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Y Combinator Startup Podcast

We help founders make something people want. The Y Combinator Podcast is where builders talk about building. From the earliest days of an idea to scaling a company that changes the world, YC partners and founders share real stories, lessons, and tactics from the frontlines.

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Episodes

7/31/2019

#137 - Startup School Podcast Preview with Kevin Hale artwork

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#137 - Startup School Podcast Preview with Kevin Hale

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 RSS 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. Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:42 - Why we're starting with evaluating ideas 2:07 - YC doesn't just fund companies with traction 3:31 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea? 5:57 - A startup idea is a hypothesis 7:37 - The problem 11:37 - The solution 13:07 - The insight 14:42 - Founder's unfair advantage 15:42 - Market growing 20% a year 16:22 - Product 10x better 17:12- Acquisition model 18:37 - Monopoly 19:32 - Threshold belief 19:52- Miracle belief 20:42 - Example: YC 24:02 - Example: Wufoo

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7/24/2019

#136 - Anu Hariharan on Managing a Board artwork

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#136 - Anu Hariharan on Managing a Board

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Anu Hariharan is a partner at YC. Today’s episode is about her recent post, How To Manage a Board . You can find her on Twitter @anuhariharan . If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org . 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. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:57 - Why Anu wrote How to Manage a Board 2:27 - Board composition 4:27 - Adding independent board members 6:27 - The responsibilities of a board member 9:12 - Productive board meetings 12:52 - Sharing materials before the meeting 13:42 - Bringing executives into the meeting 16:57 - Dealing with board conflict 18:22 - Following up after a board meeting 21:12 - Dealing with difficult board members 23:57 - Reality distortion 24:52 - Agustin Feuerhake asks - What does it take to be a great board member? 27:22 - Dave Bailey asks - To what extent should the board culture reflect the company culture? 29:42 - Connor Abene asks - How do you think about adding board members who haven't worked in your industry but you think are good? 33:22 - Rhina asks - Could you address managing a board during product market fit time/ pivot times?

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7/17/2019

#135 - Camille Fournier artwork

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#135 - Camille Fournier

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 . If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org . The course begins on July 22nd and goes for 10 weeks. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:47 - Why do many individual contributors (ICs) never experience a good manager? 3:27 - How did the ideology of management being bad become pervasive in startups? 5:27 - What should a new manager do in their first 90 days? 8:57 - Getting better at 1:1s 11:17 - More tips for the first 90 days 13:17 - Remote management 15:12 - Mistakes rookie managers make 19:27 - Letting people go 23:37 - Being a manager and still wanting to write code 27:57 - Feeling overwhelmed as a manager 31:27 - Getting a team to gel 38:42 - Giving people kudos 39:57 - Non-engineers running engineering teams 42:07 - Staying legit technically as a manager 43:27 - Management vs leadership

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7/10/2019

#134 - Sarah Nahm and Holly Liu artwork

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#134 - Sarah Nahm and Holly Liu

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Sarah Nahm is the CEO and cofounder of Lever . Lever builds modern recruiting software for teams to source, interview, and hire top talent. They were in the Summer 2012 batch of YC. You can try Lever out at Lever.co . Holly Liu is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before that she cofounded the gaming company Kabam. You can find Sarah on Twitter @srhnhm and Holly is @hollyhli u. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - Did Sarah grow up thinking she'd be a founder? 8:01 - Why did she decide to leave Google and start Lever? 13:56 - Thinking about product in the early days of Lever 15:51 - Fundraising and figuring out the team 24:06 - How do you figure out someone's career motivations? 27:26 - Getting concrete when interviewing 29:31 - Hiring remote employees 32:11 - Writing job descriptions around impact 37:41 - Eva Zhang asks - What's the biggest roadblock you faced in trying to make hiring more inclusive to diverse candidates? 42:06 - What does thinking about inclusion mean at a small company? 47:21 - Not buying into technical and nontechnical people 50:26 - Setting up a culture that allows for conversations about diversity and inclusion

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7/3/2019

#133 - Updates for Startup School 2019 and Office Hours with Kevin Hale artwork

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#133 - Updates for Startup School 2019 and Office Hours with Kevin Hale

