Geoff Ralston, YC partner, discusses Y Combinator's founder evaluation criteria and emphasis on backing benevolent founders with co-founder Paul Graham.
“I don't think we'd fund a Steve Jobs at YC. Well, that's not good. Yeah. And the reason is, especially when Steve Jobs was starting off, he was an asshole.”
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More from Geoff Ralston
Opinion
Ralston: Magic Leap raised $2.3B but seems to have almost nothing
“Magic Leap raised 2.3 billion dollars, and they seem to have almost nothing.”
Geoff RalstonSep 1, 2018▶ 49:19A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Insight
Ralston: Seed investors demanding five-year financial projections are inexperienced
“If you run into an investor who is asking for five-year projections at seed, you've run into what we colloquially call a noob. They don't know what they're doing. Who has five year predictions at this point?”
Geoff RalstonOct 10, 2018▶ 43:51Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Opinion
Ralston: Pitch decks are largely useless for raising seed funding
“For raising seed, I think decks are not that useful. As an angel investor myself, I almost never even look at the deck. I just want to look at the founder and hear their story and see how they tell it.”
Geoff RalstonOct 10, 2018▶ 23:41Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Opinion
Ralston: VCs are not all brilliant, but they easily detect founder dishonesty
“If there's one thing, VCs aren't all brilliant, they're not actually all that good at being a VC, but what they are good at is sniffing this stuff out.”
Geoff RalstonOct 10, 2018▶ 29:01Fundraising Fundamentals By Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Insight
Ralston: Unequal equity splits like 51/49 are better to maintain control
“It's usually better to have somewhat equal shares, not, not, but not completely equal, and if one person has 51% and the other person has 49%, then they can control.”
Geoff RalstonSep 1, 2018▶ 47:04A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston · Y Combinator
Insight
Ralston: SAFEs beat debt because debt allows investors to kill viable startups
“About lifestyle companies and why I think the safe is preferred in general to debt is because we've seen too many times where the fact that there's debt there is used to kill a company that didn't have to die. And it's too easy for investors to call that debt …”
Geoff RalstonMar 6, 2018▶ 57:50Carolynn Levy and Kirsty Nathoo - Startup Investor School Day 1 · Y Combinator
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