Y Combinator, every mention
124 scenes (2019), the whole family · ← back to Y Combinator
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every year 2019 anyone Harry Stebbings 663Jason Lemkin 97Tom Blomfield 45Jason Calacanis 33Max Junestrand 29Garry Tan 24Sam Altman 18Justin Kan 16Rory O'Driscoll 14Fred Turner 12
Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where Y Combinator comes up
20VC: Inside The Acquisition Decision-Making Process at Cisco, How To Measure True Success in M&A Evaluation & Why By Not Speaking To Corp Dev Teams You Are Closing The Door On The Biggest Potential Accelerator To Your Business with Rob Salvagno, VP of Co
- ▶ 13:24 Rob Salvagno You know, Paul has been wildly successful over at YC, and certainly, you know, I, I can't read a lot behind his statement, and a lot of what he's done, I think, has been focused on some of these wildly successful consumer startups.
20VC: Why The Best Entrepreneurs Are Cockroaches, What Everyone Underestimates About Customer Acquisition & What You Don't But Need To Know About Payback Periods with Josh Buckley, Founder & Chairman @ Mino Games
- ▶ 5:38 Josh Buckley Got accepted into Y Combinator in 2009 when I was, I think, maybe 16. 6 times in the scene
- ▶ 9:06 Josh Buckley We went through this period, which Y Combinator terms as the trough of sorrow, and it was a really, really hard time.
20VC: Webflow's Vlad Magdalin on The Journey To Breakeven and Raising A Monster $72m Series A, The Single Most Important Question To Ask When Determining Which Investor To Select & The Challenges of Founders Angel Investing
- ▶ 0:30 Harry Stebbings Excel, Ron at Rainfall, Brienne at Work Life, Benjamin Ling, and Y Combinator, just to name a few.
- ▶ 6:26 Vlad Magdalin The convertible notes were starting to become a thing, so we had dreams of, like, raising, applying to YC, and then a bunch of stuff fell apart.
- ▶ 8:18 Harry Stebbings I do have to answer, you mentioned quite a few twists and turns, the failed trademarks, not getting into the first YC on application.
- ▶ 12:39 Vlad Magdalin You know, we went into VC meetings and even at YC, we sort of got the advice of like, just don't mention anything about kids or
- ▶ 15:29 Vlad Magdalin But for us, it was, you know, we were seeing, we're in this YC batch, and we're seeing all these companies sort of like on demo day, close around, or already had their round closed before demo day.
- ▶ 34:46 Harry Stebbings As you said, you've seen that from the very early days of YC, living on the West Coast, you've seen that the growth of the tech ecosystem.
20VC: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Scaling Teams; What Works and What Does Not, A CEO's Relationship with Stress and Managing It & How To Structure Internal Decision-Making Effectively
- ▶ 0:48 Harry Stebbings Steve also started his career at Y Combinator as one of their first alumni back in 2005. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 4:05 Steve Huffman Alexis and I were college roommates, and we were going to start a company together called My Mobile Menu, which was, it would allow people to order food from their cell phones, which seemed novel at the time, but it was really, I think, an… 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 5:03 Harry Stebbings Alexis, and two about the early days with YC. 6 times in the scene
20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
- ▶ 7:19 Brianne Kimmel So what I typically find is oftentimes, you know, there are companies that have gone through a program such as Y Combinator.
- ▶ 11:53 Brianne Kimmel I think that I'm an investor in a company called Tandem, which was in the last YC batch, which very quickly became the hottest company in the YC batch.
