Startup School by Y Combinator

By Startup School by Y Combinator

What's Startup School by Y Combinator about?

Learn how to start a startup with YC’s free 10-week course. A series of lectures and conversations with YC Partners, startup founders, and experts on how to start a successful company.

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Startup School by Y Combinator episodes:

09.25.2019
Parting Advice by Geoff Ralston
YC President Geoff Ralston concludes Startup School this year with some parting advice, as founders continue on their journey to make something people want.
09.25.2019
Startup School 2019 by the Numbers by Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung
YC Partners Adora Cheung and Kevin Hale reflect on Startup School 2019 and share some of our learnings from this year's program.
09.25.2019
How to Lead by Ali Rowghani
To succeed in building a big company in the long-term, founders must become good at leading, motivating, and retaining great people. Ali Rowghani, YC Partner and CEO of the YC Continuity Fund, takes from his experience working with great leaders to...
09.20.2019
Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders by Jared Friedman
YC Partner Jared Friedman covers hard-tech companies and why founders should consider starting one. He also covers a couple of the most common problems hard-tech companies face and how to solve them, with examples from seven YC companies.
09.20.2019
Modern Startup Financing by Carolynn Levy
YC Partner and GC Carolynn Levy details the basics of startup financing and how modern early stage rounds of financing are done using convertible securities, like the SAFE.
09.12.2019
Evaluating Startup Ideas Pt. 2 by Kevin Hale
In this lecture, YC Partner Kevin Hale goes over how to package up your idea and communicate it to an investor. He shares his tips on how to craft your pitch in a clear and concise way that effectively grabs...
09.12.2019
How to Prioritize Your Time by Adora Cheung
YC Partner Adora Cheung shares her framework for how founders can efficiently make use of their time. She covers ways to identify and prioritize tasks, in addition to how you can measure their impact on your company.
09.06.2019
Startup Pricing 101 by Kevin Hale
YC Partner Kevin Hale goes over the fundamentals of pricing and monetization, how it affects your customer acquisition strategy, and how to optimize it through a few rules of thumb.
09.04.2019
How to Improve Conversion Rates by Kevin Hale
YC Partner Kevin Hale covers the first principles of conversion, one of the main drivers of growth for your startup, and how you can improve it starting with your landing page.
08.29.2019
All About Pivoting by Dalton Caldwell
YC Partner and Head of Admissions Dalton Caldwell talks about pivoting for startups and shares his advice on when and how founders should consider it for their companies.
08.29.2019
Building Culture by Tim Brady
YC Partner Tim Brady covers the importance of building a strong and coherent culture early and shares six things that you can do now to help you create a solid foundation for your startup.
08.22.2019
How to Work Together by Kevin Hale
YC Partner Kevin Hale talks about the importance of building a successful working relationship with your cofounders, and setting up processes to optimize for the strengths of your team.
08.22.2019
Startup Finance Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them by Kirsty Nathoo
YC Partner and CFO Kirsty Nathoo shares the most common mistakes startups make with their finances and how they can prevent them.
08.14.2019
Growth for Startups by Gustaf Alstromer
YC Partner and growth expert Gustaf Alstromer talks about how to measure product market fit, how to decide on a growth channel, metrics that lie about PMF and other mechanics of growth for startups.
08.14.2019
How to Launch (Again and Again) by Kat Manalac
YC Partner Kat Manalac presents on how startups should think about launching and why you should do it repeatedly.
08.07.2019
How Investors Measure Startups Q&A by Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung
YC Partners Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung answer questions from Startup School founders on how investors measure startups.
08.07.2019
Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want by Anu Hariharan
YC Continuity Partner Anu Hariharan breaks down the important metrics we look for when we’re evaluating a startup’s business model and common mistakes to avoid when measuring them.
08.01.2019
Analytics for Startups by Ilya Volodarsky
Ilya Volodarsky, co-founder of Segment, presents his tactics for setting up analytics to build your MVP and measure your metrics.
08.01.2019
How to Set KPIs and Goals by Adora Cheung
YC Partner Adora Cheung covers the importance of defining and tracking KPIs to understand how effectively your startup is reaching your goals.
08.01.2019
How to Plan an MVP by Michael Seibel
YC CEO and Partner Michael Seibel shares his approach to building an MVP and getting your first users as a pre-launch startup.
07.25.2019
How to Talk to Users by Eric Migicovsky
YC Partner Eric Migicovsky outlines a framework for asking questions and collecting feedback from your users.
07.25.2019
How to Evaluate Startup Ideas Pt. 1 by Kevin Hale
YC Partner Kevin Hale walks us through the process of evaluating ideas and how founders should think about their startups.
11.11.2018
A Conversation with Werner Vogels
Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, joins YC Software Engineer Kyle Corbitt to share his experience and insights on technology and startups.Video LinkVideo Transcript
10.24.2018
How to Win by Daniel Gross
Daniel Gross, former YC Partner and founder shares his wisdom of how to survive and thrive as a startup founder.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
10.24.2018
After PMF: People, Customers, Sales by Mathilde Collin
