The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 19 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Altman: Becoming a VC felt like an admission of defeat
“I didn't, like, have a ton of respect for the career path. And so there was, like, some sense in which it was an admission of defeat about, you know, I just, I can't run a company, so I'm gonna go do the easy job, or I'm gonna go do the retirement job or somet…”
Armstrong: Unanimous consensus committees miss breakthrough innovations
“I think there's a real danger in consensus, especially when you're talking about real breakthrough innovation, because yes, Every breakthrough innovation looks like a bad idea, but it's actually a good idea, and so you, I think you really want to avoid, like, …”
Troy Carter: Black founders need equal capital access, not charity
“Like, those Black businesses should be held to the same standard of return on capital. It's just the opportunity to have access to that capital, have access to the support and training that Y Combinator companies may get, or that, you know, first-round capital…”
Black founders need equal capital access and standard ROI expectations, not charity
“Like those black businesses should be held to the same standard of return on capital. It's just the opportunity to have access to that capital. Have access to the support and training that Y Combinator companies may get, or that, you know, first-round capital …”
Paul Graham accepted Airbnb into YC for founder hustle, not the idea
“The reason we got in wasn't because of our idea. It was because through the breakfast cereal, we had proven to him that we had hustle, we had grit, we had the, if we could figure out how to sell breakfast cereal for 40 dollars a box, we could figure out how to…”
Altman: Silicon Valley was not geared toward capital-intensive science
“There's a thing about Silicon Valley, which is it's, it had not been that well geared towards the time and capital intensive science projects.”
Shear: Great founders neither rebel nor acquiesce when challenged
“I think what YC is looking for is people who can communicate clearly, but most of all, people who, when they're challenged, they neither rebel nor acquiesce. And I think that's a, that's one of the most important traits in startup founders, actually.”
Armstrong: Startup co-founders should ideally be people known for years
“Having a co-founder is like getting married, basically. Like, it should be somebody that you have worked with for years, and you've, at least maybe you've known them for years, ideally.”
Mehta: Instacart got into Y Combinator after sending Garry Tan beer
“I opened the app, I ordered a six pack of beer, and I addressed it for the Y Combinator headquarters. And half an hour later, I get a call from Gary Tan, and he's like, what is this? And I was like, oh, this is Instacart. And I guess the beer must have been pr…”
McKenzie: Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear became an early Substack investor
“I remember on the first demo day we did, which is the one that's for YC alumni, Emmett Scheer came up to me and he said, Emmett Scheer, founder of, co-founder of Twitch, who was on the show a couple years ago, yep. Yeah, he's like, I look at you guys, I'm real…”
McKenzie: Substack reached 7,000 paid subscriptions by the end of Y Combinator
“By the time we Finished YC at the end of March. We had, we, 7000 paid subscriptions across the network that we could point to and say, look, this thing is working.”
Y Combinator rejected SpotHero over an unproven technical cofounder relationship
“And the key reason they said no was because we had, we, they didn't believe that we knew Larry long enough. And they were like, it's a huge risk to have two business founders and a technical co-founder of which was such a new relationship.”
C16 Biosciences Raised $4 Million Within Two Weeks of Y Combinator Demo Day
“We made enough oil, got up on stage for two minutes, held it up, and gave our pitch, and in about two weeks, we were able to raise four million dollars to get the company started.”
Paul Graham emailed Drew Houston requiring him to find a co-founder
“And I get a one-line email from Paul Grime. Saying, they like the idea, certainly liked your software, but you need a co-founder.”
Huffman: Never built a website before writing Reddit's first line of code
“I didn't write the first line of code until June, and I had never built a website before, and we were kind of Paul's special projects a little bit, you know, because of how we got into YC,”
Ohanian: Graham funded founders on condition they abandon their original idea
“We like you to, and if you change your idea, we'll invest.”
Ohanian: Reddit founders received $12,000 from Paul Graham for three months
“And this was a chance to basically get 12,000 dollars from an investor we really trusted to just try something for three months.”