Sep 9, 2022 · 24m · y-combinator
The Two Mindsets That Can KILL Your Startup · Y Combinator
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Y Combinator partners Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell examine how extreme optimism and extreme pessimism can both destroy early-stage startups. They explain why elite founders must cultivate cognitive dissonance, balancing visionary long-term optimism with grounded operational realism.
Statements from this episode (10)
Caldwell: Founders who lean to extreme optimism or pessimism will fail
“I mean, the fact is you need to be both optimistic and pessimistic. Okay. And if you're too far on either extreme, you, Are gonna fail, right?”
Seibel: Overly optimistic founders lose all employee trust
“When you cross over being too optimist, your employees start questioning everything. Like you lose all trust. Cause they're like, oh crap. Like if the leader can't see this obvious thing right in front of their face oh, like what else have I not uncovered yet …”
Caldwell: Even when a startup works, founders mostly receive rejections
“And so I think a lot of folks just, they don't realize that this stuff is hard and that even when it's working, you mostly get no's.”
Seibel: Friends and investors are 'idiots' if they wouldn't use your product
“Your friends are idiots and don't know anything, especially if they would never use your product. Investors are close seconds as idiots, especially if they would never use your product, don't invest in your space, aren't good investors, don't invest in a lot o…”
Seibel: YC Demo Day goals drive momentum, not company viability
“Like setting the aggressive goal, the purpose was to get you to move fast, to get you to go, go, go. Like it was the juice. Like if you learned a bunch pursuing that goal, you got value, even if you didn't accomplish it.”
Seibel: Overly pessimistic founders are easier to fix than overly optimistic ones
“I actually think I rather help someone being too pessimistic, strangely, because usually when I try to help introduce realistic expectations, they can adjust. You know, usually we just need to tell them what's reasonable, and suddenly they're like, oh, ok, I g…”
Caldwell: Non-Technical Founders Who Have Shipped Nothing Are Overly Optimistic
“If you can't build a product and you don't have a tech co-founder or whatever, or you have never once built a product and given it to anyone and you think it's going well, you are too optimistic. Like it's not going well, like, sorry.”
Seibel: Peak hype in a tech trend usually precedes its collapse
“You want to get in before everyone thinks it's cool, not at the peak of everyone thinking it's cool. Like the peak of everyone thinking school is usually right before everything goes to shit.”
Caldwell: A tech trend has peaked once it dominates YC applications
“You can tell when something has jumped the shark, when it is a, one of the more common ideas people apply with. Like, remember chatbots? Everyone was building a chatbot for a couple of years there, and that's when you knew it was over, basically.”
Caldwell: The Best Founders Master Cognitive Dissonance During Crises
“And I think the best founders Have techniques and they can do it. I think, and they can like be really good at it. I think something to aspire for is a founder is someone who can know both. Oh no. Like my star employee just quit and says my startup is horrible…”