Y Combinator, every mention
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every year anyone John Coogan 231Jordi Hays 87Garry Tan 12Nichole Wischoff 6Trae Stephens 4Daniel Yanisse 4Matt Schlicht 3Jason Carman 3Jackson Stokes 3Alexis Ohanian 3
Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where Y Combinator comes up
Lulu Cheng Meservey on Founder Mode, Attention as Currency, and Building the Future.
- ▶ 6:15 Lulu Cheng Meservey Like any YC company that's coming out into the world today, they're thinking the founder is going to go direct.
- ▶ 22:46 John Coogan We, we're pretty big in the private markets for tech, but moving our, our, we, we like to think of it as like, YC Demo Day was our NFL combine, uh, earnings season is our Superbowl.
Shaun Maguire breaks down Wiz investment, building great teams, and the Everything App.
- ▶ 11:19 unnamed speaker Is that, is that class like YC where the, if you enter into it, you're kind of doing it for 12 hours a day type of thing?
Investing in the Future and the Importance of Science Fiction
- ▶ 4:42 Jordi Hays You know, people have talked recently about how the, the, you know, YC batches, everything feels very on trend, right? 4 times in the scene
David Senra on Nvidia, Jensen Huang, and Being a Great Founder.
- ▶ 14:45 John Coogan It's just so like the, the standard YC playbook, for example, is like you get three co-founders, you split it equally, then immediately YC takes 10%, then it's like back to back to back 20% rounds, you're diluted down to a few percent. 2 times in the scene
"I Partner with People" - Chad Byers talks about Venture, Fitness, and Being a Chad.
- ▶ 13:54 Chad Byers YC demo day.
- ▶ 20:19 unnamed speaker We, we were at YC demo day and we saw a couple teams come through where it was just, 2 times in the scene
Trae Stephens talks Flock Safety, Anduril, and American Dynamism.
- ▶ 1:13 unnamed speaker Do you remember if they were a hot company when they were coming out of YC, was it obvious that they were onto something onto something and, and special? 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 2:21 Trae Stephens But honestly, let's take a moment to just like applaud Gary Tan for what he's done with Y Combinator. 4 times in the scene
Delian Asparouhov on Near Death Experiences, Deflecting Asteroids, and the Magic of Venture.
- ▶ 26:23 Delian Asparouhov Um, uh, it's actually in the latest white combinator batch, um, props to them.
Michael Mignano on Building Anchor, Social Podcasting, and the Future of Oboe.
- ▶ 19:24 Michael Mignano And by the way, that's what we see, like, you know, in places like YC, these companies pivot sometimes like five times over the course of two weeks, the pivot is so important.
Alexis Ohanian reflects on Reddit, the changing internet, and the future of Digg.
- ▶ 3:10 Alexis Ohanian Remember, you know, we were in the first batch Y Combinator, which was in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"There's a lot of stuck founders out there" - Jeremy Giffon breaks down the current state of VC.
- ▶ 10:12 Jeremy Giffon And there's actually a lot of talent there that can be unlocked who are people who, you know, can't do the go through YC thing, but still, you know, would love to have real upside, would love to, to, uh, to, to lead a team and run a…
- ▶ 18:36 Jeremy Giffon You don't gotta like go to Harvard and do YC and all that.
Garry Tan talks the state of YC, the impact of AI, and the dawn of innovation.
- ▶ 0:17 unnamed speaker Uh, but it seems like YC is like completely transformed by LLM's writing code. 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 3:17 unnamed speaker You know, YC has always been about, you have three months to make a tremendous amount of progress. 5 times in the scene
- ▶ 5:55 unnamed speaker Uh, we've had this thesis that YC is, like, entering like a renaissance, like with the AI stuff, like this is the best time to be running like the YC business model, but can you talk a little bit about 6 times in the scene
- ▶ 10:25 unnamed speaker What do you say to people that want to put YC in a box, right? 7 times in the scene
- ▶ 13:45 unnamed speaker Do the YC model. 5 times in the scene
- ▶ 17:15 Garry Tan I mean, I get hit up for, um, you know, I was thinking about how Sam Altman, when he, uh, had my role here at YC, uh, he used to have, like, 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 18:46 unnamed speaker You put out a, uh, you know, YC's, you know, um, famous for your request for startups list, uh, wanted to highlight one specifically that you had, uh, called out, which was a secure AI app store.
