Y Combinator, every mention
136 scenes (2022), the whole family · ← back to Y Combinator
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every year 2022 anyone Anu Hariharan 66David Rosenthal 45Ben Gilbert 36David Senra 5Jason Calacanis 3Travis Hedge 1Katherine Boyle 1Christina Cacioppo 1
Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where Y Combinator comes up
Holiday Special 2022 · Acquired
- ▶ 2:55 Christina Cacioppo But now we serve a majority of the current YC batch, so people in YC right now, and again, like, YC is all about just getting revenue, but these reports just help you unlock that, and they do that by, like, opening up new markets, whether…
ACQ Sessions: Jason Calacanis · Acquired
- ▶ 58:01 Ben Gilbert Uh, more than half of the startups in the last YC batch are from outside the U.S., and then there was another one.
- ▶ 1:56:09 David Rosenthal Do you put YC in there?
- ▶ 1:56:10 Jason Calacanis Do you put YC or Techstars?
- ▶ 1:56:20 Ben Gilbert You can't say YC and Techstars.
- ▶ 1:56:24 Ben Gilbert YC is like.
- ▶ 1:56:32 Jason Calacanis Techstars, I think, was a little before Y Combinator, but anyway, you, you definitely have Y Combinators, you know, in the running for that fourth spot, I guess, and then who else would you put in there?
- ▶ 2:00:42 Jason Calacanis You start talking about Founders Fund, or YC, or Angel List, like, okay, now you're talking about more modern era.
Benchmark Part I · Acquired
- ▶ 2:17:21 David Rosenthal I mean, let's take Y Combinator, which is the big institutionalized winner out of all that.
- ▶ 2:17:25 David Rosenthal Benchmark couldn't have built Y Combinator.
- ▶ 2:17:27 David Rosenthal They weren't architected to build Y Combinator.
Amazon Web Services · Acquired
- ▶ 2:29:41 Ben Gilbert This is the YC slogan, but this is exactly what Amazon did.
From NFL to Startup COO to Congressman Regulating Crypto (with Rep. Anthony Gonzalez) · Acquired
- ▶ 1:11:53 Ben Gilbert So you remember who they were when they launched out of YC in 2017, blanketed billboards across San Francisco, New York.
The Playbook: Lessons from 200+ Company Stories · Acquired
- ▶ 45:58 David Rosenthal So we brought up, uh, this little vignette on a whole bunch of episodes on Acquired, but this is an image of Jeff Bezos at the 2008 Y Combinator Startup School, which was a, which is a, um, Which is a moment in history.
- ▶ 46:14 David Rosenthal So YC, at least used to, I don't know if they still do, it's probably virtual now, would put on these,
- ▶ 46:24 David Rosenthal Um, and they would bring founders and, you know, luminaries to come and talk and inspire the next generation of founders and basically to inspire applications to YC.
- ▶ 47:04 David Rosenthal To all these tiny startups who, in that very room at the 2008 YC startup school, a startup that had not even been built yet,
- ▶ 47:13 David Rosenthal The three Airbnb founders were at that YC startup school, and that's why they decided to apply to YC that year, and the rest is history.
- ▶ 47:21 Ben Gilbert Worked for Bezos, and it worked for YC, too.
American Dynamism (with Katherine Boyle) · Acquired
- ▶ 20:22 David Rosenthal The origin of that quote was with Bezos when he was launching AWS at Y Combinator, you know, 15 years ago, but probably 70% of our sponsors here, you know, Fanta, Modern Treasury, Vouch, it's just in the water now that like, of course, the…
- ▶ 53:56 Katherine Boyle That was a YC company built in Atlanta by second time founders, Garrett Langley, extraordinary founder.
Arena Show Part II: Brooks Running (with CEO Jim Weber) · Acquired
- ▶ 36:06 David Rosenthal YC's growth program that you could then go practice.
- ▶ 1:08:44 David Rosenthal Paki, Mario, Anu, Shu, Y Combinator.
Arena Show Part I: Idea Dinner + YC Continuity · Acquired
- ▶ 3:16 Ben Gilbert We have Anu Hariharan tonight from Y Combinator, the infamous Paki McCormick from Not Boring, Mario Gabriele from The Generalist, two of the Internet's finest publications, so very excited to chop it up with them.
- ▶ 46:20 David Rosenthal And for act two, we have a story that I think most of you know, but that we have not yet told on the main feed of Acquired itself, and that is Y Combinator.
