If someone who's passed on your company as an investor offers you to make introductions, that's kryptonite. Don't touch that.
— Michael Seibel
When I think about unique insight, what I think about is here's your opportunity to tell me something that I don't know.
If you're a documenter, you're taking a video of something in the real world you want to capture. If you're a director, you're trying to create something in the real world.
Startups are often best at solving the personal problems of their founders. The more diverse the founders, the more types of problems can be solved - and the more people who will be positively impacted by technology.
The first time I went through YC, it was smaller, and the founders were younger. The advantage of that was that the set of founders who were older than us had really seen the Web 1.0 meltdown. They brought that knowledge to us.
What I Iove about Y Combinator is that it is a level playing field. If you get in, you immediately become a Silicon Valley insider.
It turns out that one of the biggest drivers of investors are both successful and non-successful startup founders.
One thing I like to tell founders is the more you talk, the more you have an opportunity to say something that people don't like. Talk less, and it will probably be better.
After reading the Elon Musk book and getting a Tesla - he is at the top of my list of inspiring founders.
I believe tech should be a core skill of a tech company.
I had a basic plan for my life. The plan was - 20s: make money; 30s: have family; and 40s: run for something and do politics. When I retired, I wanted to be a teacher.
I either like reading fun war-based sci-fi, books about the lives of chefs, or dry historical non-fiction.
I think tech is driving most of the innovation and will continue to for a very, very long time.
Founders always say, 'I'm going to 'make my thing go viral' - that doesn't mean just adding a share button.
People are carrying around smartphones. They have a video capture device in their pockets twenty-four/seven.
Socialcam shares Autodesk's mission of helping everybody imagine, design, and create a better world.
My definition of product-market fit is you are drowning in demand - your product is being used by so many customers that you cannot handle all the new people knocking at your door!
Never put the investor in the ultimate position of power.
Everyone appreciates good food.
I was the CEO of Justin.tv, and my cofounders were senior engineers there. We came up with the idea at Justin.tv in the fall of 2010.
One of the most fun and interesting things about YC is that we are kind of a startup ourselves. We are constantly changing and evolving what we do.
A funny thing happens when you go to another country or invest in a company from another country. Suddenly everyone in that community realizes that YC is for them, too.
Minorities often feel like they are on the outside looking in when it comes to the Valley and tech start-ups in general.
One of the things that's so interesting when talking to minority founders specifically is that there is really a knowledge gap in understanding what the risk-reward profile is for doing a startup.
Convince the investor that you guys are moving fast and that this isn't some long slog... you're thinking about it like a startup where you can move fast and make mistakes.
I think co-working spaces, incubators, and accelerators outside of the Bay Area do a lot to foster a local startup scene - which is really important for early founders, but I also think that exposure to the Bay Area is extremely valuable for startups.
It's very easy to do a fundraiser and spend a lot of money on food and venue and not raise any money. You really do need to twist people's arms into giving, even if they support you.
Academically, I think things kicked off pretty late for me. I was kind of one of those kids who was in half honors, half regular. I was like a history/science kid, which was always weird. Around tenth grade or eleventh grade, everything started coming together.
New York is my favorite city to visit because there is always something to do, someone to meet, and something to discover.
Increase your company's average talent with each hire - founders tend to be pretty smart but willing to take on risk. Employees should be a lot smarter and less risk averse.
If you can't hire someone smarter than you, do it yourself.
It's fairly common knowledge that a startup can't execute on two products simultaneously.
My goal is to make the process of taking and watching videos as easy as it is for photos.
Good founders can give me a picture of the future that I can believe. And the second that I believe your version of the future, you have leverage.
Investors like to invest based on traction, so it's always better to raise money when you've got more traction than less.
When someone posts a Socialcam video, all of their followers get an instant notification.
For me, iPad 2 and tablets in general are really exciting from a front-facing camera perspective, making those short video clips where you're talking about where you are or what you're interested in, and your face fills up the entire screen.
There is a directory where you can explore every single person who has gone through YC and a private forum that only founders can participate in.
The number one problem companies have during the Y Combinator interview is that a minute into the interview, we don't know what they do. It's the same problem with the application. You might think we're experts, but you still have to explain it to us.
At its core, what's amazing about YC is you don't have to work to get in. You don't have to know anyone, so there isn't some type of old boys' club.
A lot of times when you're an investor, it's very easy to lean back and say, 'Well, people should come to me in Silicon Valley.' YC has the opposite opinion.
Investors like to hear that you're in a multi-billion dollar market.
The best advice for a first time CEO is make sure you have built a strong technical founding team, and then launch!
The first thing I learned is that campaigns are about money. I had this romantic idea that campaigns were about law and debates and so forth, which is just not true. It's about money.
I wanted a simple one-bedroom apartment that would impress people when they walked in but that was otherwise extremely comfortable and useful.
I usually fall asleep between 11 P.M. - 1 A.M., and I wake up between 6:30 A.M. - 8:00 A.M.
People think they need to hire someone to do their PR, but 99 percent of PR in the early stages is stuff you can do yourself. It's just like business development - there's the warm-up intro, followup to build relationships, then add something of value.
Finding entrepreneurs from diverse and international backgrounds is a top priority for us at Y Combinator.
Live broadcasting was something only done by the rich news organizations. So when you bring it to the masses, the public gets really excited.
I don't understand how you can have product-market fit and not a lot of people wanting your product. The two go hand-in-hand.
