Y Combinator Startup Podcast

#114 - Karn Saroya

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/karnsaroya/">Karn Saroya</a> is the CEO and cofounder of <a href="https://cover.com/">Cover</a>, which was in the YC Winter 2016 batch.<br><br>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.<br><br>You can find Karn on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/karnsaroya/">@karnsaroya</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:36 - Karn’s intro<br><br>01:01 - Using computer vision to identify and catalogue property<br><br>2:28 - How Karn ended up starting Cover<br><br>3:48 - Being a maker vs. an advisor<br><br>5:58 - Stylekick, Karn’s previous startup<br><br>9:28 - Joining Shopify<br><br>10:08 - How the idea for Cover happened<br><br>11:58 - The capital-light way to start an insurance business<br><br>16:28 - Underwriting<br><br>17:58 - Lead generation<br><br>20:18 - Product development<br><br>21:28 - Buying Cover.com for $750k<br><br>24:53 - Being engaged to a cofounder<br><br>28:43 - Managing two offices and cultures<br><br>30:58 - Being an international founder in YC<br><br>31:58 - Advice to people in the current batch of YC<br></p>

#113 - Caterina Fake and Kat Manalac

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Caterina">Caterina Fake</a> hosts the podcast <a href="http://applepodcasts.com/ShouldThisExist">Should This Exist?</a>&nbsp;which is about how technology is impacting our humanity. It launches today <a href="http://applepodcasts.com/ShouldThisExist">on iTunes</a>. She also cofounded Flickr, Hunch, and Findery and is an investor at <a href="https://yes.vc/">Yes VC</a>.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/KatManalac">Kat Manalac</a> is a partner at YC.<br><br>You can find Caterina on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/Caterina">@Caterina</a> and Kat at <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>***<br></p><p><b>Topics<br></b><br>00:32 - Caterina's new podcast, Should This Exist?<br><br>2:32 - Is there a process for considering if something should exist?<br><br>4:02 - Who should be part of these conversations?<br><br>5:17 - Wait But Why and the Human Colossus<br><br>7:22 - Episode 1 of Should This Exist?<br><br>10:17 - Having conversations before things exist<br><br>11:42 - How might employees think about their role in whether or not something should exist?<br><br>14:32 - Caterina reflecting on her creations and if they should exist<br><br>19:02 - Considering whether things should exist as investors<br><br>23:32 - Cofounder charter - What you will and won't do<br><br>26:03 - Questioning the VC model<br><br>27:22 - Working on Wall St, feeling herself change, and quitting<br><br>31:22 - Caterina as a student<br><br>34:02 - Peculiarity and entrepreneurship<br><br>35:22 - "Don't fight to win prizes that aren't worth winning"<br><br>38:32 - What was once fringe is now mainstream<br><br>40:52 - Kat looking up to Lea Salonga<br><br>42:42 - Evgeny asks - How did she get her first 100 paying users?<br><br>49:27 - How does she advise founders to find investors?<br><br>54:47 - What questions should founders ask themselves while making something?</p>

#112 - Ryan Hoover and Dalton Caldwell

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/rrhoover">Ryan Hoover</a> is the founder of <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/">Product Hunt</a> which was in the Summer 2014 YC batch and was acquired by <a href="https://angel.co/">AngelList</a>. He also invests in startups through his <a href="https://weekend.fund/">Weekend Fund</a>.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/daltonc">Dalton Caldwell</a> is a Partner at YC where he runs admissions.<br><br>Ryan is on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/rrhoover">@rrhoover</a>&nbsp;and Dalton is at <a href="https://twitter.com/daltonc">@daltonc</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Craig Cannon</a>.</p><p><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:27 - Ryan's intro<br><br>00:52 - Dalton's intro<br><br>1:27 - Forming Product Hunt and applying to YC<br><br>5:17 - Product Hunt's growth rate when they applied to YC<br><br>6:27 - Raising money for the right reasons<br><br>9:42 - Maker communities<br><br>11:27 - Why raise money for Product Hunt?<br><br>13:12 - Having buzz during the batch<br><br>18:12 - Brex changing their idea during YC<br><br>20:17 - Pivoting into something you know well<br><br>21:32 - In retrospect, how would Ryan have advised himself around monetization?<br><br>28:27 - Trying to build out other verticals<br><br>34:27 - Don't act like you have infinite runway<br><br>35:57 - Creating urgency and developing products within AngelList<br><br>40:17 - Tips to launch on Product Hunt<br><br>45:07 - What Dalton looks for in applications<br><br>46:57 - Giving people the opportunity to start<br><br>48:47- What motivated Ryan to leave his job before Product Hunt<br></p>

#111 - Jake Klamka and Kevin Hale

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/jakeklamka">Jake Klamka</a> founded <a href="https://www.insightdatascience.com/">Insight</a>. 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.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">Kevin Hale</a> 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.<br><br>You can find Jake on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/jakeklamka">@jakeklamka</a> and Kevin at <a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">@ilikevests</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:37 - Kevin's intro<br><br>01:07 - Jake's intro<br><br>1:42 - Applying to YC with one product then changing it<br><br>4:07 - How Insight started<br><br>4:57 - Jake's first students and initial coursework<br><br>8:37 - Finding out what companies want from data scientists<br><br>10:37 - Picking the first class of students<br><br>12:07 - Common pitfalls for people transitioning into data science<br><br>15:07 - Types of data science roles<br><br>17:22 - What data scientists should look out for in companies<br><br>18:17 - Chuck Grimmett asks - When do you know you need to bring in seasoned data scientists?<br><br>20:37 - How Insight has scaled and changed<br><br>22:37 - What happens in the program<br><br>23:57 - Examples of a good project for a data science resume<br><br>26:27 - Will more data scientists be founders in the future?<br><br>28:37 - Teaching product<br><br>29:37 - Cleaning data<br><br>32:07 - Tools for tracking data<br><br>32:57 - Track what are you trying to optimize<br><br>35:57 - Churn and conversion<br><br>39:37 - Is there an ideal background for a data scientist?<br><br>41:37 - Which startups recruit well at Insight?<br><br>43:37 - Contracting<br><br>46:17 - Fields Jake is excited about<br></p>