- ▶ 20:19 unnamed speaker Uh, it's always a pleasure chatting and, uh, hopefully we'll see you at YC demo day.
Billionaires Quest to Save Farming
- ▶ 17:04 unnamed speaker I would, I just wish these guys would instead go and give, you know, money through like a YC model almost, and just get the money into a bunch of young hackers, let them build a bunch of stuff.
How Does GROK Compare? (Full Analysis)
- ▶ 10:26 unnamed speaker Sam had an accelerator, a small accelerator called Y Combinator.
- ▶ 51:50 John Coogan It wasn't, it was Y Combinator had a, uh, a series of interviews on their YouTube channel, and Sam went and conducted a number of interviews, and one of them was with Elon, and so they're sitting in the Tesla factory, just chopping it up… 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:03:53 John Coogan Uh, Altman had known him since his Y Combinator days.
Elizabeth Holmes First Interview Released
- ▶ 28:34 unnamed speaker We're in, you know, white comedy or loosely, like we're in the Silicon Valley area.
REVIEW: HIMS Super Bowl Ad (Controversy)
- ▶ 9:05 John Coogan There was one in my YC batch.
BREAKING: DOGE Just Added a GAME CHANGER
- ▶ 13:29 unnamed speaker Which is like a similar to YC type of structure.
The Internet’s Most Famous Drug Dealer (Ross Ulbricht)
- ▶ 55:55 unnamed speaker It's just the, the, the irony here of him in another reality, he would have been in Y Combinator just absolutely crushing it.
Why the German Economy is COLLAPSING?
- ▶ 12:56 unnamed speaker In fact, you know that the YC safe has a line at the top that says, do not modify, do not modify this.
DeepSeek, Stargate Update, Bees Do Enjoy Honey, Golden Retriever Maxxing, Bring on the Trilly
- ▶ 1:41:30 Jordi Hays Uh, and so it's a very, you know, and I'm sure there's like 10 of these companies in the YC batch.
- ▶ 2:11:47 Jordi Hays Very exciting, and I think that many sort of, uh, this is a cool experiment, uh, and is worth funding from YC and is worth the founder trying to take a crack at it.
DJI Suspicions, Stargate Turmoil, OpenAI Operator, F40 for the Mind
- ▶ 7:56 John Coogan Kind of go to like the Silicon Valley of manufacturing, and it's much like when you're in Mountain View doing YC, and oh, a company's failing, but they have a good iOS engineer, you just pull them onto your team.
- ▶ 2:25:20 unnamed speaker No YC company had ever touched it, and there was a lot of information online about the industry, but it wasn't until we started talking with customers that we were like, okay, here's an attempt at this industry that had happened a decade…
Project Stargate, The T Word, Ramp Treasury, Audience Ad Reads, See You at Davos
- ▶ 38:29 John Coogan Yeah, I'm waiting for the YC request for startups.
- ▶ 1:28:56 Jordi Hays And there's, there was always the, YCs had a bunch of different, you know, they have financing docs on their website that I'm sure they have other docs and there's always been that's templates available, but now it's just, it's feels… 3 times in the scene
The END of TikTok?
- ▶ 57:18 Jordi Hays And it's basically like the YC of China.
What's Happening at SONOS (Total Disaster)
- ▶ 6:36 Jordi Hays Sonos should have gone through YC as a public company.
- ▶ 31:40 Jordi Hays This is the kind of stuff like founders will join YC. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:15:02 Jordi Hays Max, I'm sorry for butchering your name, but he says, um, he has a company called Gumloop, which just got out of, uh, just got out of YC. 2 times in the scene
The Businesses Making $$$ off Disaster Relief
- ▶ 1:32:57 Jordi Hays You're seeing it in YC, the best YC companies are getting out with, like, millions of ARR, and you're seeing teenagers on X go from nothing to doing hundreds of thousands a month, and part of that is, like, these new AI, this new, like,… 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:44:21 John Coogan Uh, first company's going through YC, and, uh, PG comes to talk and gives this, uh, talk about, like, what red flags exist for, uh, founders of companies these days. 6 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:53:05 John Coogan Critique of Y Combinator.
