - How has the Trump policy on foreign trade affected your business so far?

39:23 - PowerDecal asks - How do you poach clients from legacy providers?

46:23 - Automation in freight forwarding

49:23 - Jason Yannos asks - If you weren't operating Flexport and had to source a new idea to work on, where would you start?

53:23 - Derisking product ideas

56:53 - Biggest lessons learned at Flexport

David Zeevi is a James S. McDonnell independent fellow at the Rockefeller University Center for Studies in Physics and Biology. He focuses on developing computational methods for studying microbial ecology in the human gut and in the marine environment, and its contribution to human and environmental health.

He was one of the authors on the paper Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Apply for $120K in funding from YC.

***

Topics

01:15 - Why did David start working on personalized nutrition?

4:45 - How did the measure the effects of food in their study?

11:55 - How was the study standardized across people?

15:55 - How they measured an individual’s gut microbiome.

17:30 - What is the gut microbiome?

22:05 - Is there an ideal gut microbiome?

23:20 - How do you manipulate your gut microbiome?

24:50 - Fecal transplants.

26:55 - Elizabeth Iorns asks - Does post prandial glucose response regulation track with weight regulation? I.e. can they use their test to determine what individual people should eat or not eat to lose weight?

28:35 - Has this research been turned into a product?

29:35 - Who else worked on this research?

30:35 - How was their predictive algorithm made?

35:15 - Did they end up with any dietary suggestions?

36:15 - David’s bread study.

38:55 - Has David changed his own diet?

39:25 - Why fat was vilified.

43:15 - David’s ocean microbiome and other research.

51:05 - Traveling and your microbiome.

56:35 - Trying this out yourself.

Jessica Brillhart is the founder of Vrai Pictures. They’re an independent immersive content studio.

Before founding Vrai, Jessica was the Principal Filmmaker for VR at Google.

The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Questions 

00:23 - Starting VRAI

10:23 - Story in film vs. VR

12:38 - Gaming

19:53 - Conditions at Omaha - The Weather Channel in VR

22:38 - Jessica's upcoming projects

27:48 - Andrew Peterman asks - How long until we'll be able to create 3D 360° video from cell phone hardware+amazing software?

30:13 - Matt asks - Where do you see VR in 10 years?

30:28 - Michael Hodapp asks - Does VR still have long term mass adoption potential, or will the market shift to AR?

32:23 - Will people be in VR for a significant percentage of their time in the future?

40:58 - Virginia Pigato asks - How can a traditional storyteller adapt to vr?

50:13 - Can Olcer asks - What key but non-obvious thing is missing for VR to become mainstream?

52:08 - Matt MacVey asks - What are some of the most exciting or scariest parts of social VR and what is the storytelling potential of social VR?

55:38 - Tony Cassara asks - What kind of dog do you have?

Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung are both partners at YC.

This episode is about Startup School. It’s a free, online course we’re offering that starts on August 28th.

We’re also offering equity-free grants of $10,000 to 100 companies that participate in the course.

Anyone can sign up for the course at StartupSchool.org.

Read the transcript here.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

***

Topics

0:40 - What is Startup School?

3:40 - Who are the speakers this year?

5:00 - What are the different paths in Startup School?

7:00 - Success stories from last year’s Startup School.

8:55 - Why offer $10,000 grants?

10:00 - What deals are offered to the startups in Startup School?

11:00 - When does the course start?

12:45 - What are the requirements to complete the course?

15:15 - What are the topics that will be covered?

18:00 - What happens during office hours sessions?

22:30 - Who else is working on this course at YC?

Michael Seibel is a Partner and the CEO of YC.

He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the Winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the Winter 2012 batch.

For this episode we took questions from the internet. If you have questions for a future office hours episode, just tweet them our way.

Read the transcript here.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. Apply here.

Questions

00:25 - Why is YC worth 7% of your company?

6:25 - Generating leverage when fundraising

12:07 - Youssef asks - How did you validate your product market fit?

15:00 - LC Carrier asks - How does YC feel about companies who don't want to raise VC after the program?

17:05 - Edmilson Rodrigues asks - Do companies need to be incorporated already to participate in YC?

18:50 - Alex Rodriguez asks - What do you look for in startups that haven't had good growth but continue to push through (e.g. AirBnB) that makes you accept them?

26:50 - Fedor Paretsky asks - Do you have techniques you encourage to make pitches sound more exciting?

35:05 - David Chen asks - How to find mentors and advisors?

39:25 - building EatNeat asks - What if anything are you specifically looking for in a startup that wants to be a part of the Startup School 2018?

40:00 - Ryan Carl Mercer asks - What's your preferred way organizing your time?

41:05 - John Rigler asks - Can intrapreneurship be effective? I recently returned to IBM, have a patent, and yet have only vague ideas about how to signal and organize other like-minded folks. Could this path sabotage my dreams?

41:55 - Horacio Chávez asks - How would you approach an investor who says "I won't invest unless you have a patent"?

42:35 - Yahya Elamrani asks - Why does it feel like entrepreneurs aren’t marriage material? Should an entrepreneur look for an entrepreneurial spouse?

44:15 - Yahya Elamrani asks - How intense do you really have to be to found a startup?

48:50 - Is there a particular stage of company that's best served by Startup School?

50:35 - How do you get the most out of Startup School?