Mathilde Collin, founder of YC alumnus Front, describes what she learned as she scaled Front to 1000s of paying customers.Video LinkTranscript
10.24.2018
The Path to $100B by Paul Buchheit
YC Partner and the creator of Gmail, Paul Buchheit in conversation with Geoff describes how he thinks about companies that manage to scale to the ultimate level.Transcript Video Link
10.18.2018
A Conversation with Elad Gil
Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Elad Gil sits down with YC Partner Geoff Ralston to discuss startups.Transcript Video Link
10.17.2018
How to Get Meetings with Investors and Raise Money by Aaron Harris
YC Partner Aaron Harris gives invaluable advice for how to most effectively and strategically meet with investors.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
10.17.2018
Understanding Safes and Priced Equity Rounds by Kirsty Nathoo
YC CFO and Partner Kirsty Nathoo gives the lowdown on several different ways to capitalize your company and how those impact founder equity and cap tables overall.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
10.12.2018
A Conversation on Hard Tech with Eric Migicovsky
YC Partner Adora Cheung talks to YC Partner Eric Migicovsky, previously founder and CEO of Pebble, about his experience as a hard tech startup founder.Video LinkTranscript
10.10.2018
Fundraising Fundamentals by Geoff Ralston
YC Partner Geoff Ralston gives an introduction to the key concepts to keep in mind once you enter a fundraising process.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
10.10.2018
Startup Technology - Technical Founder Advice
YC Partner Jared Friedman joins founders Lillian Chou (COO, Second Measure), Diana Hu (CTO, Escher Reality), Calvin French-Owen (CTO, Segment) and Ralph Gootee (CTO, PlanGrid), to talk about what can go right and wrong building technology.Video Link
10.10.2018
Fundraising Fundamentals by Geoff-Ralston
YC Partner Geoff Ralston gives an introduction to the key concepts to keep in mind once you enter a fundraising process.Lecture Slides Video Link
10.03.2018
A Conversation with Elizabeth Iorns - Advice for Biotech Founders
YC Partner Adora Cheung talks to Science Exchange Co-Founder and CEO Elizabeth Iorns about her experience as a biotech startup founder. Transcript Video Link
10.03.2018
Running Your Startup by Patrick Collison
YC Partner Adora Cheung, along with Patrick Collison, the founder of well known YC alumnus Stripe, discuss how to most effectively run a startup company towards success.Transcript Video Link
10.03.2018
A Conversation with Elizabeth Iorns: Advice for Biotech Founders
YC Partner Adora Cheung talks to Science Exchange Co-Founder and CEO Elizabeth Iorns about her experience as a biotech startup founder. Video Link
09.28.2018
How to Apply and Succeed at Y Combinator by Dalton Caldwell
YC Partner Dalton Caldwell gives insight into how YC admissions works and what makes for a successful YC experience. Clarification on the Application video: Founders can splice together a video if they're not all in the same place; you do...
09.26.2018
Building an Engineering Team - by Ammon Bartram and Harj Taggar
Former YC Partner and founder of TripleByte Harj Taggar, along with his cofounder Ammon Bartram discuss a topic startups often struggle with most: finding and hiring the key engineers who will build your product.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.26.2018
How to Sell by Tyler Bosmeny
Tyler Bosmeny from YC alumnus Clever shares his expertise on how an early stage company should think about sales and about building an enterprise sales team.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.21.2018
A Conversation with Aileen Lee
YC Partner Geoff Ralston talks to Cowboy Ventures Founder Aileen Lee.Transcript Video Link
09.19.2018
PR + Content for Growth by Kat Mañalac and Craig Cannon
YC Partner Kat Mañalac and Director of Marketing Craig Cannon describe the most effective ways to use PR and content to help your companies brand and to find more users.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.19.2018
Design for Startups (Part 2) by Garry Tan
Former YC partner Garry Tan, the founder of Initialized Capital and a design expert describes how to effectively integrate design into a product development process.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.19.2018
Design for Startups (Part 1) by Garry Tan
Former YC partner Garry Tan, the cofounder of Initialized Capital and a design expert describes how to effectively integrate design into a product development process.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.19.2018
Design for Startups (Part 2) by Garry Tan -
Former YC partner Garry Tan, the founder of Initialized Capital and a design expert describes how to effectively integrate design into a product development process.Lecture SlidesVideo Link
09.14.2018
A Conversation About Crypto-currencies and ICOs with Andy Bromberg
YC Partner Geoff Ralston talks to CoinList Co-Founder and President Andy Bromberg.Transcript Video Link
09.14.2018
A Conversation with Andy Bromberg
YC Partner Geoff Ralston talks to CoinList Co-Founder and President Andy Bromberg.Video Link
09.12.2018
How to Measure Your Product by Suhail Doshi
Suhail Doshi, founder of YC alumnus Mixpanel and a world-class expert on measurement details how startups should think about discovering the important facts about how their product is used.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.12.2018
How to Get Users and Grow by Gustaf Alströmer
YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer, who was most recently a growth expert at AirBnb describes strategies for scaling your user base.Lecture SlidesLecture Transcript Video Link
09.12.2018
How to Succeed with a Startup by Sam Altman
Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator, shares his thoughts on how you can succeed as a startup.TranscriptLecture SlidesVideo Link
09.12.2018
A Conversation with Ooshma Garg
YC Partner Adora Cheung talks to Gobble founder and CEO Ooshma Garg.TranscriptVideo Link