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 https://StartupSchool.org . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:51 - Stats from Startup School 2018 2:11 - Updates for Startup School 2019 8:41 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org 9:16 - Sean Maina asks - In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience? 11:56 - Design affordances 14:11 - Sunil Tej asks - How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started? 18:11 - Building an audience before a product 20:41 - Wufoo's growth 23:56 - Coming up with the idea for Wufoo 27:56 - Companies pivoting during YC 29:26 - Building a product in an unsexy space 32:56 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you know if you've achieved product market fit? Or if your product just isn't noticed yet? 43:56 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you gauge the size of a market? 46:26 - Tips for Startup School success 50:41 - Advice on vetting cofounders 54:11 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org

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6/26/2019

#132 - Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer artwork

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#132 - Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Dan Hockenmaier is the founder of the growth strategy firm Basis One . Prior to Basis One he was the Director of Growth Marketing at Thumbtack. You can learn more at BasisOne.com . Gustaf Alströmer is a Partner at YC. Prior to YC he was the Product Lead for Growth at Airbnb. You can find Dan on Twitter @danhockenmaier and Gustaf is @gustaf . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Dan's most unpopular advice 1:45 - What growth strategies do people jump on too soon? 2:20 - Questions Dan asks a company he's advising 3:50 - Traits Dan looks for in early growth hires 6:30 - How product and growth are tied together 11:30 - Good/bad learnings from Facebook's growth team 14:00 - A/B testing 17:00 - Retention and other metrics 20:45 - The importance of experimentation 23:45 - Getting ideas for A/B tests then choosing which to do 25:00 - Advice for employees who want to get a growth program going 29:00 - B2B vs consumer growth tactics 34:00 - Pricing experiments 35:30 - Paid marketing 39:30 - Launching in new markets 40:15 - Hiring for marketing 43:45 - Metrics for marketing hires 45:45 - Toni asks - Why did Airbnb grow so fast? 48:45 - Step function growth changes for companies that already had scale 49:55 - Michael Savage asks - It would be great to discuss growth into new regions for example Africa and UAE. What would their approach be, how does it differ from region to region, culture to culture? 52:30 - Justin LaRosa asks - What are some of the most common drivers of viral growth? 55:20 - Hiring a growth agency vs building your own team 58:20 - How do you think about growth in the context of improving humanity?

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6/19/2019

#131 - Jeremy Rossmann artwork

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#131 - Jeremy Rossmann

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Jeremy Rossmann 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 MakeScool on Twitter @MakeSchool . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:32 - What is Make School? 01:12 - How is their intensive track different than a traditional college course load? 2:22 - How are their students differentiated from students educated in a traditional CS program? 3:12 - Interacting with the parents of Make School students 8:12 - William Triska asks - What are some ways to encourage greater independence and autodidactic behavior in students pursuing technical skills and knowledge? 10:02 - The autodidact myth 15:57 - Two stakeholders making purchasing decisions: potential students and parents 20:07 - The education landscape 20 years from now 23:57 - Education stacking 25:02 - Vikram Malhotra asks - When are we going to do away with degrees? 32:42 - Evan Ward asks - Should liberal arts colleges consider adopting ISA's? 35:17 - Are there instances of predatory ISAs? 37:27 - Make School students who want to be entrepreneurs 40:27 - Advice for people in YC

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6/12/2019

#130 - Tracy Young and Kat Manalac artwork

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#130 - Tracy Young and Kat Manalac

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Tracy Young is a cofounder and the CEO of PlanGrid . PlanGrid makes mobile construction productivity software. They were acquired by Autodesk in 2018 and were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch. Kat Manalac is a Partner at YC. You can find Tracy on Twitter @Tracy_Young and Kat is @KatManalac . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:46 - How Tracy got into the construction industry 2:51 - What convinced Tracy and her cofounders to build PlanGrid? 3:31 - Finding a technical cofounder 6:26 - Tracy still sees herself as an engineer 7:16 - PlanGrid's MVP and their first customers 11:56 - Their sales process 13:46 - Product breakthroughs 17:21 - Not firing fast enough 20:31 - What does she look for when hiring someone? 26:01 - Tim Cook's closing statement at WWDC 28:46 - Fredi Fernández asks - Does Tracy track wellness levels of the team? 29:26 - At what point did Tracy hire an office manager? 30:16 - How does Tracy take care of herself? 31:46 - Founding a company with a partner 33:31 - Managing a company as a new parent 35:46 - Seyed Rasoul Jabari asks - What's your big plan to go from 1.5 to 10 million projects? 36:46 - Holly asks - What has been your single largest influence in helping you scale? 38:06 - Why do some executives not work out? 38:56 - What skills did Tracy have to work on when scaling? 42:41 - What do a lot of startups get wrong? 46:21 - Tracy's recommended books 48:01 - What Tracy wishes she knew when she started out

