Jessica Livingston
Co-founder, Y Combinator. On 3 shows, 7 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorauthorhost@jesslivingston ↗foundersatwork.posthaven.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
In 2005, she co-founded the technology startup accelerator Y Combinator, where she became widely known as the "social radar" for vetting founders and shaping its culture. She is also the author of Founders at Work and co-hosts The Social Radars podcast.
3shows
7appearances
92statements
11resolved
7supported
2contradicted
64%fully supported
22said about them ↓ Everything Jessica Livingston said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Critics erase Livingston from YC history to maintain diversity narratives
“The people that, that sort of don't want me to be part of the narrative are the ones that think that Y Combinator only invests, it's run by white men, only invests in white men. And gosh, if there was a woman on the founding team making choices of who to fund,…”
Zenefits orchestrated a paid smear campaign and legal threats against Parker Conrad
“There was a smear campaign. You know, paid for. By someone still at Zenefits. There were legal threats made to force him to sign an, you know, not, sign this doc, sign this legal document that would allow them to have a non-compete in California so that he cou…”
No founder Livingston strongly opposed at YC became a super success
“There's no one. That I had a strong dislike for that. I sort of said we should not fund them. That has gone on to be a super success.”
Livingston: Determination matters more than intelligence or school success for founders
“If I had to say the most important traits of the most successful founders, I've already mentioned determination. That is by far the most important quality. More than intelligence. More than previous success, you know, in school.”
Livingston: YC proved funding top MIT and Harvard hackers does not guarantee success
“Remember when we started Y Combinator, our hypothesis was, oh, we'll just fund all the best hackers from MIT and Harvard, and they'll turn out to be great startup founders. That is not true. That is absolutely not true.”
Founders with corporate day jobs consistently abandon startups when obstacles arise
“You have to burn the boat because we found that founders who are still getting a paycheck and health insurance
Once the going got tough they did not quit their job. And you need that deterrent, like you sort of need that desperation. Like I have to make this s…”
Co-founders lacking personal or professional history are a massive red flag
“It's really scary when two founders get together just to start the startup and don't have any history. That, that massive red flag. Sometimes it works out. Like in the case of Dropbox, Drew and Arash, you know, both went to MIT, but I think they didn't know ea…”
Livingston admits missing red flags in Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein
“I definitely don't remember thinking anything, you know, bad about him, you know, or thinking he could be that kind of person. So that definitely, there've been some doozies like that where did not see that one coming.”
Letting guests review recordings beforehand disarms them and encourages candor
“And just like you, I tell them, you will have a chance to review this before it goes public. And I think that disarms people and they say, okay, I can open up because I know if I regret saying something, it's not like talking to a reporter who's gonna re who's…”
Livingston describes traditional 2005 venture investors as hardened, aggressive, and ruthless
“I was soft and sensitive at a time when investors tended to be hardened and aggressive, and I'll throw in ruthless too for a couple of them that I know.”
Operating without LPs initially allowed Y Combinator greater benevolence and risk-taking
“Because YC didn't have any LPs at the time, we weren't even constrained by a vague fiduciary responsibility to anyone, and That allowed us to take more risks with who we chose to fund, and it also allowed us to be benevolent to failing startups and that often …”
Graham tried to change Airbnb's core idea in their YC interview
“During the interview, ah, Paul tried to change their idea. We thought this idea of, like, renting out airbeds was a little weird.”
Livingston: Blind dates and last-minute co-founder pairings rarely work out
“Rarely. I'm trying to think of an example, and off the top of my head, I can't think of an example. Wow. Of two people who were introduced, or sort of bolted on to each other at the last minute, ever working. I'm sure there are examples of it has, having work,…”
Livingston: The most successful founders are driven by purpose, not money
“You cannot be the most successful startup founder if you are driven by money. You have to be driven by a greater purpose.”
