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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Sep 29, 2022 · 21 min
Simple Products That Became Big Companies
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/
Sep 12, 2022 · 20 min
Where Do Great Startup Ideas Come From?
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/
Sep 5, 2022 · 20 min
Successful Founders Are OK With Rejection
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/
Aug 29, 2022 · 18 min
Should You Follow Your Passion?
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/
Aug 25, 2022 · 9 min
Understanding Investor Terms & Incentives
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/
Aug 18, 2022 · 7 min
YC Founders Made These Fundraising Mistakes
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
Aug 15, 2022 · 1 hr 58 min
YC Founder Firesides: Gusto on building for new verticals
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/
Aug 9, 2022 · 8 min
Co-Founder Mistakes That Kill Companies & How To Avoid Them
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
Jul 27, 2022 · 22 min
Dealing With Setbacks And The Startup Gut Punch
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
Jul 21, 2022 · 35 min
Saving Your Startup During an Economic Downturn
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
Jun 22, 2022 · 19 min
Why You Should Leave Your FAANG Job
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
Jun 22, 2022 · 20 min
How Future Billionaires Get Sh*t Done
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
Jan 28, 2020 · 46 min
#157 - Diego Saez Gil
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
Dec 18, 2019 · 1 hr 2 min
#156 - Amber Atherton and Iba Masood
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
Dec 11, 2019 · 36 min
#155 - Laks Srini
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
Dec 4, 2019 · 1 hr 5 min
#154 - Matt Cutts
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?
Nov 27, 2019 · 1 hr 12 min
#153 - Cory Doctorow and Joe Betts-LaCroix
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
Nov 6, 2019 · 42 min
#151 - Startup School Week 10 Recap - Ali Rowghani on How to Lead and Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung on Startup School 2019 by the Numbers
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
Oct 30, 2019 · 37 min
#150 - Startup School Week 9 Recap - Carolynn Levy on Modern Startup Financing and Jared Friedman’s Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders
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
Oct 23, 2019 · 44 min
#149 - Startup School Week 8 Recap - Adora Cheung on Prioritizing Your Time and Kevin Hale on Evaluating Startup Ideas
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