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6/5/2019

#129 - Simone Giertz artwork

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#129 - Simone Giertz

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Simone Giertz describes herself as a maker/robotics enthusiast/non-engineer. She’s also known as the Queen of Shitty Robots. She runs a YouTube channel about those robots and is a cohost on Tested with Adam Savage from MythBusters. You can find her on YouTube and on Twitter @SimoneGiertz . She also has a Patreon . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 1:41 - "Whatever feeds the ego kills the soul." 4:21 - Maintaining passion for your work 7:16 - Building a sustainable business as a creator 9:01 - Shipping a real product - The Every Day Calendar - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonegiertz/the-every-day-calendar 18:01 - Being scared to step away 19:31 - Generating ideas 20:46 - Finding out she had a brain tumor, having surgery, and sharing it 26:01 - Returning to work after brain surgery 28:01 - Learnings from taking time off 29:01 - Asking for help 30:31 - Evaluating how she's spending her time 32:16 - Giving herself permission to try other things 34:21 - Challenges as a creator and entrepreneur 36:01 - Not feeling guilty about play and pursuing the things you enjoy 41:01 - Becoming less disciplined in certain areas over time 42:46 - Ali asks - How to get started when dealing with imposters syndrome? 43:06 - beep boop asks - What's your favorite robot? 43:46 - Beste asks - Are there any moments where she is bored and feels like giving up on creating new things? 44:56 - Khawar Shehzad asks - What thing do you wish you knew when you started your career? 46:06 - Olaf Doschke asks - What would have happened if Simone's toothbrush helmet wouldn't have gone viral? 48:36 - Johnathan Nader asks - What is the best version of yourself?

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5/29/2019

#128 - Michael Babineau and Kevin Hale artwork

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#128 - Michael Babineau and Kevin Hale

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 . The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:35 - What idea did Mike apply to YC with? 01:20 - Where did the idea come from? 4:35 - From project to company 10:20 - What info did investors want to know that Second Measure could provide? 12:05 - Their first customers 14:35 - The primary use case of Second Measure for VCs 15:20 - What questions are they trying to answer? 19:35 - Data examples from their blog 21:05 - Post: Fashion retailers have nothing to fear (yet) from the rise of Stitch Fix 23:35 - Post: Holiday sales rocket Peloton memberships ahead of SoulCycle active riders 25:05 - Post: Prime members deliver for Amazon every day 27:35 - Second Measure's product development process 29:35 - Finding good data scientists who work from first principles 37:05 - Why is credit card data so messy? 42:05 - Cleaning data 44:20 - Using their product for competitive analysis 47:35 - Their sales process 49:05 - Raising money from Goldman Sachs and Citi 52:05 - Focusing on a specific problem 54:05 - Keeping the product compelling when it's table stakes

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5/22/2019

#127 - Vidit Aatrey and Adora Cheung artwork

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#127 - Vidit Aatrey and Adora Cheung

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 01:20 - What is Meesho? 3:20 - Why not just sell directly to consumers? 5:05 - What are the macro trends in Meesho's favor in India? 7:30 - A trust deficit market 8:55 - How does Meesho help users get online and start selling? 11:45 - Most impactful user stories 13:50 - Growth drivers 15:50 - Balancing growth and quality 17:25 - What if Facebook copies Meesho? 18:50 - When did Vidit and his cofounder know they wanted to start a startup? 21:20 - Their first startup idea and the inspiration for Meesho 25:40 - When did they know Meesho was working? 27:20 - How hard was it to pivot the business and how did they manage it? 30:05 - As a CEO how does he stay in touch with users? 34:50 - How has Vidit's role changed over time? 36:55 - How has he learned to be a CEO? 38:30 - What mistakes have they made? 39:35 - What was his best decision? 40:15 - What's a strong opinion he had about running a startup that he's changed since running Meesho? 41:45 - How has the Indian startup ecosystem evolved? 43:20 - Big problems worth solving in India 43:05 - Can foreigners come to India and start a startup? 45:10 - Best advice for aspiring Indian founders 46:20 - After Meesho, what's the most exciting startup in India? 47:20 - Why is Delhi the best IIT? 48:15 - What's a must read book and why? 49:10 - What's a startup idea he'd be working on if Meesho didn't happen? 49:25 - In 100 years, what does he hope Meesho is?