#110 - Avni Patel Thompson and Kat Manalac

<p><a href="http://avnipatelthompson.com/">Avni Patel Thompson</a> 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.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/katmanalac">Kat Manalac</a> is a&nbsp;partner at YC.<br><br>You can find Avni on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/APatelThompson">@APatelThompson</a> and Kat at <a href="https://twitter.com/katmanalac">@KatManalac</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">@CraigCannon</a>.<br><br>***</p><p><b>Topics<br><br></b>00:35 - Kat’s intro<br><br>01:15 - Avni’s intro<br><br>2:15 - When did it become clear that scaling Poppy wasn’t working?<br><br>5:50 - Experiments Avni tried with Poppy<br><br>9:55 - The last six months of runway<br><br>13:25 - Choosing to shut Poppy down<br><br>17:25 - Pivot or shut down?<br><br>20:10 - Who did Avni have these hard conversations with?<br><br>24:35 - Communicating with investors during the process of shutting down<br><br>31:20 - How does Avni feel since shutting down Poppy?<br><br>38:30 - Tying self-worth to your accomplishments and how it feels after shutting down<br><br>39:30 - “This is what trying looks like.”<br><br>44:00 - The effects of having raised money<br><br>46:00 - Starting to think about what’s next<br><br>49:00 - Struggling with unstructured nothing<br><br>49:45 - Kindness<b><br></b></p>

#109 - Samantha Bradshaw

<p><a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/samantha-bradshaw/">Samantha Bradshaw</a> is a researcher at the <a href="https://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/">Computational Propaganda Project</a> and a doctoral candidate at the <a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford Internet Institute</a>. She’s been tracking the phenomenon of political manipulation through social media.<br><br>You can find Samantha on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/sbradshaww">@sbradshaww</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>:53 - What is a bot?<br><br>2:53 - When computational propaganda began<br><br>3:53 - Changes in bot tactics since 2016<br><br>5:53 - Using bots for content creation<br><br>7:28 - WhatsApp and the upcoming Indian election<br><br>9:23 - Trends in computational propaganda<br><br>10:53 - How bots integrate into platforms<br><br>13:23 - Responsibilities of platforms to remove fake accounts<br><br>14:53 - The role of governments in media manipulation<br><br>18:18 - Fake news and selecting news that aligns with your beliefs<br><br>19:53 - Are platforms getting better or worse?<br><br>21:33 - Samantha's personal internet habits<br><br>23:03 - Sentiment around tracking in the UK vs the US<br><br>24:23 - The Mueller report and US midterms<br><br>29:18 - Canadian elections<br><br>30:18 - 2020 US elections<br><br>30:53 - Deepfakes<br><br>31:48 - Optimistic thoughts for the future<br><br>33:08 - How to help against computational propaganda<br></p>

#108 - Cindy Mi and Qi Lu

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/wenjuan_mi">Cindy Mi</a> is the founder and CEO of <a href="https://t.vipkid.com.cn">VIPKID</a>. VIPKID is a 1-on-1 teaching platform where children in China learn english from North American teachers.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/qilu">Qi Lu</a> is the CEO of YC China and Head of YC Research.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:23 - Qi's intro<br><br>00:38 - Cindy's intro<br><br>1:38 - Moving to a new province as a teenager<br><br>4:38 - Being an educator and an entrepreneur <br><br>8:23 - Starting VIPKid in a hyper-competitive market<br><br>14:53 - Metrics for measuring product market fit<br><br>21:43 - How did she find the business model?<br><br>26:53 - What things did she try that didn't work?<br><br>30:38 - Strategy for product expansion<br><br>33:03 - Content expansion for Mandarin learning<br><br>34:53 - Building global companies<br><br>41:23 - Creating a global culture<br><br>44:13 - The future of education<br><br>48:08 - How should engineers and product managers think about edtech?<br><br>51:33 - Thoughts on AI<br><br>54:33 - Advice for entrepreneurs</p>

#107 - Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/vkhosla">Vinod Khosla</a> is the founder of <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/">Khosla Ventures</a>, 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.<br><br><a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/category/how-to-build-the-future/">How to Build the Future</a> is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/sama">Sam Altman</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>00:30 - Vinod’s intro<br><br>01:20 - A zero-million-dollar company vs a zero-billion-dollar company<br><br>4:20 - What percentage of investors in Silicon Valley are good long-term company builders?<br><br>4:50 - Who has earned the right to advise an entrepreneur?<br><br>6:50 - Which risk to take when<br><br>7:20 - Helpful board members<br><br>8:15 - Who to trust for what advice<br><br>11:00 - First principles thinking and rate of change<br><br>13:00 - Evaluating a candidate in an interview<br><br>14:15 - How much should a founder have planned and how ambitious should a founder be?<br><br>16:30 - Recruiting great people<br><br>19:00 - Building a phenomenal early team<br><br>20:20 - Being generous with early employee equity<br><br>27:00 - <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/gene-pool-engineering-for-entrepreneurs">Gene pool engineering</a><br><br>27:18 - <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/the-art-science-and-labor-of-recruiting">The art, science, and labor of recruiting</a><br><br>28:20 - How founders should think about investors<br><br>31:00 - Doers vs pontificators<br><br>32:00 - What does Vinod want to do in the next ten years?<br><br>32:10 - <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/reinventing-societal-infrastructure-with-technology">Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology</a><br></p>