20VC: How To Drop The BS and Relationship Build With Investors, What Investors Can vs Cannot Help Your Company With & Why When There Is Doubt There Is No Doubt In Hiring
- ▶ 0:08 Harry Stebbings But to the show today, and I'd heard so many good things about this founder from many of his investors, and this episode could not have come at a more perfect time with the announcement of their Series C, led by Ali Raugani at YC…
- ▶ 0:28 Harry Stebbings To date, Jason has raised over eighty-four million dollars with Ironclad from some of the best in the business, including Sequoia, Excel, Greylock, Emergence, IA Ventures, Semo Shah's Haystack, and then obviously Ali Raugani, who led their…
- ▶ 28:02 Jason Boehmig We recently did our series C round with Y Combinator continuity fund, and we've obviously known Y Combinator for years now at this point, but Ollie was so incredibly helpful with thoughtfully picking out some right customer intros and…
- ▶ 28:02 Jason Boehmig We recently did our series C round with Y Combinator continuity fund, and we've obviously known Y Combinator for years now at this point, but Ollie was so incredibly helpful with thoughtfully picking out some right customer intros and…
- ▶ 36:33 Harry Stebbings This really has been such a pleasure and a huge congrats once again on the very exciting YC news.
20VC: Mercury Founder Immad Akhund on Why Angel Investing Makes Founders Better Operators, The Right Way For Founders To Discuss and Present Competition To Investors & How To Think About Your Initial Wedge Into The Market and How It Expands Over Time
- ▶ 0:43 Harry Stebbings Prior to founding Mercury, Imad held numerous roles, including being a part-time partner at Y Combinator, and he also founded HeyZap, building developer tools for mobile game developers, ultimately acquired in 2060
- ▶ 13:08 Immad Akhund It felt like a comparison, but one thing that really helped me was we were funded by Union Square Ventures, and the average founder at Union Square Ventures is older, and more than half of them already had kids, so getting outside San… 2 times in the scene
20VC: Matrix's Ilya Sukhar on How The Seed Ecosystem Could Be Optimised, Why The Bar For The Break-Out Series A Has Risen & The Art of Effective Referencing
- ▶ 0:45 Harry Stebbings Prior to Matrix, Ilya was a part-time investing partner at Y Combinator, and before that was head of developer products at Facebook.
- ▶ 9:01 Ilya Sukhar They can often move on in some ways in the same way that I think YC is a huge factor in people's early days and the founders credit it later on. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 19:12 Ilya Sukhar Yeah, I think I kind of grew up as an entrepreneur in the YC ecosystem, and so Paul Graham's fundamental innovation and how he changed our entire world is he bet on folks that others weren't willing to, the kind of
20VC: Scale Founder Alex Wang on How To Hire Incredible Talent Before You Are A Hot Company, Why Beating Competition Is Not As Clear Cut As Investors Believe & Why AI Is Under-Hyped Today In Terms of Total Impact
- ▶ 26:57 Harry Stebbings The biggest takeaway for you from the YC experience, Alex?
20VC: Gitlab Founder, Sid Sijbrandji on Lessons From Scaling from 400 to 1,000 People in 1 Year, Why You Have To Have A Low Level Of Shame On The Product You Release & The Secret To Making Remote Work So Effectively At Scale
- ▶ 0:34 Harry Stebbings To date, Sid has raised over a hundred and forty-five million dollars in funding for GitLab, from the likes of GV, August Capital, YC, Kostler, and Goldman Sachs, just to name a few.
20VC: Why Self-Driving Is Still Under-Hyped in The Medium To Long Term, What Will The Ownership Mechanism Be Both In Physical Assets & Data and How To Assemble A World Class Exec Team As A Young Founder with Alex Rodrigues, Founder & CEO @ Embark
- ▶ 0:34 Harry Stebbings To date, Alice has raised over forty-seven million dollars in funding for Embark, from some of my favorites, in the form of Pat Grady at Sequoia, and the wonderful Matt Oko at Data Collective, also the likes of SV Angel and Y Combinator,…
- ▶ 4:25 Alex Rodrigues Maybe we should go do Y Combinator.
20VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady on What Sequoia Is Focused On Today, How Sequoia Think About Investment Decision-Making Processes & Why It Is Important To Trade A Few Points of Efficiency for Culture When It Comes To Attribution
20VC: Cameo's Steven Galanis on Why You Must Fall In Love With Your Mission Not Your Product, How To Extract As Much Value From Your Investor Base As Possible & Should You Really Hire For 6 Months Ahead of What You Need?
