Y Combinator
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Y Combinator publishes practical startup guidance on product building, fundraising, founder decision-making, and scaling high-growth technology companies.
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Included for practical education on practical startup guidance on product building, fundraising, founder decision-making, and scaling high-growth technology companies.
Showing 320 digests for Y Combinator.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
How to find the right co-founder for your startup
Y Combinator
March 25, 2021
Hiring & recruitment
9
Equity & cap tables
6
How your co-founder handles stress matters more than their skills.
Default to 50/50 equity — long-term motivation beats short-term fairness.
Work on projects together first; commitment conversations come after.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Advice for women starting their first startup
Y Combinator
March 8, 2021
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
7
Stop waiting — there is never a perfect moment to start
Being a mom or outsider is a strength, not a barrier
Build value for yourself, not someone else's company
Founder interviews
YouTube
Black founders on building mission-driven startups with YC support
Y Combinator
February 26, 2021
Founder interviews
9
Niche selection
6
Founders closest to a problem are best positioned to solve it
Mentorship and structure — not talent — determine who breaks into tech
Early traction came from radical, hands-on customer proximity
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
How startups can win hiring battles against big tech companies
Y Combinator
February 8, 2021
Hiring & recruitment
9
Competitive analysis
5
Your hiring speed exposes big tech's bureaucracy to candidates directly.
Personalised follow-ups from every interviewer signal a culture big companies can't match.
Big-company project cancellations are your best argument for joining a startup.
Customer discovery
YouTube
Why startups fail: the user conversation problem
Y Combinator
February 8, 2021
Customer discovery
9
Identity & self-belief
6
Startups die because founders build what users never wanted
Polishing code instead of talking to users is a fatal trap
Listen to user symptoms, but you prescribe the solution
Long-term planning
YouTube
How to set your KPI as a startup founder
Y Combinator
February 1, 2021
Long-term planning
8
Processes & SOPs
6
Only four KPIs are valid — pick one and don't invent your own
Secondary metrics are where the real weekly optimisation happens
Custom top KPIs make investor comparisons impossible
Equity & cap tables
YouTube
How much equity to give early startup employees
Y Combinator
January 25, 2021
Equity & cap tables
9
Hiring & recruitment
5
First employees typically get 1–2%; plan the full pool before distributing
Equity is a tool to boost success odds, not a pie to divide
No successful founder has ever regretted being generous with early equity
How to calculate burn rate, runway, and growth rate
Y Combinator
January 25, 2021
Burn rate tracks cash flow, not profit — signed contracts don't count.
Growth rate must be compounded; a 6x gain over 6 months is ~35% CMGR, not 100%.
Misusing MRR or non-compounded growth signals incompetence to investors.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Lessons from YC top founders: authenticity, focus, and culture
Y Combinator
January 12, 2021
Identity & self-belief
8
Deep work & focus
7
Culture building
6
Build on a problem you personally feel — or you'll quit
Focus on one metric weekly; ignore everything else
Define culture and values before you think you need to
Long-term planning
YouTube
Startup survival and growth advice during a pandemic
Y Combinator
December 14, 2020
Long-term planning
8
Cash flow management
7
Product-market fit
5
Default alive matters more than ever — get revenue that covers survival
Venture rebounded to pre-pandemic pace faster than anyone expected
Startups that survive will be primed to capture the secular shift to digital
DoorDash's original Y Combinator application video from 2013
Y Combinator
December 9, 2020
Origin stories
9
Customer discovery
7
100+ customer interviews led to a problem worth solving
Founders drove deliveries themselves before hiring anyone
$10,000 in sales in month one with no real marketing
Virtual eSports characters built with live animation and real brand deals
Y Combinator
December 7, 2020
Case studies
8
Business models
7
Influencer & partnerships
6
WWE-style fictional characters competing live at real eSports games
Home-office motion capture stack using Unreal Engine and ARKit
Virtual characters unlock brand integrations human streamers cannot offer
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
Why artists make strong co-founders for gaming startups
Y Combinator
December 7, 2020
Hiring & recruitment
8
Niche selection
6
Investors funded Multiverse's seed round based on their trailer alone
Illustrators already run businesses — audiences, recurring revenue, community
Find artist co-founders on Twitter and ArtStation, not LinkedIn
AI tools & automation
YouTube
How Pachama uses satellite data and AI to fund forest conservation
Y Combinator
January 28, 2020
AI tools & automation
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Fundraising & VC
6
Less than 2% of the $80B carbon market reaches forests
AI on LiDAR data predicts forest carbon with under 1.5% error
Offsetting one employee's emissions costs as little as $50/year
How Female Founders Raised Their Series A: Process, Psychology, and Partnership
Y Combinator
December 18, 2019
Fundraising & VC
9
Pitching investors
7
Hiring & recruitment
5
Optimise for the partner, not valuation — misaligned incentives cost more.
Tara closed its Series A in nine days by running a ruthlessly structured process.
Female founders face pressure to mirror male norms; traction is the only real equaliser.