Livingston: Female founders should tune out noise and focus solely on product
“You can't worry too much about what everyone's saying, and all the noise, and like, oh, it's so much harder as a woman. Yes, it's harder as a woman. I've been discriminated against, you know, it's, but I have always kept focused on my product, and You know, wh…”
Livingston: YC's most successful startups grew from fanatical early adopters
“All of the most successful startups we found, we funded, grew the same way we did. Out of an initial group of fanatical early adopters.”
Livingston: It is easier to start a startup before having kids
“And based on my own experience, I'd say it's easier to start a startup before you have kids.”
Livingston: Press credited Paul Graham for a conference announcement she wrote
“I spent all morning working on announcing this conference, and here's my blog post right here, announcing the female founders conference, and so what turned up later that day in the press? Paul Graham announced his conference for women founders.”
Wikipedia editors frequently attempt to delete Livingston's page for notability
“Wikipedia people want to take my entry off of Wikipedia all the time.”
Paul Graham often pitched growth strategies to founders during YC interviews
“And sometimes I always tease Paul because one of his defining qualities is that sometimes someone would have an idea that he'd get so excited about that by the end of the interview, he'd be giving them ideas about how to grow their product and, you know, what …”
Livingston would have funded a young Steve Jobs despite his abrasive reputation
“I think I would have funded him because he's so incredible and he's so, he was so smart and so interested in the product and knew, like, I'm very persuaded by people who know what they're talking about and love their product and are domain experts.”
Early YC partners frequently rejected founders they perceived as abrasive
“Early on, I did sometimes tend to say, I really think this person's an asshole. I do not want to fund them. And we often wouldn't.”
Defensiveness during questioning is a major red flag in YC interviews
“And if a founder would get defensive, that was always a bad sign. Always a bad sign. The best founders would say, you know, gosh, I have thought about it and here's what I figured out. Or they just have this almost a tennis match and a conversation rather than…”
The other half of the tape: Jessica Livingston's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 19 times in 15 episodes across the shows. 3 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Domonique Fines 3Gustaf Alströmer 2Geoff Ralston 2Garry Tan 2Vivek Ravisankar 1Tikhon Bernstam 1Spencer Skates 1Paul Graham 1
Statements about Jessica Livingston, by other people (3)
Bernstam: Scribd and most early batch startups would have failed without YC
“Honestly, we would never have made it without that program. And I think that's true of actually most Of those companies and I, I'd argue probably most of the companies because without that community of, like, like-minded people who are highly motivated and wor…”
Paul Graham: Jessica Livingston acts as YC's social radar judging trustworthiness
“The person who does that for Y Combinator is Jessica, the social radar the secret power behind everything.”
Ralston: Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Sam Altman, and Michael Seibel to speak at Startup School
“Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston will be taking part in the course and giving some of their wisdom, which is also broad need to founders everywhere in the world, but we're also going to have other YC partners. Sam Altman, who's the president of Y Combinator,…”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 14
Lenny's Podcast 3
Mixergy 2
2025 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2018 7 mentions in 7 episodes 1 per episode
- The Path to $100B by Paul Buchheit · Y Combinator
- A Conversation on Hard Tech with Eric Migicovsky · Y Combinator
- PR + Content for Growth by Kat Mañalac and Craig Cannon · Y Combinator
- A Conversation with Ooshma Garg - Moderated by Adora Cheung · Y Combinator
- A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
- Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung Discuss Startup School · Y Combinator
- Breaking Down HackerRank's Survey of 40,000 Developers with Vivek Ravisankar · Y Combinator
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Jessica's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y COMBINATORLEDGER | Co-founder, Y Combinator | 5 +1 | 65 | 71% 5/7 | full record on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast → |
| LENNY'S PODCASTLEDGER | Co-founder, Y Combinator | 1 | 25 | 50% 2/4 | full record on Lenny's Podcast → |
| MIXERGYLEDGER | Co-founder, Y Combinator | 1 | 2 | — | full record on Mixergy → |