- ▶ 1:37 Harry Stebbings That's why teams at Shopify, General Assembly, Y Combinator, and 5000 companies around the world are responding 54 minutes faster to emails using Front.
- ▶ 29:53 Harry Stebbings That's why teams at Shopify, General Assembly, Y Combinator, and 5000 companies around the world are responding 54 minutes faster to emails using Front.
20VC: Justin Kan on Why We Have To Normalize Vulnerability in Startups Today, Why Attaching Happiness To Future Outcomes Will Only Lead To Suffering & Why It Is Total BS That You Have To "Suffer" When Doing A Startup
- ▶ 0:43 Harry Stebbings Prior to founding Atrium, Justin was a partner at Y Combinator, the globally renowned accelerator and the birthplace of some of today's largest startups.
- ▶ 3:54 Justin Kan And we got into Y Combinator because of that, which kind of set me off on my start career, kind of run through it really quickly, but eventually that company failed and we desperately sold it on eBay. 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 7:15 Justin Kan Startup community for a long time, you know, had the YC connections and other investor relationships in Silicon Valley.
- ▶ 9:34 Justin Kan And the time at YC was nice because YC is very stable as an organization. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 10:54 Harry Stebbings Can I pick up on one that was so interesting there, and you said about YC and the success and the brilliance around you there, and how it's very difficult to kind of fuck up, as you said. 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 31:29 Justin Kan You know, I think I learned a lot from YC there, and I think we're kind of making progress on all those things.
20VC: Lime CEO Brad Bao on How Lime Assess The Micro-Mobility Landscape and Competition Today, What It Takes To Launch and Win A New City & Why Lime Have Spent $0 on Marketing To Date
- ▶ 1:42 Harry Stebbings That's why teams at Shopify, General Assembly, Y Combinator, and 5000 companies around the world are responding 54 minutes faster to emails,
- ▶ 31:08 Harry Stebbings That's why teams at Shopify, General Assembly, Y Combinator, and 5000 companies around the world are responding 54 minutes faster to emails using Front.
20VC: Plaid's Zach Perret on Why You Have To Hire For Spikes and What That Really Means, Fintech Predictions From Incumbent Entrants To The Rise of Europe & The 2 Big Questions That CEOs Should Ask Themselves
- ▶ 1:32 Harry Stebbings That's why teams at Shopify, General Assembly, Y Combinator, and 5000 companies around the world are responding 54 minutes faster to emails using Front.
- ▶ 30:36 Harry Stebbings That's why teams at Shopify, General Assembly, Y Combinator, and 5000 companies around the world are responding 54 minutes faster to emails,
20VC: Why You Must Have A Customer Acquisition Strategy From Day 1, How To Test and Validate Ideas At Speed & Why You Should Speak To Investors Before Starting Work On Your Idea with Kulveer Taggar, Founder @ CEO @ Zeus Living
- ▶ 0:09 Harry Stebbings And if you remember on Monday, we had YC's new president, Jeff Ralston, on the show, and so I thought it'd be awesome to have an incredible YC founder on the show this week, in the form of Kulvir Taggar. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 11:20 Kulveer Taggar I mean, looking back, I think it was he who accepted Instacart into Y Combinator after the deadline had passed for applications, and similarly with Coinbase early on, I think this is public, but there was a moment where they were having a…
- ▶ 13:28 Kulveer Taggar You know, it feels like a painful part of my history when I look back, but in short, Y Combinator had this brief period where they were experimenting, funding teams without ideas. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 31:25 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Y Combinator's New President, Geoff Ralston on The Single Most Important Perspective An Investor Can Provide A Founder, The Biggest Lessons From Working Alongside Paul Graham & Why You Will Lose As An Investor If You "Profile Invest"
- ▶ 0:12 Harry Stebbings But to our guest today, and last week there was some very exciting news from Y Combinator. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 2:40 Harry Stebbings ...of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 3:31 Harry Stebbings But then really come to be a partner of the globally renowned Y Combinator. 8 times in the scene
- ▶ 10:12 Geoff Ralston Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, because my weighting is far more on the team at the stage in which I choose companies for angel investments, in which YC chooses companies to fund.