#106 - Frank Lantz

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/flantz">Frank Lantz</a> is a game designer and Director of the <a href="https://gamecenter.nyu.edu/">NYU Game Center</a>. He cofounded Area/Code Games and most recently released a game called <a href="http://www.franklantz.net/work/#/universal-paperclips/">Universal Paperclips </a>in which you’re an AI that makes paperclips.<br><br>Frank’s on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/flantz">@flantz</a> and his site is <a href="http://www.franklantz.net/">franklantz.net</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>00:27 - "Games are the aesthetic form of thinking and doing"<br><br>6:57 - VR skepticism<br><br>9:42 - Universal Paperclips<br><br>14:27 - Explaining games to non-gamers<br><br>20:12 - Competitive gaming<br><br>22:57 - Building life lessons into games<br><br>31:42 - Teaching game design<br><br>36:17 - Inspiration, hard work, and taste<br><br>39:17 - Darker sides of gaming culture<br><br>43:07 - The indie game market<br><br>45:27 - Unexpected trends in gaming<br><br>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?<br><br>52:12 - Esports<br><br>55:37 - Inventing sports<br><br>57:27 - Pokemon Go<br><br>1:00:32 - Difficulty in predicting successes in entertainment<br><br>1:03:17 - Frank's game recommendations<br><br>1:05:47 - @fakebalenciaga asks - Why Tonto?<br></p>

#105 - Reham Fagiri and Kalam Dennis

<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/reham-fagiri-97683b1/">Reham Fagiri</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalam-dennis-641a7120/">Kalam Dennis</a> are the founders of <a href="https://www.aptdeco.com/">AptDeco</a>, where you can buy and sell used furniture. They were in the YC Winter 2014 batch and you can find them at <a href="https://www.aptdeco.com/">AptDeco.com</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>0:21 - What is AptDeco?<br><br>1:06 - Why did Reham and Kalam start it?<br><br>2:51 - Were they considering other ideas?<br><br>5:06 - How did they prepare to start AptDeco after business school/the corporate world?<br><br>6:21 - Getting over the fear of starting<br><br>9:21 - Communicating that they're starting something to friends and family<br><br>14:21 - Starting a startup after business school<br><br>17:21 - Helpful learnings from a more traditional business education<br><br>27:21 - Early models of AptDeco vs today<br><br>31:51 - AptDeco's customers<br><br>34:06 - Brands and customer acquisition<br><br>38:46 - Learning how to do delivery<br><br>42:06 - Deciding not to warehouse furniture<br><br>43:51 - Ideas that didn't work and some that worked on the second attempt<br><br>48:21 - Analytics<br><br>50:51 - Being a NYC company in YC<br><br>52:11 - How to make the most of YC</p>

#104 - Leonard Susskind

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Susskind">Leonard Susskind</a> is&nbsp;a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University and he’s regarded as one of the fathers of string theory.<br><br>He’s written several books including:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316016411">The Black Hole War</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Landscape-String-Illusion-Intelligent/dp/0316013331">The Cosmic Landscape</a>, and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Theoretical-Minimum-Start-Doing-Physics/dp/0465075681/">Theoretical Minimum series</a>.<br><br>He also has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQrxduI9Pds1fm91Dmn8x1lo-O_kpZGk8">over 100 lectures on YouTube</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>0:26 - Being perceived as an outsider physicist<br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>4:26 - The perils of becoming too mainstream<br><br>6:11 - Where his ideas come from<br><br>7:26 - Claudio asks - Do you think the graviton can be experimentally found?<br><br>10:11 - The origins of String Theory<br><br>15:41 - Why should there be a grand unified theory?<br><br>16:56 - Quantum mechanics and gravity<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>20:16 - Large unanswered questions in physics<br><br>27:56 - Holographic principle<br><br>38:26 - Simulation hypothesis<br><br>40:41 - Richard Feynman on philosophy<br><br>42:26 - Feynman and the bomb<br><br>46:26 - Improving the world by discovering what the world is<br><br>49:26 - ER and EPR - Black holes and entanglement<br><br>56:26 - Noah Hammer asks - Could quantum teleportation be used in the future as a means of intergalactic communication?<br><br>58:26 - rokkodigi asks - How do you think quantum theory will shape technology in the future?<br><br>1:01:56 - Why teach physics for the public?<br></p>

#103 - Michael Seibel

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/mwseibel">Michael Seibel</a> 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.<br><br>In this episode Michael comments on five of his essays. The essays are: <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-should-i-start-a-startup/">Why Should I Start a Startup?</a>, <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/one-order-of-operations-for-starting-a-startup/">One Order of Operations for Starting a Startup</a>, <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-real-product-market-fit/">The Real Product Market Fit</a>, <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/users-you-dont-want/">Users You Don’t Want</a>, and <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-does-your-company-deserve-more-money/">Why Does Your Company Deserve More Money?</a><br><br>Michael’s on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mwseibel">@mwseibel</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>0:00 - Intro<br><br>0:42 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-should-i-start-a-startup/">Why Should I Start a Startup?</a><br><br>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.<br><br>6:00 - How do you decide what type of person you are?<br><br>7:30 - Identify bias in advice givers<br><br>10:30 - Peer advice becomes less valuable during college<br><br>14:40 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/one-order-of-operations-for-starting-a-startup/">One Order of Operations for Starting a Startup</a><br><br>15:40 - People aren’t taught how to find ideas<br><br>17:20 - Find a particular problem that you’re passionate about<br><br>20:55 - Find some friends and brainstorm a solution<br><br>23:20 - Build an MVP<br><br>25:55 - Two failed orders of operations for starting a startup<br><br>29:57 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-real-product-market-fit/">The Real Product Market Fit</a> <br><br>30:57 - Why do many founders think they have product market fit when they don’t?<br><br>35:42 - Building a successful company is not a single variable problem<br><br>37:27 - Socialcam didn’t hit product market fit<br><br>38:37 - Justin.tv had $1M in profit before reaching product market fit<br><br>42:27 - Some companies take a long time<br><br>42:55 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/users-you-dont-want/">Users You Don’t Want</a><br><br>44:25 - The spectrum of how users are using your product<br><br>45:55 - Users that take a lot of customer support time<br><br>48:50 - Don’t let the hijack users control the product roadmap<br><br>49:31 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-does-your-company-deserve-more-money/">Why Does Your Company Deserve More Money?</a><br><br>50:31 - A team, a product, and an office are all just a means to an end<br><br>51:31 - If you don’t really deserve money, what is an alternate path to create leverage?<br><br>53:16 - Breaking even at Justin.tv was a moment of infinite clarity<br><br>55:31 - Series A program and leverage<br></p>

