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.
Customer discovery
YouTube
Founders ignore users and ship too slowly
Y Combinator
July 16, 2019
Customer discovery
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Building in isolation instead of talking to real users kills startups
Avoiding embarrassment stops founders from shipping fast enough
Start with a problem you personally have — it's the strongest position
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
When to launch a startup: the quantum of utility rule
Y Combinator
July 16, 2019
MVP & prototyping
8
Pivoting
5
Launch the moment one person benefits from your product
Late launches carry risk just as early launches do
Ten people who love it is a perfectly valid launch
Founder interviews
YouTube
How a founder's role shifts from maker to manager at Gobble
Y Combinator
July 16, 2019
Founder interviews
8
Work-life balance
6
Maker time is precious early — meetings consume it as you scale
Blank-slate floor sessions: a founder's reset for finding what's next
Losing customer proximity is a direct predictor of founder unhappiness
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
How to decide what to build next: Michael Seibel's product cycle framework
Y Combinator
July 16, 2019
MVP & prototyping
9
Iteration & feedback loops
7
Fast iteration beats predicting the right thing to build.
Ship MVPs quickly, measure results, keep only what works.
Chasing 'home runs' and perfecting each feature causes spiral of death.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
How early-stage startups should approach hiring, culture, and inclusion
Y Combinator
July 10, 2019
Hiring & recruitment
10
Culture building
7
Management
5
Proactively sourced candidates are hired 35% faster than cold applicants.
Impact descriptions outperform job postings for talent quality and diversity.
Build inclusive culture before hiring diverse candidates, not after.
Wufoo lessons and Startup School 2019 updates with Kevin Hale
Y Combinator
July 3, 2019
Case studies
9
Product-market fit
7
Customer experience
6
Wufoo reached acquisition on $50k and 10 employees — by design
Honest weekly self-assessment beats optimism for early-stage progress
Vetting co-founders is dating, not a marriage proposal on day one
How to build and run an effective growth team at a startup
Y Combinator
June 26, 2019
Growth hacking
9
Iteration & feedback loops
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Fix retention first — paid acquisition on leaky cohorts destroys runway
Test hypotheses, not tasks: 80 experiments often hide just 4–6 ideas
Word-of-mouth drove over 50% of Airbnb guests — build for your channel early
Make School: income share agreements and the future of higher education
Y Combinator
June 19, 2019
Business models
9
Founder interviews
7
Bootstrapping
5
School only gets paid if graduates get jobs — every decision follows
Elite education is a luxury good; 75% of Stanford students are top-income families
The autodidact myth hides survivorship bias — most great engineers need structure
Long-term planning
YouTube
Should you move your startup to Silicon Valley?
Y Combinator
June 14, 2019
Long-term planning
7
Bootstrapping
5
Silicon Valley's network density accelerates company-building in ways nothing else matches.
Nearby startup success creates pressure that compresses years of progress into months.
Stay if customers or structural advantages are already where you are.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Tracy Young on scaling PlanGrid from five co-founders to 450 people
Y Combinator
June 12, 2019
Founder interviews
10
Hiring & recruitment
7
Product-market fit
6
Sitting with customers on job sites was the only way to get adoption.
Mismatched scale — not incompetence — caused most senior hiring failures.
Negative ego and self-criticism cost more than external obstacles ever did.
Equity & cap tables
YouTube
How to split equity with cofounders to maximise long-term motivation
Y Combinator
June 6, 2019
Equity & cap tables
9
Hiring & recruitment
5
Equity splits should maximise motivation, not reflect negotiation outcomes
Four-year vesting with a one-year cliff makes generosity safe
If a cofounder isn't worth a generous grant, rethink the relationship
Founder interviews
YouTube
Simone Giertz on creativity, making shitty robots, and surviving brain surgery
Y Combinator
June 5, 2019
Founder interviews
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Resilience & grit
6
Brain surgery forced her to drop the shitty-robot format — and she never looked back.
The things that feel easy and fun are usually what you're best at.
Building multiple income legs is how you stop YouTube from eating your life.
Why startups should charge more, not less
Y Combinator
May 31, 2019
Pricing strategy
9
Product-market fit
6
Business models
5
Undercharging by 10–100x is the most common early pricing mistake
Competing on price hides whether anyone actually wants your product
DoorDash, Airbnb, Dropbox — big winners charged a premium, not a discount
How Second Measure turns billions of credit card transactions into consumer insights
Y Combinator
May 29, 2019
Case studies
9
Data & analytics
7
Business models
6
One billion unique transaction descriptions — for far fewer real merchants.
VCs use real-time spending data to benchmark startups against competitors instantly.
Selling the tool, not the signal, keeps every customer's edge intact.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
How to find a cofounder: YC's data and advice
Y Combinator
May 23, 2019
Hiring & recruitment
9
Equity & cap tables
6
94% of top YC companies have cofounders — solo founding is rare at scale.
Best cofounders come from school or work, where trust is already built.
Equal equity split signals equal commitment for the 8–10 year journey ahead.