What's Startup School by Y Combinator about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Startup School by Y Combinator episodes:

Parting Advice by Geoff Ralston

Startup School 2019 by the Numbers by Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung

How to Lead by Ali Rowghani

Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders by Jared Friedman

Modern Startup Financing by Carolynn Levy

Evaluating Startup Ideas Pt. 2 by Kevin Hale

How to Prioritize Your Time by Adora Cheung

Startup Pricing 101 by Kevin Hale

How to Improve Conversion Rates by Kevin Hale

All About Pivoting by Dalton Caldwell

Building Culture by Tim Brady

How to Work Together by Kevin Hale

Startup Finance Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them by Kirsty Nathoo

Growth for Startups by Gustaf Alstromer

How to Launch (Again and Again) by Kat Manalac

How Investors Measure Startups Q&A by Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung

Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want by Anu Hariharan

Analytics for Startups by Ilya Volodarsky

How to Set KPIs and Goals by Adora Cheung

How to Plan an MVP by Michael Seibel

How to Talk to Users by Eric Migicovsky

How to Evaluate Startup Ideas Pt. 1 by Kevin Hale

A Conversation with Werner Vogels

How to Win by Daniel Gross

After PMF: People, Customers, Sales by Mathilde Collin

The Path to $100B by Paul Buchheit

A Conversation with Elad Gil

How to Get Meetings with Investors and Raise Money by Aaron Harris

Understanding Safes and Priced Equity Rounds by Kirsty Nathoo

A Conversation on Hard Tech with Eric Migicovsky

Fundraising Fundamentals by Geoff Ralston

Startup Technology - Technical Founder Advice

Fundraising Fundamentals by Geoff-Ralston

A Conversation with Elizabeth Iorns - Advice for Biotech Founders

Running Your Startup by Patrick Collison

A Conversation with Elizabeth Iorns: Advice for Biotech Founders

How to Apply and Succeed at Y Combinator by Dalton Caldwell

Building an Engineering Team - by Ammon Bartram and Harj Taggar

How to Sell by Tyler Bosmeny

A Conversation with Aileen Lee

PR + Content for Growth by Kat Mañalac and Craig Cannon

Design for Startups (Part 2) by Garry Tan

Design for Startups (Part 1) by Garry Tan

Design for Startups (Part 2) by Garry Tan -

A Conversation About Crypto-currencies and ICOs with Andy Bromberg

A Conversation with Andy Bromberg

How to Measure Your Product by Suhail Doshi

How to Get Users and Grow by Gustaf Alströmer

How to Succeed with a Startup by Sam Altman

A Conversation with Ooshma Garg