#102 - Andrew Kortina

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kortina">Andrew Kortina</a> is the cofounder of Venmo and Fin. Fin is a high quality, on-demand, personal assistant and executive assistant service. <br><br>You can get a $100 credit to try Fin at <a href="https://fin.com/yc">https://fin.com/yc</a><br><br>Andrew blogs at <a href="https://kortina.nyc/">https://kortina.nyc/</a><br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b> <br><br>00:32 - Human dignity and work<br><br>8:07 - Creating jobs<br><br>10:07 - From <a href="https://kortina.nyc/essays/the-beautiful-struggle-the-beautiful-game/">The Beautiful Struggle // The Beautiful Game</a> - 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. <br><br>18:32 - Travel<br><br>21:02 - Why do we want to do anything?<br><br>22:07 - Life after Fin<br><br>25:17 - From <a href=" https://kortina.nyc/essays/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-there-is-no-santa-claus-and-nothing-is-rocket-science/">The Emperor Has No Clothes, There is No Santa Claus, and Nothing is Rocket Science</a> - 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.<br><br>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.<br><br>32:02 - From <a href=" https://kortina.nyc/essays/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-there-is-no-santa-claus-and-nothing-is-rocket-science/">The Emperor Has No Clothes, There is No Santa Claus, and Nothing is Rocket Science</a> - I recognize that the meditative aspect of craft is an excellent way to cope with meaninglessness<br><br>38:32 - Technological determinism<br><br>43:02 - Andrew's company <a href="https://fin.com">Fin</a><br><br>48:17 - Ryan Hoover asks - When (if ever) will Fin task completion be 100% AI-driven?<br><br>49:32 - Differences between running Fin and Venmo<br><br>56:47 - Venmo's Lucas ads<br><br>58:32 - Spencer Clark asks - How did you and your co-founders decide to sell Venmo?<br><br>1:02:02 - <a href="https://kortina.nyc/essays/charlie-kaufman-bafta-speech/">Charlie Kaufman on Screenwriting</a> - What I’m trying to express – what I’d like to express – is the notion that, by being honest, thoughtful and aware of the existence of other living beings, a change can begin to happen in how we think of ourselves and the world, and ourselves in the world.<br><br>1:08:30 - Get $100 credit to Fin at <a href="https://fin.com/yc">https://fin.com/yc</a><br></p>

#101 - Brian Donohue

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bthdonohue">Brian Donohue</a> is President of <a href="https://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a> and a Product Engineering Manager at <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a>.<br><br>You can find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/bthdonohue">@bthdonohue</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/Shashanksantosh">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>00:19 - The history of Instapaper<br><br>8:19 - Free competitors enter the market<br><br>10:19 - How Brian joined Instapaper<br><br>14:34 - Transitioning from paid to freemium<br><br>19:19 - Pinterest's acquisition of Instapaper<br><br>26:34 - Moving to California<br><br>29:04 - Working on Instapaper within Pinterest<br><br>32:19 - Spinning Instapaper out of Pinterest<br><br>42:34 - Jareau Wadé asks - What types of product integrations could Pinterest have done with Instapaper?<br><br>50:04 - Ryan Hoover asks - I’m curious how he and the team balance simplicity with new feature development/product expansion.<br><br>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.<br><br>57:39 - Brian Kim asks - Any growth hacks that worked well?<br><br>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?<br><br>1:03:44 - Backpacking <b><br></b></p>

#100 - Sam Altman

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/sama">Sam Altman</a> expands on ideas that have come up in several of his essays. Specifically: choosing projects, creating value, and finding purpose.<br><br>Sam’s the president of <a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/">YC Group</a> and co-chairman of <a href="https://openai.com/">OpenAI</a>. You can find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/sama">@sama</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br></p><p>***<br><b><br>Topics</b><br></p><p><br>1:25 - From <a href="https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short">The Days Are Long But The Decades Are Short</a> - 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.<br><br>3:50 - Stepping back and evaluating your work<br><br>5:30 - Creating metrics for your projects<br><br>6:30 - Taking a year off <br><br>9:30 - Figuring out when to commit<br><br>11:30 - Poker<br><br>12:30 - From <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/productivity">Productivity</a> - 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. <br><br>15:00 - From <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/you-and-your-research">You and Your Research by Richard Hamming</a> - "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?"<br><br>16:30 - From <a href="https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short">The Days Are Long But The Decades Are Short</a> - 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.<br><br>17:30 - Perspective shifts<br><br>20:15 - From <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/productivity">Productivity</a> - 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”.<br><br>22:30 - <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/what-happened-to-innovation-1">What Happened to Innovation</a><br><br>24:50 - From <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/you-and-your-research">You and Your Research by Richard Hamming</a> - 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. <br><br>26:50 - The deferred life plan doesn’t work<br><br>31:50 - From <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/the-merge">The Merge</a> - 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 and note that differences between us and bonobos are barely worth discussing. <br><br>34:10 - Weight training<br><br>35:30 - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Way-Love-Meditations-Anthony-Classics/dp/038524939X">The Way to Love by Anthony de Mello</a><br><br></p>

