Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Ginkgo Bioworks was the first bio company YC funded, back in summer 2014, which makes us especially delighted to announce a new partnership between YC and Ginkgo. Ginkgo Bioworks programs cells. They program them to produce flavors, fragrances, cannabinoids, food proteins, and more. To do that, they have built the world’s most advanced compiler and debugger of genetic code for the rapid engineering of new organisms.

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Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

Recently, while discussing a preemptive funding offer with a company, we noticed that the offer was more dilutive than expected. Wondering if this was an outlier, we looked at 120 US Series A rounds from our portfolio over the past 18 months to see whether or not preemptive offers were generally more or less dilutive than process driven rounds. We were somewhat surprised to discover that, on average, founders taking preemptive offers are taking ~1.4% more dilution for less money.

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Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

We began offering the option to apply to Y Combinator Early Decision last September. If you’re a student, applying Early Decision to YC allows you to apply one batch ahead of the current one. For example, you can apply to YC in September, get your acceptance in October, and start the program in June after you graduate. We tried it as an experiment and it worked so well that we’re offering it permanently now, for both Winter and Summer batches.

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Y Combinator

AUGUST 28, 2019

Diana Hu cofounded Escher Reality, which went through the Summer 2017 batch of YC. They were acquired by Niantic and she is now the head of their AR platform. She’s on Twitter @sdianahu. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:15 – Getting into AR. 2:30 – Her first exposure to AR. 4:15 – AR’s future role in media. 7:20 – Deciding where to go with the product. 9:30 – Innovations that enabled AR. 14:00 – Building a product in a new market.

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startup

Y Combinator

AUGUST 12, 2019

I’ve recently noticed an uptick in the number of “angels” that aren’t actually angels. These investors are institutional funds (read, LP dollars), the details of which aren’t generally disclosed until the founder sees a strange entity name on the signature lines in the docs. This is different than investing through a trust or fund that represents an investor for legal reasons.

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Y Combinator

OCTOBER 2, 2019

We’re excited to share the list of 2019 Top Y Combinator Companies. We also included top exits. We put this list together to help potential employees, partners, and late stage investors get to know a wider set of YC companies. If you’re looking for a job at one of our top companies, you can hit the Apply button to be taken to their careers page. The companies in this list are sorted by valuation. Why do we use valuation?

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Y Combinator

OCTOBER 25, 2019

I got a chance to interview Jack Forbes, CEO of Faros * (YC W19). He shares his experiences moonlighting as an intern at HigherMe (YC W15), playing soccer with YC founders & partners, and what drove him to start a YC company — even after being rejected.

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Y Combinator

MAY 15, 2019

Chris Best is the cofounder and CEO of Substack. Substack makes it simple for a writer to start a paid newsletter. They were in the Winter 2018 batch of YC. You can check them out at Substack.com. Jonathan Gill is the cofounder and CEO of Backtracks. Backtracks is a podcast analytics and hosting platform. You can check them out at Backtracks.fm. Chris is on Twitter @cjgbest and Jonathan is @jgill333. Topics. 00:00 – Intros. 00:25 – Paid vs advertising in podcasting.

culture 168

culture education media health 168

Y Combinator

MAY 29, 2019

Michael Babineau is cofounder and CEO of Second Measure. Second Measure analyzes billions of credit card transactions to answer real-time questions on consumer behavior. They were in the Summer 2015 batch of YC and you can check them out at SecondMeasure.com. Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo. You can find Michael on Twitter @mikebabineau and Kevin is @ilikevests. Topics. 00:00 – What idea did Mike apply to YC with?

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Y Combinator

MAY 21, 2019

In 2018, Pew Research Center reported that 57% of Americans believe that children in America today will be worse off financially than their parents. Since 2013, this number has been as high as 65% — even though we are experiencing our 10th straight year of economic growth. We believe this mindset is the result of increased family debt, stagnant wages, and a lack of government commitment to provide equal access to the basic services families need to thrive.

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economic growth startup education technology 168

Y Combinator

JUNE 19, 2019

Jeremy Rossman is the cofounder of Make School. Make School is a college for computer science headquartered in San Francisco. Make School students don’t pay until they have a job after graduation. They were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch. You can find Jeremy on Twitter @jeremyrossmann. Topics. 00:05 – What is Make School? 00:45 – How is their intensive track different than a traditional college course load?