- ▶ 46:33 David Rosenthal Specifically, tonight, we're going to tell part two of the YC story.
- ▶ 46:37 David Rosenthal I think most people know about YC's accelerator business that produced Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe,
- ▶ 46:51 David Rosenthal But most people don't realize that that is only one half of what YC is today.
- ▶ 47:03 David Rosenthal And they have deployed literally billions of dollars into series B, C, D rounds in startups, both YC alumni and non-YC alumni alike.
- ▶ 47:15 David Rosenthal So tonight, we have Anu Hariharan, the managing partner of YC's Continuity Fund, which leads all of these late-stage investments, here to tell the story with us.
- ▶ 47:15 David Rosenthal So tonight, we have Anu Hariharan, the managing partner of YC's Continuity Fund, which leads all of these late-stage investments, here to tell the story with us.
- ▶ 47:27 David Rosenthal She went from a junior engineer at Qualcomm, great semiconductor company, to partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to now running YC Continuity, where she serves on the boards of Brex, local fan-favorite Convoy, FAIR,
- ▶ 48:27 David Rosenthal Yeah, so when YC is, you know, ready to move up to Seattle.
- ▶ 48:30 Anu Hariharan I think YC will, YC right now is remote first.
- ▶ 49:52 Anu Hariharan YC always accepts even late applications.
- ▶ 49:55 David Rosenthal YC.com slash acquired.
- ▶ 50:10 Ben Gilbert We wanted to ask you, what is YC continuity?
- ▶ 50:13 Ben Gilbert But in a very mechanical way, like, like literally what is YC continuity?
- ▶ 50:36 Anu Hariharan It would be so cool if YC can continue to support us in the form of investment and in the form of programs down the line too.
- ▶ 50:47 Anu Hariharan And so that's really how we came up with continuity.
- ▶ 50:59 Anu Hariharan We have invested in primarily YC companies, actually.
- ▶ 51:03 Anu Hariharan We double down on YC companies.
- ▶ 51:05 Anu Hariharan Our goal is to be partner, a lifelong partner for all the enduring companies in YC to the extent possible.
- ▶ 51:17 Anu Hariharan If you go through YC today,
- ▶ 51:27 Anu Hariharan So we run three programs in continuity.
- ▶ 52:16 Anu Hariharan And we have, you know, YC runs on WhatsApp.
- ▶ 53:12 Anu Hariharan YC is one team.
- ▶ 53:12 Anu Hariharan So even though continuity was launched seven years ago, by the way.
- ▶ 53:17 Anu Hariharan You know, YC itself is 17 years old.
- ▶ 54:06 David Rosenthal Y Combinator has been an investor in these companies for years at this point.
- ▶ 54:13 David Rosenthal Before continuity started, was YC, were there any, like, experiments in doing investing after the seed stage before continuity, or was continuity the beginning of?
- ▶ 54:13 David Rosenthal Before continuity started, was YC, were there any, like, experiments in doing investing after the seed stage before continuity, or was continuity the beginning of?
- ▶ 54:23 Anu Hariharan Continuity was the beginning.
- ▶ 55:11 Anu Hariharan And so quite a few of the YC partners helped fill Brian's round so that he can go back to building.
- ▶ 55:25 Anu Hariharan But that was the culture in YC before continuity.
- ▶ 55:25 Anu Hariharan But that was the culture in YC before continuity.
- ▶ 55:30 Ben Gilbert Individual investors, you know, there was no YC follow on capital.
- ▶ 55:53 David Rosenthal July, twenty-fifteen, when continuity was started, the idea of raising a fund, a growth fund, like, most people would have thought that was crazy, right?
- ▶ 56:38 Anu Hariharan And so, YC Alums came to YC partners often and said, I, you know, you train us so well at Demo Day, and you teach us how to race, and like, then we are in the woods.
- ▶ 57:21 Anu Hariharan So, it was primarily that, but I think YC's mission has always been how do we support our founders more?
- ▶ 57:28 Anu Hariharan And right, YC was learning through its evolution.
- ▶ 57:36 Anu Hariharan So, YC itself was learning what are its companies going through.
- ▶ 57:57 Anu Hariharan YC can play a significant role.
- ▶ 57:59 Anu Hariharan And, you know, one of the things that people don't understand, and I didn't, I was at Andreessen Horowitz before, right, is the YC founder
- ▶ 58:07 Anu Hariharan Never views YC as an investor.
- ▶ 58:10 Anu Hariharan They view YC as the parent.