#99 - Laura Deming

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/LauraDeming">Laura Deming</a> is a partner at <a href="https://longevity.vc/">The Longevity Fund</a>. They invest in companies that will allow us to live longer and healthier lives.<br><br>You can learn more about them at <a href="https://longevity.vc/">Longevity.vc</a>.<br><br>Laura’s on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/LauraDeming">@LauraDeming</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:22 - Why focus on longevity now?<br><br>2:12 - How did Laura get started in longevity?<br><br>3:22 - Why raise a fund?<br><br>5:52 - What does Laura do personally for longevity?<br><br>9:07 - Worm and mouse studies<br><br>10:44 - Craig's personal habits<br><br>12:37 - Human studies<br><br>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?<br><br>17:37 - Most likely strategies to increase lifespan<br><br>19:47 - Ryan Hoover asks - Ask about the ethics of longevity. Jack J. Fernandes asks - Do people actually want to live longer?<br><br>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…<br><br>24:52 - Cognitive enhancement<br><br>25:52 - Daily habits<br><br>34:12 - Tech environment changes in the past 5-10 years<br><br>39:22 - What percentage of people in labs want to start companies?<br><br>41:37 - Pioneer<br><br>43:57 - Confidence<br><br>45:52 - Podcasting<br><br>49:12 - Choosing media to consume<br><br>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?<br><br>55:07 - Extending fertility windows<br><br>57:22 - Jason Choi asks - What % of longevity is attributable to lifestyle choices vs genetics and the progress of technology in influencing both.<br><br>58:37 - Fatih asks - is blood transfusion a thing or just a hoax<br><br>1:00:42 - Rapamycin<br><br>1:02:27 - Testosterone<br><br>1:04:37 - Chris asks - Aubrey De Grey, IIRC, mentioned a number of times that we might, in the future, replace organs and tissues with new organic ones before they fail. Is this actually a reasonable idea, or is it more likely that we'll replace them with synthetic ones, if we replace them at all?<br><br>1:06:07 - Mica asks - Laura did a "cookie diet" for one month. Why did you do it? How did you feel? Doesn't it go against all the research on longevity? ;-)<br><br>1:08:07 - Is Laura actually not doing anything strange in her diet?<br></p>

#98 - Shola Akinlade

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/shollsman">Shola Akinlade</a> is CEO and cofounder of <a href="https://paystack.com/">Paystack</a>. Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid online and offline. They’re based in Lagos, Nigeria and were part of the Winter 2016 batch.<br><br>Shola’s on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/shollsman">@shollsman</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>00:26 - What is Paystack?<br><br>01:06 - Shola's background and previous company<br><br>4:26 - Paystack's YC application<br><br>6:01 - Meeting his cofounder<br><br>7:26 - Interviewing at YC<br><br>10:21 - Joining YC as a Nigerian company<br><br>10:56 - Differences between startups in Nigeria and the US<br><br>13:26 - Nigeria's payments market<br><br>15:56 - Paystack's growth<br><br>19:26 - Expanding to other countries and hiring<br><br>25:26 - The best part of doing YC<br><br>29:26 - Crypto developments in Africa<br><br>30:21 - Creative Joe asks - How difficult is it to get into YC?<br><br>30:56 - Educating US investors<br><br>32:06 - Paul Israel asks - What gaps do you think still exist in the Nigerian fintech space?<br><br>33:01 - Nelson asks - Are there any conventional startup advice that did not work for Paystack as their target market is Africa?<br><br>35:21 - Nelson asks - What are some important lessons he learnt while building Paystack?<br><br>37:46 - Nelson asks - What are some applications he would love to see been built on top of Paystack?<br><br>39:56 - Building for Africa<br><br>42:16 - Nestor Ezeagu asks - Do you think something like GoFundMe could work in Nigeria?<br><br>42:46 - Car Joyy asks - Can I receive payments as an MVP ecommerce site before registering as a company?<br><br>44:06 - Achyut Shrestha asks - What’s your tech stack?<br><br>44:41 - Jordan Jackson asks - What are the biggest cultural differences that you account for in UX and product design?<br><br>48:41 - Shola's outlook<br><br>50:36 - What he misses about life before Paystack<br><br>52:51 - Paystack in five years<br><br>54:16 - Music recommendations</p>

#97 - David Hua and Vincent Ning

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hua">David Hua</a> is CEO and cofounder of <a href="https://getmeadow.com/">Meadow</a>. Meadow makes retail and delivery software for dispensaries. They were part of the Winter 2015 batch. You can check them out at <a href="https://getmeadow.com/">GetMeadow.com</a>. David’s on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/hua">@Hua</a>.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/vcning">Vincent Ning</a> is CEO and cofounder of <a href="https://www.getnabis.com/">Nabis</a>. Nabis is a cannabis services group. They offer distribution, logistics, sales, and marketing. You can check them out at <a href="https://www.getnabis.com/">GetNabis.com</a>. Vincent's on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/vcning">@vcning</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.</p><p><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:38 - What David brought with him<br><br>5:48 - Microdosing<br><br>6:48 - What are people buying?<br><br>10:38 - Customer demographics<br><br>12:00 - CBD<br><br>14:58 - Changing vocabulary around cannabis<br><br>17:13 - What is Meadow?<br><br>17:38 - What is Nabis?<br><br>17:53 - Why did they choose to not do cannabis product manufacturing?<br><br>22:38 - Fundraising as a cannabis company<br><br>26:08 - Why is there not one dominant cannabis company?<br><br>29:53 - Legalization across Canada<br><br>31:38 - Banking as a cannabis company<br><br>36:13 - Taxes<br><br>37:38 - Price sensitivity<br><br>40:14 - Brand loyalty<br><br>43:23 - What will the market look like in 5-10 years?<br><br>50:08 - Cannabis media<br><br>52:23 - Psychedelics<br><br>56:38 - Exonerations and social equity programs</p>

#96 - Mathilde Collin

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/collinmathilde">Mathilde Collin</a> is the cofounder and CEO of Front. Front is a shared inbox for teams and they were part of the YC Summer 2014 batch.<br><br>You can check out Front at <a href="https://frontapp.com/">https://frontapp.com/</a><br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:25 - Tuomas Grannas asks - What's your favorite LEGO theme?<br><br>1:25 - What is Front?<br><br>3:50 - Google Inbox shutting down<br><br>5:25 - Prioritizing features<br><br>7:50 - Features that have increased Front usage<br><br>9:50 - What Front looked like at launch<br><br>12:45 - Early user acquisition<br><br>15:40 - Starting Front and meeting her cofounder<br><br>19:10 - The idea for Front<br><br>20:25 - When her cofounder was diagnosed with cancer<br><br>23:20 - Hardest moments running Front<br><br>25:25 - Employee retention<br><br>30:55 - Transparency<br><br>32:40 - Front's office in France<br><br>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?<br><br>36:15 - Did she consider other ideas Front?<br><br>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?<br><br>39:55 - If she could remove any email feature<br><br>41:20 - When did they hit product market fit?<br><br>45:05 - Meditation<br></p>