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Y Combinator

MAY 22, 2019

Vidit Aatrey is cofounder and CEO of Meesho. Meesho is a platform in India that allows people to resell products using their social networks. They were in the Summer 2016 batch of YC and you can check them out at Meesho.com. Adora Cheung is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC she cofounded Homejoy. You can find Vidit on Twitter @viditaatrey and Adora is @nolimits. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:45 – What is Meesho? 2:45 – Why not just sell directly to consumers?

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Y Combinator

MAY 1, 2019

Jarvis Johnson was previously a software engineer at Patreon, Yelp, and Google. He’s now a YouTuber. You can find him on YouTube at Jarvis Johnson and on Twitter @jarvis. Topics. 00:00 – Jarvis’ intro. 00:30 – Where his videos first got traction. 1:10 – Being part of the software industry while critiquing it. 3:45 – How he got into programming. 6:10 – Moving to California. 7:30 – Interning at Google then Yelp.

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Y Combinator

MAY 20, 2019

I’m delighted to announce that Geoff Ralston is taking over for me as President of YC. I’ve known Geoff for almost ten years, he’s been a YC partner for eight, and I think he’s one of the most thoughtful, helpful, and kind investors in Silicon Valley. One of my earliest memories of Geoff is him laying on the floor of the first Stripe office helping the founders redline a contract for hours.

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coworking founder 160

Y Combinator

OCTOBER 16, 2019

We’ve cut down the seventh week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast. Kevin Hale gave both lectures this week. Kevin’s a partner at YC and cofounded Wufoo. His first lecture is on how to improve conversion rates and his second lecture is on pricing for startups. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:27 – Kevin Hale – How to Improve Conversion Rates. 1:02 – Why we care about conversion rates. 2:02 – Shareware conversion rate is.5%.

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Y Combinator

MAY 8, 2019

Brian Halligan is the CEO and cofounder of HubSpot. HubSpot builds software for marketing, sales, and customer service. You can try it out at HubSpot.com. Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC and cofounder of Wufoo. Brian is on Twitter @bhalligan and Kevin is @ilikevests. Topics. 00:00 – Brian’s an introvert that likes to work from home. He also runs a public company. How does he do both? 1:45 – How does he manage his calendar as an introvert?

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Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

At our 29th Demo Day, 175 companies presented over two days. You can read more about the companies on TechCrunch ( day one and day two coverage of S19 Demo Day), Forbes , and Crunchbase. Below are stats about the S19 batch. As a reminder, the application deadline for YC W20 is coming up next week on September 25. Apply here. Total companies that presented at YC S19 Demo Day : 175. YC S19 CATEGORIES: Aerospace – 1%. Agriculture – 1%. B2B Software and Services – 36%.

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real estate construction founder energy 109

Y Combinator

OCTOBER 14, 2019

This November we’re hosting a hackathon at YC. You can find out more about the event and apply here. Applications close on 10/25/19 at 11:59PM PST. We’ll send out the first round of acceptances shortly afterward. The top team will get a YC interview and the top three teams will get office hours with a YC Partner. Judges will be YC Partners and alumni. We hope to see you there! YC Events Feature

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Y Combinator

OCTOBER 11, 2019

YC Partner and Head of Admissions Dalton Caldwell on consuming tech media and being careful to choose things that encourage you to do more. Topics. 00:00 – Consume information that encourages you to do more. 1:25 – You don’t need permission from investors to start a company. 2:30 – Is thought leadership important? 4:05 – Your thought process is influenced by the information you consume. Advice Video Feature

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leadership media advice 219

Y Combinator

JUNE 20, 2019

If you’re a woman engineer and you’re interested in meeting with female YC founders & engineers , we’re hosting a small mixer immediately before the Work at a Startup Expo — at 12 PM on 6/29 and hosted at the same venue.

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founder startup 285

Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Y Combinator CEO and Partner Michael Seibel on how to cold email investors. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:17 – Make it short, i.e. 60 seconds or less to read. 00:58 – Interested in: the problem you’re trying to solve, what your solution is, have you launched, do you have growth, how big you think the market could be, do you have cofounders, are you technical, and do you know something about the problem that you think is controversial.