Insurance Companies Explained (How they actually work)
- ▶ 1:11:03 Jordi Hays It's like a mango seed for your AI company, or like if you're a good Y, if you're a good YC company, you might come out of demo day, skip the seed round and go straight to the, you know, 25 on a hundred.
- ▶ 1:18:28 John Coogan And then this is like the whole YC thing is like she show up.
- ▶ 1:45:58 John Coogan Paul Bukite, uh, YC powder, uh, creator of Gmail, YC partner. 2 times in the scene
Can This Man Save Los Angeles? (Rick Caruso)
- ▶ 28:20 John Coogan The companies that cut their burn, like the same day that YC issued that letter saying, hey, this is going to be rough.
- ▶ 1:36:42 John Coogan Have I told you my story about, uh, making fresh juice during YC in 2012?
How to WIN in 2025? (INSANE Predictions List)
- ▶ 1:08:58 Jordi Hays This is why, I mean, it's hard to imagine any company better position than YC.
- ▶ 1:17:08 John Coogan YC will fund a company that makes humanoid robots with guns for arms. 2 times in the scene
The END of Ski Season? (E26)
- ▶ 1:16:26 John Coogan Trump, obviously, in the sense that, like, he predicted that Trump would be popular, and that, that happened in 2016, and it was kind of like this wild card thing, where he was still getting protested, and there was a lot of negativity,…
- ▶ 1:21:34 John Coogan I do think I heard, uh, when Justin Mayers was, was initially pitching TruMed, some of the feedback he got was like, this is a good idea, but you gotta be really quiet about this for the next like year or two until you get this thing…
You are NOT a Lottery Ticket (Peter Thiel Breakdown)
- ▶ 5:40 unnamed speaker C, A, D, I think they just put more money in the latest round, which I don't even know what the letter is, F or G, and it's just concentration, concentration, concentration, whereas YC has been diversify, diversify, diversify, um, and, you…
- ▶ 29:34 Jordi Hays And pretty good marketing for Y Combinator. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 36:08 unnamed speaker This is something where we like, it's always like the, it's always like the bear case for like the YC requests for startups. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 55:23 Jordi Hays Yeah, this is, this is the bull case for Y Combinator right now because they have a set structure to their investments and you can't negotiate it. 3 times in the scene
CHRISTIANITY: Why it's making a comeback (ep23)
- ▶ 28:11 John Coogan That Michelle Stevens leads, and she's hosted events with Teal, as well as Y Combinator President Gary Tan.
- ▶ 44:05 John Coogan Oh, this one, uh, there was another one that went through YC a couple of years ago that was like, we just look at the hedge fund, the best performing hedge fund
- ▶ 48:49 Jordi Hays He was weighing in on, on Y Combinator's success. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:15:08 John Coogan And it's a screenshot of backed by Y Combinator. 11 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:26:18 John Coogan It was on SoundCloud for a while, and when I got to YC, they, he had already, like, sold his company, so he was, like, God in YC world. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:34:17 John Coogan Uh, I think I have done a complete one 80 on white combinators business model in the past 24 hours. 4 times in the scene
Surviving a VC Holiday Party (ep22)
- ▶ 29:52 Jordi Hays So, so if you're, uh, if you're a Gen Z founder, you're going to Y Combinator, you want to stand out, and you want to get a tailored suit,
- ▶ 44:27 John Coogan We talked about this last time, but Krish then says, I love you, Gary, but you guys literally rejected me. 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 52:14 Jordi Hays Been through YC twice. 8 times in the scene
Billionaires XMAS list (ep21)
- ▶ 32:58 John Coogan So you're at YC demo day.
- ▶ 47:45 John Coogan Eight VC, Y Combinator, Hadrian, Allen Control Systems, and many more.
- ▶ 57:22 John Coogan Startup Fund, Coastal Ventures, and Y Combinator all jumping back in.
- ▶ 1:28:42 Jordi Hays This is why, I mean, this is why YC is like actually a very positive force in terms of, yeah, it's a union for founders. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:36:45 John Coogan And so if you're looking for an idea for the next YC batch, start hacking, start DMing Gary.
- ▶ 1:38:14 John Coogan I don't know if it's still up, but so this is Kyle vote, the founder of cruise went through YC,
How we became the fastest growing podcast (ep20)
- ▶ 16:17 John Coogan Uh, yeah, I remember DoorDash went through YC. 3 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:16:36 John Coogan YC Demo Day was impressive.
