#130 - Tracy Young and Kat Manalac

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Tracy_Young">Tracy Young</a> is a cofounder and the CEO of <a href="https://www.plangrid.com/">PlanGrid</a>. PlanGrid makes mobile construction productivity software. They were acquired by Autodesk in 2018 and were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/KatManalac">Kat Manalac</a> is a Partner at YC.<br><br>You can find Tracy on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Tracy_Young">@Tracy_Young</a> and Kat is <a href="https://twitter.com/KatManalac">@KatManalac</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.<br><br>Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: <a href=" https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/</a></p><p><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:00 - Intro<br><br>00:46 - How Tracy got into the construction industry<br><br>2:51 - What convinced Tracy and her cofounders to build PlanGrid?<br><br>3:31 - Finding a technical cofounder<br><br>6:26 - Tracy still sees herself as an engineer<br><br>7:16 - PlanGrid's MVP and their first customers<br><br>11:56 - Their sales process<br><br>13:46 - Product breakthroughs<br><br>17:21 - Not firing fast enough<br><br>20:31 - What does she look for when hiring someone?<br><br>26:01 - Tim Cook's closing statement at WWDC<br><br>28:46 - Fredi Fernández asks - Does Tracy track wellness levels of the team?<br><br>29:26 - At what point did Tracy hire an office manager?<br><br>30:16 - How does Tracy take care of herself?<br><br>31:46 - Founding a company with a partner<br><br>33:31 - Managing a company as a new parent<br><br>35:46 - Seyed Rasoul Jabari asks - What's your big plan to go from 1.5 to 10 million projects?<br><br>36:46 - Holly asks - What has been your single largest influence in helping you scale?<br><br>38:06 - Why do some executives not work out?<br><br>38:56 - What skills did Tracy have to work on when scaling?<br><br>42:41 - What do a lot of startups get wrong?<br><br>46:21 - Tracy's recommended books<br><br>48:01 - What Tracy wishes she knew when she started out</p>