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Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

The Y Combinator Summer Internship Program is for undergraduate & graduate students in software engineering & data science who want to intern at a YC-backed startup. At a YC startup, you’ll jump into fast-paced, mission critical projects from day one, work directly with founders and early engineers, and build real-world software development skills. At the end of the summer, you’ll look back and see features you built running in production.

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Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

Last week, we interviewed Rent the Backyard about their Early Decision experience. This week, we talked to Wren. For those of you who don’t know, if you’re a student, applying Early Decision to YC allows you to apply now for the summer batch. Wren makes it simple to offset your personal — or your company’s — carbon emissions. Landon, Ben and Mimi were starting their senior year at USC when they applied and were accepted to YC, Early Decision: How did you find out about Early Decision?

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Y Combinator

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Cynthia Rogers, a CS graduate from WPI near Boston, made her move to San Francisco with no job lined up, a decision tree of startup failure outcomes and well wishes from her old team at DraftKings. She landed at ClearBrain (YC W18) as the second eng hire, and found exactly what she wanted: a great mentor/manager, a strong technical team, and challenging work to keep her learning (but not overwhelmed).

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culture opportunity startup networking 197

Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

We’re delighted to announce that YC is hosting online office hours for founders of startups and nonprofits that are solving climate issues on Tuesday, September 24. If you’re in the early stages of building a company we’d love to meet you — anyone from idea stage through Series A and any sized nonprofit is welcome to join. From 10am to noon, we’ll host 15-minute office hours where you’ll get to chat online with YC partner Gustaf Alströmer and Director of Admissions Stephanie Simon.

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Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

We’re excited to announce that we are holding interviews for the Winter 2020 batch in Bangalore for founders based in India. Interviews will take place from November 10 to 12 and are like regular YC interviews in every way. The application is the same, as well as what we look for in the application and the criteria for acceptance. The only difference: you can stay closer to home. If accepted, you will join the YC Winter 2020 batch immediately.

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founder startup 213

Y Combinator

AUGUST 16, 2019

Y Combinator CEO and Partner Michael Seibel on the biggest mistakes first-time founders make. Topics. 00:10 – Solving a problem you don’t care about. 1:00 – Helping users you don’t care about. 1:40 – Choosing cofounders you don’t know well. 2:20 – Not having transparent conversations with your cofounder. 3:20 – Not launching. 4:45 – Not using analytics. 5:02 – Not knowing where your first users will come from.

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founder advice 220

Y Combinator

AUGUST 21, 2019

Aaron Harris is a Partner at YC and before that he cofounded Tutorspree. He’s on Twitter @harris. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:25 – Seed fundraising process. 3:15 – Emailing investors. 9:15 – Parallelized fundraising process. 12:00 – Meeting with investors. 14:00 – Overcapitalization. 16:50 – Communicating your plan to investors. 18:45 – Evaluating investors. 22:40 – Fundraising process for a Series A company.

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Y Combinator

AUGUST 22, 2019

We’re excited to announce that YC will be visiting São Paulo on September 14. YC’s president Geoff Ralston, YC partner Kevin Hale and Director of Admissions Stephanie Simon will host a workshop and Startup School Meetup on September 14. At the workshop, you’ll hear what happens at Y Combinator, what we’ve learned from funding over 2,000 companies, and we’ll be joined by YC alumni who will talk about what it was like going from Brazil to YC. Sign up here.

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startup 213

Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Last week, we interviewed Wren about their Early Decision experience. This week, we talked to GreenTiger. For those of you who don’t know, if you’re a student, applying Early Decision to YC allows you to apply now for the summer batch. GreenTiger is an app that allows users to trade US stocks from India, commission-free. Tyler Burnam was starting his senior year at Dartmouth and Prateek Swain was starting his senior year at Princeton when they applied to YC. Both majored in Computer Science.

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advice communities networking support 192

Y Combinator

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

We’ve cut down the first week of Startup School lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast. First, a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is a YC partner and a cofounder of Wufoo. His lecture is about How to Evaluate Startup Ideas. Then, a lecture from Eric Migicovsky. Eric is a YC partner and the founder of Pebble. His lecture is about How to Talk to Users. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:43 – Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas.