- ▶ 2:07:01 John Coogan This is interesting, and I like this post because it's true, but it also kind of flies in the face of, like, YC's, like, request for startups. 8 times in the scene
CEO Assassination Deep Dive (ep19)
- ▶ 26:29 unnamed speaker Yeah, because for every, for every, for every one biology who's just horribly dismayed at, at what's happening, or, you know, just younger tech founder or whatever, somebody in Y Combinator who's like, this is, that's building in health…
- ▶ 1:04:17 unnamed speaker Uh, let's go to Harsh Taggar over at Y Combinator. 4 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:31:03 unnamed speaker And he says, about 6.5% of recent YC batches become one billion dollars or more. 3 times in the scene
Inside Facebooks Secret "Red Book" (ep18)
- ▶ 17:29 John Coogan Uh, Jordy, you wanna kick it off with YC? 6 times in the scene
- ▶ 42:43 John Coogan Like, they've kind of bootstrapped their own, like, YCS community where they're syndicating deals together, sending employees around.
- ▶ 1:51:37 Jordi Hays It's totally counter to the YC approach of just like launch early and often and just like get feedback
- ▶ 2:00:46 Jordi Hays And I, honestly, this is one of those things, um, every single new company coming out of YC that's doing some AI meets finance for corporations, you are competing directly with, uh, a very fast moving gorilla, which is ramp.
- ▶ 2:39:03 John Coogan And you see that at YC with like the team that he's built there.
How BILLIONAIRES dress for XMAS (ep17)
- ▶ 1:25:24 John Coogan You just need top institutions like Stanford, Berkeley, perfect weather, the world's best talent, top accelerators like YC, thousands of angel investors, 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:39:12 Jordi Hays In the next YC badge rippling for pirates.
- ▶ 2:04:13 John Coogan So this is something where YC is super valuable because if you're working with another YC founder, like you automatically have their email.
- ▶ 2:49:22 John Coogan I know I'm from YC era.
- ▶ 3:00:49 John Coogan NYC did this with the safe, and there's been this, you know, you just need to reduce the, reduce any friction in the capital markets, and this always has benefits, and people know this in America.
Taylor Lorenz Trades Teams (ep16)
- ▶ 45:40 John Coogan There's probably 10, there's probably 10 YC companies that are doing this already.
- ▶ 46:48 John Coogan Uh, Andrew D'Souza says the startup industrial complex created by Paul Graham and Y Combinator is rotting the creativity and ambition of a generation of founders with a paint by numbers approach to entrepreneurship. 10 times in the scene
Election Betting Gone WRONG (ep15)
- ▶ 1:20:09 unnamed speaker You're also competing with all the big companies who are moving extremely quickly on all these product opportunities.
- ▶ 1:31:13 unnamed speaker Anyways, let's, let's have a, a YC, you know, uh, focus fund that's focused on love and forgiveness and one that's focused on revenge.
FACT CHECKERS vs. tech article (ep14)
- ▶ 33:00 John Coogan He says someone should start a studio of cracked devs plus GTM team and just look at the YC batch every season for the best ideas and then front run them. 6 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:00:22 John Coogan Uh, I was in the same YC batch as Chris, uh, with the Substack team. 2 times in the scene
- ▶ 1:46:04 Jordi Hays Uh, I would say, uh, find, go through YC and invest in the five, uh, invest every single dollar you have in the five best founders in the batch. 2 times in the scene
How to Spend a Trillion Dollars Fast (ep13)
- ▶ 11:31 John Coogan And this is a massive, this is a massive shift from a decade ago where Balaji gave that talk at Y Combinator called Silicon Valley's Ultimate Exit.
- ▶ 1:05:26 John Coogan Um, cause cause when you're post YC, our burn rate was three K a month for three people.
- ▶ 1:44:49 John Coogan Uh, and it's a repost of YC congratulating one of their portfolio companies.
- ▶ 2:02:44 John Coogan Creates YC. 8 times in the scene
- ▶ 2:32:39 unnamed speaker this is where like YC is like dogma is just absolutely correct, which is just like keep burn incredibly low. 4 times in the scene