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5/15/2019

#126 - Chris Best and Jonathan Gill artwork

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#126 - Chris Best and Jonathan Gill

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 1:03 - Paid vs advertising in podcasting 3:33 - Are advertisers overpaying for podcast ads? 6:13 - What percent of the market will ultimately be paid content? 8:13 - Payment mechanisms 9:48 - Price anchoring 12:28 - Individual creators vs brands 17:23 - Deplatforming 18:53 - Spotify 20:23 - Discovery and growth in newsletters 22:53 - Public and private feeds 25:23 - Apple's role 26:38 - Will education be the driver of paid content? 30:23 - Educational podcasters in China 32:23 - How are their newsletter and podcast customers growing? 36:18 - Jack Ryder asks - In 5 years time, are personal newsletters going to replace social networks like Facebook? 38:13 - Debdut Mukherjee asks - Do podcasts actually work? If so, how do startups calculate the ROI & the CAC? 43:38 - Measurement 45:23 - Best practices for new podcasters and newsletter creators

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5/8/2019

#125 - Brian Halligan and Kevin Hale artwork

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#125 - Brian Halligan and Kevin Hale

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - Brian's an introvert that likes to work from home. He also runs a public company. How does he do both? 2:12 - How does he manage his calendar as an introvert? 4:12 - How Brian met his cofounder Dharmesh 6:12 - The first project they worked on together 7:27 - What was their unique insight when starting HubSpot? 8:52 - Pricing in the early days 9:27 - How would he have priced HubSpot differently knowing what he knows now? 10:27 - HubSpot's first customer 12:27 - Important early features 14:47 - At what point did they shift entirely away from consulting? 15:32 - Providing advice as content vs in the product 16:27 - SEO is underrated 17:12 - Trends in B2B and marketing 21:57 - Inbound marketing and audience building advice 26:52 - How did Brian know that his cofounder was right for him? 28:12 - The internet disproportionately benefiting small businesses over big ones 29:12 - Keeping your company hungry when you're big 29:52 - Building assets for your company 30:47 - Freemium 34:27 - Structural pieces of HubSpot Brian would have changed if he did it again 37:27 - Creating the voice of your company 39:57 - Early metrics they tracked 40:32 - Having a coach and reviews 41:57 - How Brian's changed as a CEO from the beginning 42:51 - What was the hardest thing to give up as CEO? 43:57 - Humility

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5/1/2019

#124 - Jarvis Johnson artwork

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#124 - Jarvis Johnson

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

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 . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:20 - Jarvis' intro 00:50 - Where his videos first got traction 1:30 - Being part of the software industry while critiquing it 4:05 - How he got into programming 6:30 - Moving to California 7:50 - Interning at Google then Yelp 9:20 - Interviewing multiple times at the same company 10:20 - Moving from Yelp to Patreon 14:30 - Switching from individual contributor to manager 18:35 - Learnings from managing that he applies to himself 21:45 - What made Jarvis want to do YouTube full time? 30:20 - Investing in yourself 31:25 - Making what you want vs talking to viewers 35:55 - When did things really start to click for his channel? 38:20 - Choosing to make multiple genres of video 44:00 - Nathan Allebach asks - Are content creators responsible in any capacity for their audiences? 51:05 - Taylor asks - In what ways do you think content creation can benefit one's career in the tech industry? 54:40 - Jarvis made a podcast when he was a teenager 56:30 - Octopus Blues asks - What lessons did improv teach you/who would you recommend it to, if anyone? 58:45 - Predictions for YouTubers and content creators

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4/24/2019

#123 - Harry Zhang and Kevin Hale artwork

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#123 - Harry Zhang and Kevin Hale