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startup founder 201

Y Combinator

JULY 29, 2019

YC Partner and Tutorspree cofounder Aaron Harris on when to shut down a startup. Read Aaron’s post On Shutting Down here. Advice Video Feature

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startup advice 219

Y Combinator

AUGUST 7, 2019

Russ Roberts is the host of the podcast EconTalk ( iTunes , RSS , and YouTube ), a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution , and the author of several books, including How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life. You can find Russ on Twitter @econtalker. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:15 – What are his thoughts on “meaning, spirituality, or sense of belonging” in regards to creating your own company? 3:20 – Capitalism bearing the burden of human nature.

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Y Combinator

JULY 23, 2019

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be holding interviews for the Winter 2020 batch in Tel Aviv for founders based in Israel. These interviews will take place on September 10 and 11. We’ve been funding Israeli startups for a long time, and this time we thought it would be easier if we went right to the source. These interviews will be just like regular YC interviews. There is no difference in the application or in our criteria for acceptance. If accepted, you’ll join the YC Winter 2020 batch.

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transportation founder startup 219

Y Combinator

JULY 17, 2019

Camille Fournier is a Managing Director at Two Sigma and the former CTO of Rent The Runway. She’s also the author of The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change. You can find her on Twitter @skamille. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:35 – Why do many individual contributors (ICs) never experience a good manager? 3:15 – How did the ideology of management being bad become pervasive in startups?

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Y Combinator

AUGUST 5, 2019

Back when YC was getting started about 10 years ago, Paul Graham wrote some essays that predicted the way startup fundraising would change in the next decade – accurately, it turns out. In short, Paul Graham predicted that there would be way more startups, that they’d be cheaper to start, that new kinds of investors would fund them, that founders would be more technical, and that founders would keep control of their companies. All of those seem to have come true.

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Y Combinator

JULY 31, 2019

Today’s episode is a preview of the Startup School podcast. We’re putting all the Startup School lectures on their own podcast feed. You can subscribe here: iTunes. This is the first lecture from Startup School 2019. It’s Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas. It’s also not too late to sign up for Startup School. The course just started and the deadline to sign up is August 4th. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding. Topics.

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startup founder 209

Y Combinator

JULY 3, 2019

Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo. Kevin’s on the podcast today to do some Office Hours and talk about this year’s edition of Startup School. If you’d like to sign up or learn more, check out StartupSchool.org. Topics. 00:25 – Stats from Startup School 2018. 1:45 – Updates for Startup School 2019. 8:15 – Sign up at StartupSchool.org. 8:50 – Sean Maina asks – In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience?

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startup advice 219

Y Combinator

JUNE 28, 2019

Today, we’re opening up registration for Startup School 2019, our free online course for founders looking to get help turning an idea into a startup. The 10 week course will begin July 22, 2019 and is free for everyone to participate. You can register at Startup School. We will again be offering equity-free grants to the most promising companies that join and complete the course. We will be increasing the grant size this year to $15,000.

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Y Combinator

JULY 16, 2019

We’re excited to announce that Y Combinator will be visiting Buenos Aires on September 17-18, 2019. In the last few years we’ve funded several strong Argentinian startups. There is clearly a lot of talent in the country and a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and we’re hoping to see even more startups emerge. YC’s president Geoff Ralston, YC partner Eric Migicovsky and Director of Admissions Stephanie Simon will host a workshop, moderated by YC alum Tomi Pierucci.

founder 210

founder startup 210

Y Combinator

AUGUST 14, 2019

Jay Reno is the CEO and founder of Feather. Feather is a furniture subscription service. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC. You can check out their furniture at LiveFeather.com and if you live in LA, SF, or New York you can try out the service. Jay is on Twitter @jayjreno. Topics. 00:00 – Intro. 00:20 – Opting out of owning furniture. 6:00 – Feather’s prototype. 8:50 – How much did he make from his MVP? 9:30 – How many products did they have?

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advice startup founder 189

Y Combinator

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

Y Combinator CEO and Partner Michael Seibel on what makes the top 10% of founders different. Topics. 00:00 – What Makes The Top 10% Of Founders Different? 00:35 – Great founders execute. 1:22 – Formidability. 2:09 – Clear communication. 3:40 – Internal motivation. 4:52 – Note that “idea” is not on this list. Advice Video Feature

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