Diego Saez Gil is the founder of Pachama. Pachama is building a marketplace where companies can support carbon offset projects.

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 - Welcome Gustaf and Diego
01:19 - Diego's background
06:50 - What is Pachama?
09:25 - Using remote sensing to track carbon
11:37 - Connecting disparate groups
13:04 - How much carbon does a typical company offset?
15:28 - How big is the reforesting opportunity?
17:09 - What are the incentives to offset carbon?
18:40 - Why don't people trust carbon offsets?
20:33 - What are the different forest conservation methods?
25:20 - How does Pachama use technology?
29:00 - Growth challenges
30:20 - Who are the customers?
32:12 - The future of the carbon market
32:48 - Fundraising for a climate startup
37:50 - Advice for people that want to start working in the climate change space.
41:38 - Climate policy
43:23 - What are the most important things happening in the space?
45:10 - The benefits of agroforestry and permaculture

Amber Atherton is the founder and CEO of Zyper (YC W18).

Iba Masood is the cofounder and CEO of TARA (YC W15).

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

1:16 - Seed fundraising for Zyper and Tara

3:26 - Tara's pivot

4:31 - Series A fundraising for Zyper and Tara

18:11 - Evaluating investors

23:46 - Meeting with associates and partners

30:35 - Raising a Series A as a female founder

39:31 - Fundraising psychology

41:46 - What not to do when fundraising

45:01 - Talking to portfolio companies about investors

46:21 - What it's like to run a Series A stage company

1:00:41 - The most important piece of advice for fundraising

Laks Srini is the cofounder and CTO of ZeroDown. Before that he was the cofounder and CTO of Zenefits.

You can find him on Twitter at @laks_srini.

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

00:30 - What is ZeroDown?

1:50 - How did they test the idea?

3:50 - What did they learn from companies that failed in the space?

8:00 - Breaking down the product

11:25 - ZeroDown's customers

13:35 - Expanding to other markets

15:50 - What if a downturn happens?

17:10 - ZeroDown's hiring strategy

20:10 - What are their hardest technical challenges?

22:05 - ZeroDown's breadth and product strategy

26:40 - Customer interviews

28:35 - Should everyone own a house?

29:50 - Home ownership in the future

32:45 - Build something you really want to see in the world

34:40 - Working with his cofounders was the most important consideration

Matt Cutts is the Administrator of the US Digital Service and previously he was the head of the webspam team at Google.

You can find him on Twitter at @mattcutts.

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

00:36 - Working at Google in 2000

2:48 - Did Google's success feel certain?

3:53 - Building self-service ads

7:23 - The evil unicorn problem

8:23 - Lawsuits around search

10:48 - Content moderation and spam

14:38 - Matt's progression over 17 years at Google

17:18 - Deepfakes

18:43 - Joining the USDS

21:03 - What the USDS does

23:43 - Working at the USDS

26:43 - Educating people in government about tech

28:58 - Creating a rapid feedback loop within government

31:48 - Michael Wang asks - How does USDS decide whether to outsource something to a private company, or build the software in house?

32:58 - Spencer Clark asks - It would seem that the government is so far behind the private industry’s technology. To what extent is this true and what can be done about it? How should we gauge the progress of institutions like the USDS?

36:03 - Stephan Sturges asks - With GANs getting more and more powerful is the USDS thinking about the future of data authenticity?

38:23 - John Doherty asks - How difficult was it to communicate Google’s algorithm changes and evolving SEO best practices without leaking new spam tactics?

40:18 - Vanman0254 asks - How can smart tech folks better contribute to regulatory and policy discussions in government?

42:38 - Ronak Shah asks - What's your best pitch to high-performing startups in the Bay Area to adopt more of human centered design (something that the government has been moving towards surprisingly well, but that some fast moving startups have neglected resulting in controversy)

49:58 - Adam Hoffman asks - What are legislators, the government, and the general populace most “getting wrong” in how they conceptualize the internet?

51:33 - Raphael Ferreira asks - Is it possible to live without google? How do you think google affected people in searching for answers and content, now that’s we find everything in just one click?

55:23 - Tim Woods asks - Which job was more fun and why?

57:13 - Working in government vs private industry

1:00:48 - Snehan Kekre asks - What is Matt's view of the ongoing debate about backdooring encryption for so called lawful interception?

Cory Doctorow is a blogger, journalist, and science fiction author. He’s also the co-editor of Boing Boing.

Joe Betts-Lacroix is the CTO of VIUM and an Expert at YC.

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 - Adversarial interoperability

7:55 - So what should founders do?

13:55 - Copyright

19:55 - Remixing

27:00 - AT&T

29:50 - Firms and state-like duties

31:25 - Medium-term suggestions for founders

39:25 - Conspiracy theories

51:50 - Science fiction and predictions

56:55 - Peak indifference model

In this week’s lecture YC President Geoff Ralston shares parting advice for all the founders that participated in Startup School.

If you want to sign up for next year’s edition of Startup School, you can put your name on the waitlist at StartupSchool.org.

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

00:31 - Geoff Ralston's Parting Advice

00:51 - There is no one path

3:19 - Find your path

3:26 - Focus on what matters

4:14 - Startups are hard

4:46 - Things will go wrong

8:04 - Determination

10:21 - Default to action

11:31 - Don't just not be evil. Be good.

13:56 - Summary

We've cut down the tenth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Ali Rowghani. Ali is a partner at YC. His lecture covers how to lead.

Then a lecture from Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung. Kevin and Adora are both partners at YC. Their lecture breaks down this year’s Startup School by the numbers and they share tips on what helped companies most.

