Y Combinator

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:38 - Kirsty Nathoo - Startup Finance Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them2:08 - #1 - Not knowing what to look at: bank balance, money coming in, and money going out2:56 - Burn3:41 - Runway4:59 - Growth rate 5:48 - Default alive - http://growth.tlb.org and http://paulgraham.com/aord.html8:09 - #2 - Not looking often enough: ev

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:35 - Kat Mañalac - How to Launch (Again and Again)1:51 - Ways to launch2:14 - Why launch continuously?3:15 - Silent launch4:25 - Friends & Family5:40 - Strangers7:03 - Online communities12:08 - Request access13:29 - Social media15:13 - Pre-order16:13 - New Product or Feature17:42 - Build your own community19:20 - Launching isn't one moment in time19:48 - Gustaf Alströmer - Growth for S

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:39 - Anu Hariharan on Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want1:44 - Enterprise4:09 - SAAS8:55 - Subscription11:33 - Transactional14:44 - Marketplace19:04 - E-commerce21:14 - Advertising23:12 - Hardware23:44 - Common mistakes25:35 - Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung on How Investors Measure Startups Q&A26:07 - Team, product market fit, and market

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:43 - Michael Seibel - How to Plan an MVP1:25 - The goal of a pre-launch startup3:10 - Iterating vs pivoting3:59 - Lean MVP5:06 - Heavy MVP6:19 - Launching7:35 - Learning is easier with an MVP8:07 - How to build an MVP quickly10:17 - Adora Cheung - How to Set KPIs and Goals11:51 - What are the right KPIs to set?15:50 - Revenue or active users16:28

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:43 - Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas2:04 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?2:50 - A startup idea is a hypothesis5:44 - Problem6:59 - Solution8:16 - Insight8:57 - Unfair advantages13:45 - Two beliefs about startups15:19 - Eric Migicovsky on How to Talk to Users17:36 - Three common errors people make when talking to users20:20 - Five questions to ask in a user interview20:28 - What's the hardest part

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:40 - Getting into AR2:55 - Her first exposure to AR4:40 - AR's future role in media7:45 - Deciding where to go with the product 9:55 - Innovations that enabled AR14:25 - Building a product in a new market17:25 - Raising money for a new market21:40 - Advice for founders after an acquisition 26:40 - Immigrating to the US31:10 - Advice for Immigrant founders33:49 - 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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:42 - Seed fundraising process3:32 - Emailing investors9:32 - Parallelized fundraising process12:17 - Meeting with investors14:17 - Overcapitalization17:07 - Communicating your plan to investors19:02 - Evaluating investors 22:57 - Fundraising process for a Series A company27:02 - Meeting Series A investors28:57 - 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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:49 - Opting out of owning furniture6:29 - Feather's prototype9:19 - 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.com15:59 - Customer interviews and learnings18:29 - Scaling a company with physical products21:29 - Why expand to other markets vs focus on one?23:59 - Who to hire and when in a logistics-heavy business26:09 - Unexpected learnings from scaling Feather27:54

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:29 - 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 nature4:04 - Why Russ started EconTalk7:44 - Key economic concepts for founders after 700 EconTalk episodes13:49 - Helpful methods for teaching economic concepts18:09 - "Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely" - Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments19:39 - Why Russ wrote How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life24:14 - How Eco

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:42 - Why we're starting with evaluating ideas2:07 - YC doesn't just fund companies with traction3:31 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?5:57 - A startup idea is a hypothesis7:37 - The problem11:37 - The solution13:07 - The insight14:42 - Founder's unfair advant

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:57 - Why Anu wrote How to Manage a Board2:27 - Board composition4:27 - Adding independent board members 6:27 - The responsibilities of a board member9:12 - Productive board meetings12:52 - Sharing materials before the meeting13:42 - Bringing executives into the meeting16:57 - Dealing with board conflict18:22 - Following up after a board meeting21:12 - Dealin

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:47 - 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 1:1s11:17 - More tips for the first 90 days13

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:41 - 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 Lever15:51 - Fundraising and figuring out the team24:06 - How do you figure out someone's career motivations?27:26 - Getting concrete when interviewing29:31 - Hiring remote employees32:11 - Writing job descriptions around impact37:41 -

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:51 - Stats from Startup School 20182:11 - Updates for Startup School 20198:41 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org9:16 - Sean Maina asks - In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience?11:56 - Design affordances14:11 - Sunil Tej asks - How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started?18:11 - Building an audience before a product20:41 - Wufoo's growth23:56 - Coming up with the idea for Wufoo27:56 - Companies pivoting during YC29:26 - Building a product in an unsexy sp

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:50 - Dan's most unpopular advice1:45 - What growth strategies do people jump on too soon?2:20 - Questions Dan asks a company he's advising3:50 - Traits Dan looks for in early growth hires6:30 - How product and growth are tied together11:30 - Good/bad learnings from Facebook's growth team14:00 - A/B testing17:00 - Retention and other metrics20:45 - The importance of experimentation23:45 - Getting ideas for A/B tests then ch

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:32 - 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 students8:12 - 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 myth15:57 - Two stakeholders m

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:46 - How Tracy got into the construction industry2:51 - What convinced Tracy and her cofounders to build PlanGrid?3:31 - Finding a technical cofounder6:26 - Tracy still sees herself as an engineer7:16 - PlanGrid's MVP and their first customers11:56 - Their sales process13:46 - Product breakthroughs17:21 - Not firing fast enough20:31 - What does she look for when hiring someone?26:01 - Tim Cook's closing statement at WWDC28:46 - Fredi Fernández asks - Does Tracy track wellne

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro1:41 - "Whatever feeds the ego kills the soul."4:21 - Maintaining passion for your work7:16 - Building a sustainable business as a creator9:01 - Shipping a real product - The Every Day Calendar - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonegiertz/the-every-day-calendar18:01 - Being scared to step away19:31 - Generating ideas20:46 - Finding out she had a brain tumor, having surgery, and sharing it26:01 - Returning to work after brain surgery28:01 - Learn

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:35 - What idea did Mike apply to YC with?01:20 - Where did the idea come from?4:35 - From project to company10:20 - What info did investors want to know that Second Measure could provide?12:05 - Their first customers14:35 - The primary use case of Second Measure for VCs15:20 - What questions are they trying to answer?19:35 - Data examples from their blog21:05 -

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/***Topics00:00 - Intro01:20 - 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 market8:55 - How does Meesho help users get online and start selling?11:45 - Most impactful user stories13:50 - Growth drivers15:50 - Balancing growth and quality17:25 - What if Facebook copies Meesho?18:50 - When did Vidit and his cofounder know they wanted to start a startup?21:20 - The