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#143 - Startup School Week 2 Recap: Michael Seibel, Adora Cheung, and Ilya Volodarsky
11 september 2019 · 43 min
We've cut down the second week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast. Lees meer
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
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#142 - Startup School Week 1 Recap: Kevin Hale and Eric Migicovsky
4 september 2019 · 39 min
We've cut down the first week of Startup School lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast. Lees meer
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
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#141 - Diana Hu
28 augustus 2019 · 36 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#140 - Aaron Harris on Fundraising and Meeting with Investors
21 augustus 2019 · 38 min
Aaron Harris is a Partner at YC and before that he cofounded Tutorspree. Lees meer
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
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#139 - Jay Reno
14 augustus 2019 · 39 min
Jay Reno is the CEO and founder of Feather. Feather is a furniture subscription service. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC. Lees meer
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
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#138 - Russ Roberts
7 augustus 2019 · 1 uur
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. Lees meer
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?
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#137 - Startup School Podcast Preview with Kevin Hale
31 juli 2019 · 27 min
Today’s episode is a preview of the Startup School podcast. Lees meer
We’re putting all the Startup School lectures on their own podcast feed. You can subscribe here:
iTunes
RSSThis 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
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#136 - Anu Hariharan on Managing a Board
24 juli 2019 · 35 min
Anu Hariharan is a partner at YC. Today’s episode is about her recent post, How To Manage a Board. Lees meer
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?
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#135 - Camille Fournier
17 juli 2019 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#134 - Sarah Nahm and Holly Liu
10 juli 2019 · 59 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#133 - Updates for Startup School 2019 and Office Hours with Kevin Hale
3 juli 2019 · 54 min
Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo. Lees meer
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
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#132 - Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer
26 juni 2019 · 1 uur 2 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#131 - Jeremy Rossmann
19 juni 2019 · 43 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#130 - Tracy Young and Kat Manalac
12 juni 2019 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#129 - Simone Giertz
5 juni 2019 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#128 - Michael Babineau and Kevin Hale
29 mei 2019 · 56 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#127 - Vidit Aatrey and Adora Cheung
22 mei 2019 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
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 - …
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#126 - Chris Best and Jonathan Gill
15 mei 2019 · 49 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#125 - Brian Halligan and Kevin Hale
8 mei 2019 · 47 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#124 - Jarvis Johnson
1 mei 2019 · 1 uur 5 min
Jarvis Johnson was previously a software engineer at Patreon, Yelp, and Google. He’s now a YouTuber. Lees meer
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
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#123 - Harry Zhang and Kevin Hale
24 april 2019 · 41 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#122 - Max Rhodes and Anu Hariharan
17 april 2019 · 48 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#120 - Austen Allred
3 april 2019 · 1 uur 1 min
Austen Allred is the CEO and cofounder of Lambda School. Lees meer
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 c…
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#119 - Amy Buechler and Michael Seibel
27 maart 2019 · 54 min
Amy Buechler is an executive coach for startup founders. Lees meer
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?
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#118 - Marques Brownlee
21 maart 2019 · 52 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#117 - Craig Cannon and Adora Cheung
13 maart 2019 · 1 uur 8 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#116 - Domonique Fines and Cadran Cowansage
11 maart 2019 · 22 min
Domonique Fines is the Director of Events at YC. Lees meer
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
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#115 - Mike Knoop and Kevin Hale
6 maart 2019 · 1 uur 4 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#114 - Karn Saroya
27 februari 2019 · 35 min
Karn Saroya is the CEO and cofounder of Cover, which was in the YC Winter 2016 batch. Lees meer
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
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#113 - Caterina Fake and Kat Manalac
21 februari 2019 · 58 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#112 - Ryan Hoover and Dalton Caldwell
15 februari 2019 · 51 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#111 - Jake Klamka and Kevin Hale
6 februari 2019 · 49 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#110 - Avni Patel Thompson and Kat Manalac
30 januari 2019 · 53 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#109 - Samantha Bradshaw
23 januari 2019 · 34 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#108 - Cindy Mi and Qi Lu
16 januari 2019 · 59 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#107 - Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman
9 januari 2019 · 35 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#106 - Frank Lantz
20 december 2018 · 1 uur 10 min
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. Lees meer
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?
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#105 - Reham Fagiri and Kalam Dennis
14 december 2018 · 55 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#104 - Leonard Susskind
6 december 2018 · 1 uur 7 min
Leonard Susskind is a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University and he’s regarded as one of the fathers of string theory. Lees meer
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?
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#103 - Michael Seibel
28 november 2018 · 58 min
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. Lees meer
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 - Bre…
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#102 - Andrew Kortina
20 november 2018 · 1 uur 10 min
Andrew Kortina is the cofounder of Venmo and Fin. Fin is a high quality, on-demand, personal assistant and executive assistant service. Lees meer
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 be…
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#101 - Brian Donohue
14 november 2018 · 1 uur 8 min
Brian Donohue is President of Instapaper and a Product Engineering Manager at Pinterest. Lees meer
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
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#100 - Sam Altman
8 november 2018 · 36 min
Sam Altman expands on ideas that have come up in several of his essays. Specifically: choosing projects, creating value, and finding purpose. Lees meer
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 …
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#99 - Laura Deming
23 oktober 2018 · 1 uur 10 min
Laura Deming is a partner at The Longevity Fund. They invest in companies that will allow us to live longer and healthier lives. Lees meer
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:…
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#98 - Shola Akinlade
16 oktober 2018 · 57 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#97 - David Hua and Vincent Ning
11 oktober 2018 · 1 uur 5 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#96 - Mathilde Collin
3 oktober 2018 · 49 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#95 - Eli Schwartz
27 september 2018 · 52 min
Eli Schwartz is the Director of SEO and Growth at SurveyMonkey. He came in to answer commonly asked questions about SEO. Lees meer
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
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#94 - Joan Lasenby
17 september 2018 · 51 min
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. Lees meer
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
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#93 - Peter Reinhardt
6 september 2018 · 49 min
Peter Reinhardt is cofounder and CEO of Segment. Lees meer
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