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

00:36 - Ali Rowghani - How to Lead

1:36 - Ali's background

2:56 - There's no single archetype for a great leader so be yourself

5:16 - Great leaders think and communicate clearly

9:56 - Great leaders have good judgement about people

12:56 - Great leaders have strong personal integrity and commitment

13:46 - The transparency test

14:41 - The best way to measure great leaders is in terms of the amount of trust they engender in the people that work with them

15:21 - The science of trust

16:08 - The art of trust

16:36 - Optimize for trust

17:40 - Kevin Hale and Adora Cheung - Startup School 2019 by the Numbers

19:24 - Startup School grew during the course

20:24 - Did SUS make a difference?

21:14 - 106 SUS companies were accepted into YC

23:17 - How can you replicate their success?

23:44 - Be clear and concise

26:59 - Edit your company description

28:04 - Weekly updates submitted

28:39 - Top 7 biggest obstacles for SUS companies

29:04 - Top 7 KPI movers

29:59 - Top 7 user insights

31:04 - Average startup weeks to launch

31:54 - Average hard tech or biotech startup weeks to launch

32:54 - % of weekly updates from launched startups

33:34 - Group sessions

33:59 - Companies got better at explaining their ideas, selling themselves, and getting others excited

35:09 - Founders like qualitative feedback

36:09 - No shows

37:19 - Morale

37:49 - Technical, launched, full-time, revenue generating, non-flaky, non-solo founder startups that talk to users are happier

41:14 - Summary

We've cut down the ninth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First, a lecture from Carolynn Levy. Carolynn is a partner at YC. Her lecture covers modern startup financing.

Then a lecture from Jared Friedman. Jared is also a partner at YC. His lecture focuses on advice for hard-tech and biotech founders.

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:33 - Carolynn Levy - Modern Startup Financing

1:33 - The basics: form a corporation, need money to grow?, sell a part of the company

2:58 - Fundraising terms

3:58 - What has changed: structure, access, focus

5:10 - What hasn't changed: preferred stock financing, valuation and dilution, communication

6:42 - Old way of raising early money: Series A preferred stock financing

8:33 - What was broken?

9:33 - The transition: bridge loan financings

10:46 - Realization: convertible promissory notes are a better way to fund early stage startups

12:01 - Modernization of the convertible - SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)

14:03 - When do priced rounds happen?

15:12 - Is modern early stage financing perfected?

18:01 - Takeaways

19:30 - Jared Friedman - Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders

20:25 - What is a hard-tech company?

21:35 - Why start a hard-tech company?

25:06 - YC is the largest bio and hard-tech seed investor in the world

25:49 - How much of YC's advice applies to hard-tech founders?

26:33 - How do you make progress when you have a "heavy MVP"?

31:49 - How do you prove people will want your product, if you haven't built it yet?

32:57 - Letter of Intent

34:10 - Fundraising for hard-tech and biotech companies

36:15 - Final thought

We've cut down the eighth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

First a lecture from Adora Cheung. Adora’s a partner at YC. Her lecture covers how to prioritize your time.

Then a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is also a partner at YC. His lecture is the second part of his talk on how to evaluate startup ideas.

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 - Adora Cheung - How to Prioritize Your Time

2:12 - Real vs fake progress

4:10 - How to determine if you're prioritizing the right tasks

4:42 - Keep a spreadsheet of ideas related to moving your primary KPI

7:32 - Grade the new and old ideas once a week based on potential impact

9:52 - Consider the complexity of each task

11:32 - Don't try to do everything at once

11:52 - How do I know I'm prioritizing my time well?

13:42 - What if I can't complete my tasks in time?

14:02 - Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule 

15:32 - Moving fast

16:47 - Kevin Hale - How to Evaluate Startup Ideas Pt. 2

18:52 - How to apply to Y Combinator

20:17 - As a YC partner, you don't need to sell me

21:12 - Can I understand the idea? Am I excited by it? Do I like the team and want to work with them?

21:47 - How do I describe my company in a very efficient manner?

22:52 - Making your idea legible

25:12 - Things to avoid when describing your company

27:34 - Be conversational

28:02 - Avoid jargon, no preamble, and be reproducible

28:47 - Nouns: what are you making, what is the problem, and who is the customer

32:47 - Using the X for Y formula of explaining your startup

36:57 - Be concise without leaving out the key nouns

40:47 - How to adjust a description

We've cut down the seventh week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.

Kevin Hale gave both lectures this week. Kevin’s a partner at YC and cofounded Wufoo. His first lecture is on how to improve conversion rates and his second lecture is on pricing for startups.

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 - Kevin Hale - How to Improve Conversion Rates

1:02 - Why we care about conversion rates

2:02 - Shareware conversion rate is .5%

2:22 - Casual download games is 2%

2:32 - Freemium SaaS range from 1.5 to 5%

3:57 - Knowledge spectrum

5:52 - The one button interface

6:37 - What is the call to action? And the magic moment.

8:02 - What is it?

8:38 - Is it right for me?

9:02 - Is it legit?

9:22 - Who else is using it?

9:52 - How much? What's the catch?

10:39 - Where can I get help?

11:30 - Kevin Hale - Startup Pricing 101

13:15 - Monetization gives you the biggest bang for your buck

14:35 - Price thermometer

16:35 - Mistake 1 - Prices are too low

16:55 - Mistake 2 - Underestimate costs

17:08 - Mistake 3 - Don't understand your value

17:27 - Mistake 4 - Focus on wrong customers

18:05 - Sales and profit over a product's life

19:20 - Why is pricing innovation hard?

21:27 - How to optimize prices

22:32 - $1B formula

24:05 - Price and complexity

26:55 - 10 - 5 - 20 rule

28:20 - Summary