- ▶ 58:15 Anu Hariharan Anytime a company is going through any issue, five years after they've graduated, they will first come to their YC partner.
- ▶ 58:38 Ben Gilbert Does continuity change that relationship, knowing that you are available capital now?
- ▶ 59:08 Anu Hariharan So, what that means is, there are many times, um, we may offer term sheets, and they would say, out of, you know, we would not want YC this round, and we would like YC in the next round, because you're already in the cap table, and we will…
- ▶ 59:50 Anu Hariharan Why see companies succeeding is more important than what the returns of our funds are.
- ▶ 1:00:04 Ben Gilbert Like, is our YC partners one big pool that sort of comprise one investment committee across accepting into the accelerator, making growth investments, or is it more like a couple people, our YC continuity, and then a handful of people are…
- ▶ 1:00:04 Ben Gilbert Like, is our YC partners one big pool that sort of comprise one investment committee across accepting into the accelerator, making growth investments, or is it more like a couple people, our YC continuity, and then a handful of people are…
- ▶ 1:00:28 Anu Hariharan And on continuity, it's Ali and I, Ali Rogani, who was the former CEO of Twitter and CFO of Pixar, so we both run the continuity fund.
- ▶ 1:01:15 Anu Hariharan On continuity, it's a three people investing team, investment committee, so it's just me, Ali, and one early stage vote in case Ali
- ▶ 1:01:24 Anu Hariharan But it's primarily the continuity decision.
- ▶ 1:01:27 Ben Gilbert And one other question just to help sort of frame up the continuity operations.
- ▶ 1:01:36 Ben Gilbert The continuity fund I think only does a handful of deals a quarter.
- ▶ 1:01:50 Anu Hariharan And we have 3500 companies that have gone through YC, so we've done less than one percent.
- ▶ 1:01:58 Anu Hariharan We were, so we pretty much are a start-up within YC, so when we first launched, we were honing our investment strategy.
- ▶ 1:02:06 Anu Hariharan What's right and what makes sense for the broader YC, right?
- ▶ 1:02:10 Anu Hariharan And then I would say we've always been undercapitalized relative to the success of YC companies.
- ▶ 1:02:22 Ben Gilbert I mean, YC's just had a ridiculous track record.
- ▶ 1:02:29 Ben Gilbert Is it like total combined market cap of all YC companies?
- ▶ 1:02:56 Anu Hariharan In fact, the top three breakout companies in India in the last two years are all YC.
- ▶ 1:03:14 Anu Hariharan And continuity needs to support that mission.
- ▶ 1:03:17 David Rosenthal So you said, you know, continuity is this startup within the, it's just crazy to me that YC is 17 years old.
- ▶ 1:03:17 David Rosenthal So you said, you know, continuity is this startup within the, it's just crazy to me that YC is 17 years old.
- ▶ 1:03:35 Anu Hariharan Well, that's why we have a new tagline, the YC mob.
- ▶ 1:03:46 Anu Hariharan Oh, we're on the YC Bob.
- ▶ 1:03:47 David Rosenthal Well, it's like, um, I used to be on the other side of this because I quasi used to compete with YC in leading seed rounds, and, uh, the number of VC firms throughout the whole life of YC that talk about YC, often in, you know, negative…
- ▶ 1:04:19 Anu Hariharan I mean, I also think it's really hard to understand and appreciate an organization like YC from the outside.
- ▶ 1:04:26 Anu Hariharan You really deeply understand YC in only two ways.
- ▶ 1:04:29 Anu Hariharan If you're a YC founder and if you work within YC.
- ▶ 1:04:32 Anu Hariharan And I mean, outside, when I was at Andreessen Horowitz, I actually did not understand the depth and the cultural nuance with which YC was built.
- ▶ 1:04:45 David Rosenthal So my, I put this in the, in the notes, um, my current mental model of YC is like a university, a top, call it an Ivy League university.
- ▶ 1:04:58 David Rosenthal You take classes, you know, every year or every six months, um, there's an endowment attached to it, which is continuity now, and, uh.
- ▶ 1:05:14 Ben Gilbert All of the proceeds from YC exits go into a big pool of capital that then funds continuity.
- ▶ 1:05:14 Ben Gilbert All of the proceeds from YC exits go into a big pool of capital that then funds continuity.
- ▶ 1:05:46 David Rosenthal Is that a good mental model of YC?
- ▶ 1:05:49 Anu Hariharan We say YC is university for startups.
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