- ▶ 11:56 Geoff Ralston I like to look back to what I call Paul Graham's original epiphany when he started Y Combinator in 2005. 5 times in the scene
- ▶ 14:53 Harry Stebbings I guess my subsequent question is, I spoke to Daniel Gross, another phenomenal YC partner before the show, and in our episode, he discussed his journey to 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 19:35 Harry Stebbings In terms of that turning into reality, we see it every year with different YC companies where there's breakouts who achieve definite product market fit would be one. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 21:37 Harry Stebbings I guess the question that YC companies ask, and early stage founders ask, in those early signs of real movement and traction, is how far along do I need to be to raise, and when is that right
- ▶ 23:27 Harry Stebbings I do have to ask in terms of the structure, there's often a lot said about conversables, obviously something that kind of YC pioneered. 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 27:51 Harry Stebbings What's the highlight of the entire YC journey for you? 5 times in the scene
- ▶ 32:04 Harry Stebbings I cannot wait for the very exciting next chapters with Y Combinator with him taking the presidential seat. 2 times in the scene
20VC: Front's Mathilde Collin on Why Discipline Is More Important Than Vision, The Right Way To Approach Investor Updates and Director Reports & How To Effectively Structure 1-1s
- ▶ 2:45 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
- ▶ 4:35 Mathilde Collin At once, meaning we first moved for Y Combinator, which was a three month program. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 32:45 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
- ▶ 3:43 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: How To Build True Human Relationships with VC Pre-Investment, Why Valuation Is Not The Only Term and When To Take Lower Offers & How To Approach Mental Health As A Founder with Jon Dishotsky, Founder & CEO @ Starcity
- ▶ 0:27 Harry Stebbings And to date, John's raised over twenty-eight million dollars in funding for Star City, from the likes of Social Capital, Y Combinator, Bullpen Capital, NEA, and Kima Ventures in Paris, just to name a few.
- ▶ 5:41 Jon Dishotsky He was in the second batch of Y Combinator and called me.
- ▶ 10:08 Jon Dishotsky And then I met with Jared, his co-founder, who is now a partner at YC. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 11:18 Jon Dishotsky Yeah, you know, I'm a huge, I drink the YC Kool-Aid. 5 times in the scene
- ▶ 12:50 Harry Stebbings So amongst that community with YC companies is the valuations.
20VC: Kleiner Perkins' Mamoon Hamid on The Strategy Behind The New $600m "Back To The Future" Fund, The Truth To Price Sensitivity at Series A & Why Venture Team Building Is Like Basketball Team Building
- ▶ 2:29 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
- ▶ 32:10 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Clearbanc's Michele Romanow on Why 40% of VC $ Raised Today Goes To Google and Facebook, How To Create A Financing Mechanism For The Repeatable Parts Of Your Business & Why We Need To Stop Celebrating Fundraises
- ▶ 0:30 Harry Stebbings To fund these ambitious plans, they have backing from some of the best in the business, including Founders Fund, Santee at Emergent, Social Capital, Precursor Ventures, and Y Combinator, just to name a few.
- ▶ 3:35 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
- ▶ 14:53 Michele Romanow YC has these single serve wines that come to your house.