#95 - Eli Schwartz

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/5le">Eli Schwartz</a>&nbsp;is the Director of SEO and Growth at <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/">SurveyMonkey</a>. He came in to answer commonly asked questions about SEO.<br><br>Eli blogs about SEO and growth at <a href="http://www.elischwartz.co/">elischwartz.co</a><br><br>You can find him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/5le">5le</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:23 - Does SEO matter in 2018?<br><br>2:23 - Where should a company start with SEO?<br><br>3:53 - Who’s doing SEO well?<br><br>4:48 - Why is Amazon doing SEO well?<br><br>5:48 - How should you crosslink?<br><br>7:33 - Paying for links<br><br>7:58 - SEO don’t dos<br><br>8:38 - Things that are no longer useful in SEO<br><br>9:43 - Keywords<br><br>13:08 - Reviews<br><br>13:48 - Content<br><br>17:48 - Images<br><br>23:08 - Link building<br><br>28:23 - How much time to give SEO?<br><br>28:53 - Mobile<br><br>30:58 - Ranking<br><br>32:08 - International SEO<br><br>34:18 - Translation<br><br>37:38 - International search<br><br>39:53 - GDPR<br><br>42:13 - Hiring someone to do SEO<br><br>44:08 - What to do when you organic SEO disappears<br><br>46:53 - Metrics for an SEO hire<br><br>48:53 - Tools for SEO<br><br>50:23 - Getting started in SEO<br></p>

#94 - Joan Lasenby

<p><a href="https://www-sigproc.eng.cam.ac.uk/Main/JL">Joan Lasenby</a> 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. <a href="http://publications.eng.cam.ac.uk/view/people/jl.html">Here's a list of her published work</a>.<br><br>In this episode we talk about Joan’s research into 3D reconstruction from multiple cameras and her interest in geometric algebra.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>00:32 - What's a tangible example of geometric algebra?<br><br>1:52 - What is geometric algebra?<br><br>6:47 - What resparked interest in geometric algebra?<br><br>7:42 - Why is it important?<br><br>11:32 - When did Joan start working on it?<br><br>13:27 - Rotations<br><br>17:17 - Computer vision in the early 90s<br><br>19:32 - Joan's fellowship at the Royal Society<br><br>23:32 - What's changed in computer vision since the 90s to allow for Joan's drone research?<br><br>30:07 - Machine learning in computer vision<br><br>31:52 - How Joan and her students are applying machine learning<br><br>35:02 - Unifying qualities of geometric algebra<br><br>41:02 - Joan's paper ending up on Hacker News<br><br>45:32 - Where could geometric algebra take hold?<br><br>47:32 - Running and mobility<br><br>48:32 - Where to learn more</p>

#93 - Peter Reinhardt

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/reinpk">Peter Reinhardt</a> is cofounder and CEO of <a href="https://segment.com/">Segment</a>.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>Segment helps companies capture data from every customer touchpoint and send it to the tools where it can be used most effectively.<br><br>They were part of the YC Summer 2011 batch.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:26 - What is Segment?<br><br>1:56 - Segment’s first customers<br><br>3:31 - Their YC application<br><br>4:26 - Going through YC<br><br>5:56 - Realizing their first product didn’t work<br><br>10:56 - Launching Analytics.js<br><br>12:11 - Experiencing product market fit<br><br>17:21 - Debating whether to launch or build out the product<br><br>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?<br><br>20:56 - The importance of having a skeptic on your team<br><br>23:56 - Customer interviews<br><br>26:56 - Benjamin Liam asks - How did they know they have the right messaging to explain their product?<br><br>28:26 - Idea generation<br><br>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?<br><br>37:26 - Ashwin Doke asks - How has GDPR impacted Segment's business model?<br><br>39:41 - Andrew Pikul asks - Any advice he has on asking for more money than you're comfortable asking for. <br><br>42:11 - Juan Carlos Garza asks - How did YC help you to where Segment is right now?<br><br>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?<br><br>45:11 - Biggest learnings since YC<br><br>45:16 - Important hires at Segment<br></p>

#92 - Ryan Petersen

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/typesfast">Ryan Petersen</a> is the founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.flexport.com/">Flexport</a>.<br><br>Flexport is a global freight forwarder powered by software and analytics. They are making international trade easier for over 10,000 companies in 70 countries. They were part of the YC Winter 2014 batch.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>0:23 - What is a freight forwarder?<br><br>3:08 - Selling electric scooters on eBay 15 years ago<br><br>5:53 - Ryan’s business school experience<br><br>10:23 - Amazon competing with their vendors<br><br>13:23 - Matt Susk asks - What were the most important takeaways from Columbia Business School? Would you encourage entrepreneurs to pursue a MBA?<br><br>17:03 - Tyler Hogge asks - How did you get your first three clients at Flexport?<br><br>20:03 - Being a solo founder<br><br>23:08 - Varun Khurana asks - What's your strategy for rapidly hiring the best talent in so many different global hubs?<br><br>25:53 - Challenges of scaling Flexport<br><br>27:38 - Some of Ryan’s favorite books<br><br>29:43 - Scaling culture<br><br>34:23 - Jassim Ali asks - How has the Trump policy on foreign trade affected your business so far?<br><br>39:23 - PowerDecal asks - How do you poach clients from legacy providers?<br><br>46:23 - Automation in freight forwarding<br><br>49:23 - Jason Yannos asks - If you weren't operating Flexport and had to source a new idea to work on, where would you start?<br><br>53:23 - Derisking product ideas<br><br>56:53 - Biggest lessons learned at Flexport</p>