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Harry Zhang is the cofounder of Lob . Lob makes it possible for enterprises to programmatically send physical mail. They were in the Summer 2013 batch of YC. Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Harry is on Twitter @harryzhang and Kevin is @ilikevests . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:31 - Harry's intro 00:41 - What did Lob have when they applied to YC? 2:01 - Documentation as an API company 3:16 - Where did the insight to create Lob come from? 4:26 - Lob's first version and first customer 7:26 - Closing their first big customer then signing others 12:31 - Did Harry always know Lob would be an API company? 14:01 - How long did it take to work up to enterprise customers? 15:31 - Pricing 19:46 - Creating a product roadmap 21:26 - Tradeoffs when building product 22:21 - Competing for top engineers as an API company 24:31 - Options vs RSUs 28:01 - Sales mistakes 32:21 - Building out features for enterprise clients 34:16 - Why did Lob choose to not vertically integrate? 39:31 - How has Harry had to change as a founder over the life of Lob?

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4/17/2019

#122 - Max Rhodes and Anu Hariharan artwork

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#122 - Max Rhodes and Anu Hariharan

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Max Rhodes is the cofounder and CEO of Faire . Faire helps retailers find and buy unique wholesale merchandise for their stores. They were in the Winter 2017 batch of YC. Anu Hariharan is a Partner at YC. Max is on Twitter @MaxRhodesOK and Anu is @AnuHariharan . *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:32 - Max's intro 01:06 - Leaving Square and coming up with the idea for Faire 7:37 - Changes to SMBs in the past five years 9:37 - What is Faire? 11:57 - Max’s vision for Faire 15:12 - Finding product/market fit 18:12 - Switching to try before you buy 21:22 - What separates the great companies 22:32 - Scaling as a CEO 26:32 - Calming down 29:42 - Faire's first hires 33:42 - Faire's first executive hire 38:27 - Fundraising and fundraising advice 43:32 - Ryan McCarthy asks - Why did Max study history at Yale? 44:32 - Why does Max think Square Cash became a successful app?

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4/3/2019

#120 - Austen Allred artwork

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#120 - Austen Allred

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Austen Allred is the CEO and cofounder of Lambda School . Lambda School provides a CS education that's free until you get a job. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC. You can learn more about Lambda School at lambdaschool.com . Austen is on Twitter at @austen . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 1:01 - Encouraging people to do something that they're scared to do 5:16 - Where did the insight for Lambda School come from? 6:26 - College vs developer schools 10:26 - Building a network 12:16 - Does Austen see value in a traditional liberal arts education? 14:56 - Steven Klaiber-Noble asks - As competitors begin to copy your model what front do you believe you'll be competing on? 17:56 - Why did Austen choose to raise money? 20:06 - Fundraising falling through on Austen's first startup 21:36 - Moving back to Utah and writing a book about growth 23:26 - Why Austen wrote a book 26:26 - "Starting a company is by definition saying, I think what I can do is worth more than what other people will pay me for." 27:26 - Mispriced human capital 30:21 - Other opportunities for Lambda School 32:46 - Modeling risk 35:36 - David Kofoed Wind asks - When Lambda School is incentivized to take in people that will land high paying jobs, how do you think about the diversity of candidates? One would imagine that it quickly becomes a game of pattern matching the stereotypical SV people. 37:51 - Will Lambda School ever not be remote? 41:16 - Dave Dawson asks - You appear to be on the successful path now, was there a point early in Lambda School when you wanted to stop? 43:46 - Helping everyone become an autodidact 46:46 - Rethinking where to start on an online course 48:11 - Dave Dawson asks - What keeps you up at night at this point? 49:46 - Dayo Koleowo asks - “I have made remarks I do not agree with” - from Austen's Twitter bio. What is that one remark you wish you didn’t have to disagree with? 53:26 - Choosing remote work as a core problem to solve in your company 55:56 - Analysts aren't good at measuring product quality 57:36 - Teaching taste

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3/27/2019

#119 - Amy Buechler and Michael Seibel artwork

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#119 - Amy Buechler and Michael Seibel