- ▶ 30:46 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Why Consumer Brands Must Embrace Physical Retail To Avoid Inflated Online CACs, How To Alter Fund Strategy When Investing In Consumer Retail & Why The Era of The 1,000 Store Brand Is Over with Brendan Wallace, Founder and Managing Partner @ Fifth Wa
- ▶ 3:43 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
- ▶ 37:30 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Okta Founder Frederic Kerrest on Why You Want To Be A Monopolist In A Small Market, The Biggest Challenges in Scaling Okta To IPO and Being a16z's First Ever Fund Check
- ▶ 3:47 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
- ▶ 35:39 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Why Lead Lime's Series D Funding Round, Why Engineers Are Underpaid & Why 74% of US Venture Firms Still Do Not Have Female GPs
- ▶ 3:32 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
- ▶ 44:54 Harry Stebbings 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool use Intercom.
20VC: Why Startup Founders Have One Core Job, How To Reduce Risk & Increase Probability In Your Startup & Why You Should Not Send A Pitch Deck Pre-Investor Meeting with David Rogier, Founder & CEO @ Masterclass
- ▶ 1:11 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 28:40 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on Why It Is More Important To Be Right Than Contrarian, The Most Common Mistakes Made By Hyper-Growth Companies & 3 Characteristics That Make An Individual Incredible At Sourcing
- ▶ 1:16 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 33:23 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: Figma Founder Dylan Field on The Biggest Mistakes Young Founders Most Often Make, How To Go Slow To Go Fast With Venture Dollars & How The Design Process Will Fundamentally Change Over The Next 5-10 Years
- ▶ 1:06 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 33:01 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android
- ▶ 1:07 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 25:33 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: Carta Founder Henry Ward on Why The Best Companies Are Not Product Led But Distribution Led, 3 Requirements Needed For A New Market/Investment To Be Exciting and Why Small Markets Are So Attractive
- ▶ 1:09 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 40:00 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: NEA Partner, Dayna Grayson on Sourcing, Picking, Winning, Gut vs Data in Investment Decision-Making & The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Expectations of Venture
- ▶ 1:08 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 40:14 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: One Question Founders Must Ask Themselves When Approaching Investor Selection, Why Series B Is One Of The Most Challenging Phases & What Makes For A Successful CEO Transition with Jeff Russakow, CEO @ Boosted
- ▶ 0:51 Harry Stebbings Brex founders Enrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 35:11 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: Initialized's Garry Tan on The Most Important Thing A Seed Investor Can Do For Founders, How Ownership Requirements Change With Evolution of Funds & Why There Is Not Too Much Capital Chasing Too Few Deals
- ▶ 0:44 Harry Stebbings As for Gary, before co-founding Initialized, he was a partner at Y Combinator for nearly five years, where he advised and funded over 600 companies, and he was also co-founder of YC-backed 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:23 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
- ▶ 5:09 Garry Tan Well, when I first joined Y Combinator as actually just a designer in residence, so I was just joining to help out on a part-time basis, just spending time with startups, and I was helping them with their homepage design and first-time…
- ▶ 9:13 Garry Tan And what's funny is basically what I did when I first joined YC, I almost never do now. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 10:27 Garry Tan One of the things I discovered really early is at Y Combinator, we would meet people who had never started companies before. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 27:46 Garry Tan I think, you know, yes, there's plenty of money out there, but after working at Y Combinator, you really can't say that there aren't
- ▶ 30:30 Harry Stebbings Brex founders, Enrique and Pedro, built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator.
20VC: Buffer's Joel Gascoigne on The Moment The Founder Is No Longer The Boss, The Questions Founders Must Ask Their VCs and Why We Need A Spectrum of Different Financing Mechanisms Other Than VC
- ▶ 31:20 Harry Stebbings Check this out, including 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool to use Intercom.
20VC: Why The Current VC Financing Mechanism For Consumer Brands Is Broken, Why The Infrastructure To Power Emerging Brands Is Broken and What The Re-Platforming of Retail Means For The Next Decade in Consumer with Adam Pritzker, Chairman & CEO @ Assemble
- ▶ 28:29 Harry Stebbings Check this out, including 84% of Y Combinator companies that use a messaging or live chat tool to use Intercom.
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