#91 - David Zeevi

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/davezeevi">David Zeevi</a> is a James S. McDonnell independent fellow at the Rockefeller University Center for Studies in Physics and Biology. He focuses on developing computational methods for studying microbial ecology in the human gut and in the marine environment, and its contribution to human and environmental health.<br><br>He was one of the authors on the paper <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26590418">Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br><a href="http://www.ycombinator.com/?utm_source=podcast">Apply for $120K in funding from YC</a>.</p><p><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>01:15 - Why did David start working on personalized nutrition?<br><br>4:45 - How did the measure the effects of food in their study?<br><br>11:55 - How was the study standardized across people?<br><br>15:55 - How they measured an individual’s gut microbiome.<br><br>17:30 - What is the gut microbiome?<br><br>22:05 - Is there an ideal gut microbiome?<br><br>23:20 - How do you manipulate your gut microbiome?<br><br>24:50 - Fecal transplants.<br><br>26:55 - Elizabeth Iorns asks - Does post prandial glucose response regulation track with weight regulation? I.e. can they use their test to determine what individual people should eat or not eat to lose weight?<br><br>28:35 - Has this research been turned into a product?<br><br>29:35 - Who else worked on this research?<br><br>30:35 - How was their predictive algorithm made?<br><br>35:15 - Did they end up with any dietary suggestions?<br><br>36:15 - <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131">David’s bread study</a>.<br><br>38:55 - Has David changed his own diet?<br><br>39:25 - Why fat was vilified.<br><br>43:15 - David’s ocean microbiome and other research.<br><br>51:05 - Traveling and your microbiome.<br><br>56:35 - Trying this out yourself.</p>

#90 - Jessica Brillhart

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/brillhart">Jessica Brillhart</a> is the founder of <a href="https://www.vrai.pictures/">Vrai Pictures</a>. They’re an independent immersive content studio.<br><br>Before founding Vrai, Jessica was the Principal Filmmaker for VR at Google.<br><br>The YC Podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Questions</b>&nbsp;<br><br>00:23 - Starting VRAI<br><br>10:23 - Story in film vs. VR<br><br>12:38 - Gaming<br><br>19:53 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu3hyBXNmX0">Conditions at Omaha - The Weather Channel in VR</a><br><br>22:38 - Jessica's upcoming projects<br><br>27:48 - Andrew Peterman asks - How long until we'll be able to create 3D 360° video from cell phone hardware+amazing software?<br><br>30:13 - Matt asks - Where do you see VR in 10 years?<br><br>30:28 - Michael Hodapp asks - Does VR still have long term mass adoption potential, or will the market shift to AR?<br><br>32:23 - Will people be in VR for a significant percentage of their time in the future?<br><br>40:58 - Virginia Pigato asks - How can a traditional storyteller adapt to vr?<br><br>50:13 - Can Olcer asks - What key but non-obvious thing is missing for VR to become mainstream?<br><br>52:08 - Matt MacVey asks - What are some of the most exciting or scariest parts of social VR and what is the storytelling potential of social VR?<br><br>55:38 - Tony Cassara asks - What kind of dog do you have?<br></p>

#89 - Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung Discuss Startup School

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/gralston">Geoff Ralston</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/nolimits">Adora Cheung</a> are both partners at YC.<br><br>This episode is about <a href="https://www.startupschool.org/">Startup School</a>. It’s a free, online course we’re offering that starts on August 28th.<br><br>We’re also offering equity-free grants of $10,000 to 100 companies that participate in the course.<br><br>Anyone can sign up for the course at <a href="https://www.startupschool.org/">StartupSchool.org</a>.<br><br><a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/geoff-ralston-and-adora-cheung-discuss-startup-school">Read the transcript here</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCannon" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Craig Cannon</a>.<br></p><p><br>***<br><br>Topics<br><br>0:40 - What is Startup School?<br><br>3:40 - Who are the speakers this year?<br><br>5:00 - What are the different paths in Startup School?<br><br>7:00 - Success stories from last year’s Startup School.<br><br>8:55 - Why offer $10,000 grants?<br><br>10:00 - What deals are offered to the startups in Startup School?<br><br>11:00 - When does the course start?<br><br>12:45 - What are the requirements to complete the course?<br><br>15:15 - What are the topics that will be covered?<br><br>18:00 - What happens during office hours sessions?<br><br>22:30 - Who else is working on this course at YC?<br></p>

#88 - Office Hours with Michael Seibel

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/mwseibel">Michael Seibel</a> is&nbsp;a Partner and the CEO of YC. <br><br>He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the Winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the Winter 2012 batch.<br><br>For this episode we took questions from the internet. If you have questions for a future office hours episode, just tweet them our way.<br><br><a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/office-hours-with-michael-seibel">Read the transcript here</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. <a href="http://ycombinator.com/apply">Apply here</a>.<br><br><b>Questions<br><br></b>00:25 - Why is YC worth 7% of your company?<br><br>6:25 - Generating leverage when fundraising<br><br>12:07 - Youssef asks - How did you validate your product market fit?<br><br>15:00 - LC Carrier asks - How does YC feel about companies who don't want to raise VC after the program?<br><br>17:05 - Edmilson Rodrigues asks - Do companies need to be incorporated already to participate in YC?<br><br>18:50 - Alex Rodriguez asks - What do you look for in startups that haven't had good growth but continue to push through (e.g. AirBnB) that makes you accept them?<br><br>26:50 - Fedor Paretsky asks - Do you have techniques you encourage to make pitches sound more exciting?<br><br>35:05 - David Chen asks - How to find mentors and advisors?<br><br>39:25 - building EatNeat asks - What if anything are you specifically looking for in a startup that wants to be a part of the Startup School 2018?<br><br>40:00 - Ryan Carl Mercer asks - What's your preferred way organizing your time?<br><br>41:05 - John Rigler asks - Can intrapreneurship be effective? I recently returned to IBM, have a patent, and yet have only vague ideas about how to signal and organize other like-minded folks. Could this path sabotage my dreams?<br><br>41:55 - Horacio Chávez asks - How would you approach an investor who says "I won't invest unless you have a patent"?<br><br>42:35 - Yahya Elamrani asks - Why does it feel like entrepreneurs aren’t marriage material? Should an entrepreneur look for an entrepreneurial spouse?<br><br>44:15 - Yahya Elamrani asks - How intense do you really have to be to found a startup?<br><br>48:50 - Is there a particular stage of company that's best served by Startup School?<br><br>50:35 - How do you get the most out of Startup School?<b><br></b></p>