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Amy Buechler is an executive coach for startup founders. Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC. In this episode we talk about coaching and use examples from Michael’s time working on Justin.tv and Socialcam. You can find Amy at her site foundercoach.io and on Twitter at @amybue . Michael is on Twitter at @mwseibel . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - What is coaching? 01:11 - How is coaching different from therapy? 2:31 - What are the most common challenges founders in coaching have? 3:26 - Challenges with roles and responsibilities at Twitch 7:46 - How would Amy have coached Michael around roles and responsibilities? 9:41 - Not being disruptive as a leader 11:31 - Switching roles at Twitch 12:46 - Uneven equity splits 15:01 - Distributing and negotiating equity 21:16 - Communicating your own value 22:51 - Can there be too much communication? 24:11 - Productive arguments 28:11 - Talking about performance issues 30:16 - Setting clear goals and managing motivation 33:16 - Enjoying the work 34:01 - Conversations about runway 36:51 - Digging your company out of the grave and continuing 40:21 - Michael being against coaching initially 42:31 - How to have hard conversations 44:16 - Removing a responsibility from someone 49:51 - Returning to roles and responsibilities 50:41 - Jeanie McCallister asks - What’s the single most important piece of advice you can give a founder?

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3/21/2019

#118 - Marques Brownlee artwork

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#118 - Marques Brownlee

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Marques Brownlee is a YouTuber. He has over 8 million subscribers to his channel MKBHD where he reviews electronics, drives electric vehicles, and interviews people such as Kobe Bryant and Bill Gates. You can find Marques on YouTube and on Twitter at @MKBHD . The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:26 - What does Marques attribute his channel's success to? 2:41 - The early days 5:11 - How does he go about evaluating a product? 7:31 - Features that Marques thought were great that didn't catch on 8:41 - Peak smartphone? 10:31 - Folding phones and new trends 11:26 - Tesla and the EV market 15:46 - Getting older and staying relevant 17:06 - New kinds of videos and podcasting 22:26 - Does Marques feel limited by gear? 26:11 - Storytelling techniques 28:16 - Tech vs Marques as the star of the show 29:56 - Marco Castro asks - What advice do you have for new creators on YouTube? 30:56 - When did Marques find his voice as a creator? 33:56 - Overcoming perfectionism 34:56 - Gut instinct vs data 37:26 - YouTube comments 39:31 - Austin Ryder asks - In the early years of his channel, Marques took a several month hiatus from YouTube, but then came back with a new video format and seemingly renewed drive. What happened during those months off that led to the channel becoming what it is today? 40:41 - Winston asks - What’s your daily schedule? 43:06 - Ultimate frisbee injuries 43:26 - Amad Khan asks - Are there any problems that you see or face that you really wish engineers/developers would solve? 44:51 - Christian Giordano asks - Any tips on how to engage/work with influencers when you are a very early stage startup with little or no money? 46:41 - The future of creators supporting themselves financially 49:31 - His biggest challenge as a creator 50:31 - Long-term goals

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3/13/2019

#117 - Craig Cannon and Adora Cheung artwork

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#117 - Craig Cannon and Adora Cheung

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Craig Cannon is the Director of Marketing at Y Combinator. He usually hosts the YC podcast but is the guest on this episode about podcasting. Adora Cheung is a Partner at YC. You can find Adora on Twitter at @nolimits and Craig at @craigcannon . *** Topics 00:21 - Adora's intro 1:26 - Craig's intro 4:06 - Starting the YC podcast 5:21 - Podcast metrics 6:21 - Tips on creating a podcast 8:31 - Picking episode topics 9:21 - Order of operations for finding guests 10:51 - Preparing for interviews 14:11 - How to keep an episode engaging 16:26 - Analytics 18:51 - Gear 23:21 - Software 24:16 - Listening to your own voice 25:41 - Favorite interviews 26:41 - Most surprising things Craig's learned about startups on the podcast 29:21 - What has Craig learned from guests that he's put into practice? 32:01 - Non-consensus things about building startups 34:21 - If Craig had to start a podcast from scratch, how would he structure it? 37:01 - Clipping the show 42:21 - Monetizing podcasts 45:51 - Will podcasts become saturated? 46:21 - What's missing in the podcast world? 48:21 - Influential podcasters 52:11 - Adora's podcast picks 53:11 - Patrick Benders asks - What idea do you believe in that your social group would think is crazy? 58:11 - Zachary Canann asks - Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage. 1:00:11 - Being at YC, do Craig and Adora feel pressured to go start a company? 1:06:21 - When is an opportunity good enough to quit your current job?

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