#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

About this episode

<p>We've cut down the tenth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.<br><br>First, a lecture from&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/rowghani">Ali Rowghani</a>. Ali is a partner at YC. His lecture covers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HDO1p3VdYg">how to lead</a>.<br><br>Then a lecture from <a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests?lang=en">Kevin Hale</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/nolimits">Adora Cheung</a>. Kevin and Adora are both partners at YC. Their lecture breaks down this year’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atgskSiD-8M&amp;feature=youtu.be">Startup School by the numbers</a> and they share tips on what helped companies most.<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><br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:00 - Intro<br><br>00:36 - Ali Rowghani - How to Lead<br><br>1:36 - Ali's background<br><br>2:56 - There's no single archetype for a great leader so be yourself<br><br>5:16 - Great leaders think and communicate clearly<br><br>9:56 - Great leaders have good judgement about people<br><br>12:56 - Great leaders have strong personal integrity and commitment<br><br>13:46 - The transparency test<br><br>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<br><br>15:21 - The science of trust<br><br>16:08 - The art of trust<br><br>16:36 - Optimize for trust<br><br>17:40 - Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung - Startup School 2019 by the Numbers<br><br>19:24 - Startup School grew during the course<br><br>20:24 - Did SUS make a difference?<br><br>21:14 - 106 SUS companies were accepted into YC<br><br>23:17 - How can you replicate their success?<br><br>23:44 - Be clear and concise<br><br>26:59 - Edit your company description<br><br>28:04 - Weekly updates submitted<br><br>28:39 - Top 7 biggest obstacles for SUS companies<br><br>29:04 - Top 7 KPI movers<br><br>29:59 - Top 7 user insights<br><br>31:04 - Average startup weeks to launch<br><br>31:54 - Average hard tech or biotech startup weeks to launch<br><br>32:54 - % of weekly updates from launched startups<br><br>33:34 - Group sessions<br><br>33:59 - Companies got better at explaining their ideas, selling themselves, and getting others excited<br><br>35:09 - Founders like qualitative feedback<br><br>36:09 - No shows<br><br>37:19 - Morale<br><br>37:49 - Technical, launched, full-time, revenue generating, non-flaky, non-solo founder startups that talk to users are happier<br><br>41:14 - Summary<br></p>