#87 - Elad Gil

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/eladgil">Elad Gil</a> is an entrepreneur, operator, and investor. He cofounded <a href="https://www.color.com/">Color Genomics</a> and Mixer Labs. Worked at Google and Twitter. And has invested in companies including Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe.<br><br>He just released the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100/">High Growth Handbook</a>, which is a guide to scaling startups published by <a href="http://press.stripe.com/">Stripe Press</a>.<br><br>It contains tactical advice on key issues for post product-market fit companies such as the role of the CEO, hiring executives, late stage fundraising, M&amp;A, and other topics. It also includes interviews with people in tech, including Sam Altman, President of YC Group.<br><br>You can find the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100/">High Growth Handbook&nbsp;on Amazon</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. <a href="http://ycombinator.com/apply">Apply here</a>.<br><br>***<br><br>Topics<br><br>01:04 - Why should an entrepreneur read the High Growth Handbook?<br><br>5:35 - On Marc Andreessen's comment, "The companies that charge more tend to grow faster."<br><br>6:50 - Myths about startups<br><br>7:50 - Leon Coe asks - What types of businesses do you avoid investing in?<br><br>9:20 - Things to just say 'no' to<br><br>12:40 - Companies that may be too early<br><br>14:52 - On Naval Ravikant's comment, "The most successful class of people in silicon valley on a consistent basis are either the venture capitalists, or people who are very good at identifying companies that have just hit product/market fit. They have the background, expertise, and references that those companies really want to help them scale."<br><br>17:41 - On Claire Hughes Johnson's "Guide to Working with Claire"<br><br>19:40 - Masud Hossain asks - How did most of the companies you interviewed get their first 10 customers?<br><br>20:55 - Masud Hossain asks - Is content really king?<br><br>22:50 - Narayan Mallapur asks - Where do founders make the most mistakes? Is it on hiring? What steps should they take to avoid these pitfalls<br><br>24:55 - Brianne Kimmel asks - What are some lessons learned in highly regulated sectors? When should you hire a General Counsel? How do you prioritize public policy and lobbying efforts?<br><br>29:05 - Media cycles<br><br>30:55 - Marius Chawa asks - What are the top three things a startup "must" achieve before VC firms would line up to fund them?<br><br>34:45 - Taylor Caforio asks - My company is at our early MVP stage. What is he best way to find a balance between giving our earliest customers the 6 star treatment while also having swift and exponential growth in the back of our minds.<br><br>36:54 - Tanmay Khandelwal asks - When you are sprinting in growth stage, how do you predict engineers required and hire accordingly?<br><br>38:41 - TD Bryant II asks - When your organization is experiencing exponential growth, how do you choose which functions to outsource vs build/hire?<br><br>41:50 - Andrew Pikul asks - Who is your favorite Dragon Ball (Z/GT/Super) villain?</p>

#86 - Jocko Willink and Mike Sarraille

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/jockowillink">Jocko Willink</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mjsarraille">Mike Sarraille</a> served together as Navy SEALs and now work together at <a href="https://www.echelonfront.com/">Echelon Front</a>, a company Jocko cofounded.<br><br>We met up to talk about a new initiative they’ve set up called <a href="https://www.efoverwatch.com/">Overwatch</a>. Overwatch is a talent acquisition firm that matches employers with veterans from special operations forces and combat aviation. You can learn more about Overwatch at <a href="https://www.efoverwatch.com/">EFOverwatch.com</a>.<br><br>They’re also hosting an event called the Muster in San Francisco on October 17th and 18th. You can sign up at <a href="https://www.extremeownership.com/">ExtremeOwnership.com</a>.<br><br>If you’d like to hear more from Mike and Jocko, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDWupT4tc8M">Jocko Podcast Episode 134</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. <a href="http://ycombinator.com/apply?utm_source=podcast" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Apply here</a>.</p><p><br>***<br><br>Topics<br><br>01:04 - Intros<br><br>5:07 - Mike and Jocko on how they transitioned out<br><br>9:37 - How the military prepares people for the private sector<br><br>13:47 - What is Overwatch?<br><br>23:32 - Preconceptions about veterans<br><br>28:24 - Advice for companies looking to hire veterans<br><br>31:03 - Jocko's next book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dichotomy-Leadership-Balancing-Challenges-Ownership/dp/1250195772">The Dichotomy of Leadership</a><br><br>33:58 - Mike and Jocko's working relationship<br><br>45:20 - How to set up your team so everyone can contribute<br><br>55:02 - What Mike and Jocko are trying to improve about themselves<br><br>58:45 - Alex Badalyan asks - What are some military tactics startups could adopt to increase team effectiveness and throughput?<br><br>1:00:47 - Allen asks - From your experience as a SEAL and in the business world, do two or more co-founders/leaders have a higher success rate? What are your thoughts on a solo leader/founder with a strong team and culture?<br><br>1:06:56 - Armando Neves asks - I liked Jocko's episode on strategy and the way of the Samurai (The Book of Five Rings), how much of the warrior mindset is he implementing on a day to day basis?<br><br>1:11:17 - Ryan Carl Mercer asks - Favorite MRE and thank you for your service sir.<br><br>1:14:59 - Spencer Clark asks - Is culture more decided by micro or macro policies &amp; interactions?</p>

#85 - YC Partner AMA at the Female Founders Conference

<p>Recorded live at our Female Founders Conference in New York, an AMA with <a href="https://twitter.com/KatManalac">Kat Manalac</a>, Kirsty Nathoo, <a href="https://twitter.com/nolimits">Adora Cheung</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hollyhliu">Holly Liu</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/jesslivingston">Jessica Livingston</a>, and Carolynn Levy.<br><br>This panel was hosted by Sharon Pope, Head of Marketing Programs at YC.<br><br>We’re also posting the other talks from the Female Founders Conference today. You can see all of them and read the transcripts at <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com">blog.ycombinator.com</a><br><br>If you’d like to learn more about the Female Founders Conference, head over to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.femalefoundersconference.org/">femalefoundersconference.org</a></p>