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Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Y Combinator

We help founders make something people want. The Y Combinator Podcast is where builders talk about building. From the earliest days of an idea to scaling a company that changes the world, YC partners and founders share real stories, lessons, and tactics from the frontlines.

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  • 327 episodes
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Episodes327

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  • Oct 16, 2019 · 30 min

    #148 - Startup School Week 7 Recap - Kevin Hale on Conversion Rates and Pricing

    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

  • Oct 9, 2019 · 46 min

    #147 - Startup School Week 6 Recap - Tim Brady on Culture and Dalton Caldwell on Pivoting

    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

  • Oct 2, 2019 · 50 min

    #146 - Startup School Week 5 Recap - Kirsty Nathoo and Kevin Hale

    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

  • Sep 25, 2019 · 56 min

    #145 - Startup School Week 4 Recap - Kat Mañalac and Gustaf Alströmer

    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

  • Sep 18, 2019 · 44 min

    #144 - Startup School Week 3 Recap - Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung

    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?

  • Sep 11, 2019 · 43 min

    #143 - Startup School Week 2 Recap: Michael Seibel, Adora Cheung, and Ilya Volodarsky

    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

  • Sep 4, 2019 · 39 min

    #142 - Startup School Week 1 Recap: Kevin Hale and Eric Migicovsky

    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

  • Aug 28, 2019 · 36 min

    #141 - Diana Hu

    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

  • Aug 21, 2019 · 37 min

    #140 - Aaron Harris on Fundraising and Meeting with Investors

    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

  • Aug 14, 2019 · 38 min

    #139 - Jay Reno

    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

  • Aug 7, 2019 · 59 min

    #138 - Russ Roberts

    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?

  • Jul 31, 2019 · 27 min

    #137 - Startup School Podcast Preview with Kevin Hale

    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

  • Jul 24, 2019 · 35 min

    #136 - Anu Hariharan on Managing a Board

    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?

  • Jul 17, 2019 · 49 min

    #135 - Camille Fournier

    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

  • Jul 10, 2019 · 58 min

    #134 - Sarah Nahm and Holly Liu

    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

  • Jul 3, 2019 · 54 min

    #133 - Updates for Startup School 2019 and Office Hours with Kevin Hale

    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

  • Jun 26, 2019 · 1 hr 1 min

    #132 - Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer

    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?

  • Jun 19, 2019 · 42 min

    #131 - Jeremy Rossmann

    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

  • Jun 12, 2019 · 50 min

    #130 - Tracy Young and Kat Manalac

    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

  • Jun 5, 2019 · 49 min

    #129 - Simone Giertz

    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?