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How Successful Was Y Combinator Aiming to Become

While investing 7 times the volume, and 1/100s the amount in comparison to a traditional venture capital firm, Y Combinator was not aiming to be as successful. Paul Graham (@paulg) predicted there would be a lot of failures, if YC were to be true to its goal. However, he said he would be happy with a ~33% success rate, which meant most of the startups would fail.

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Graham on Start-ups, Innovation, and Creativity ·

EconTalk

More from this episode

  1. Who Is Paul GrahamIn 2009 Paul Graham was introduced on the EconTalk podcast as an essayist, a programmer, an author of the book Hackers and Painters , a programming language…
  2. What Is Y CombinatorIn 2009, according to Paul Graham, Y Combinator (YC) was neither a venture capital firm nor an incubator.
  3. How Did Y Combinator Fund So Many Startups?Y Combinator standardized a traditionally slow and tedious process by applying batch processing and technology.
  4. How Does Y Combinator Use Software to Screen ApplicantsWith hundreds, and now thousands of applications each batch, Y Combinator uses an online submission form (no paper or presentation decks) to decide on a small…
  5. What Happens at a Y Combinator InterviewAt the interview, Y Combinator partners talk to each startup for only 10 minutes, until they decide whether to fund a company or not.
  6. How Successful Was the Very First Batch of Y CombinatorThe very first batch of Y Combinator included successful exists such as: Loopt , Reddit, and Justin.tv ), among others.
  7. Why Are We Seeing Growing Number of Startups1. Moore's law has made computers (hardware) effectively free. 2. The internet has made promotion free. 3.
  8. Why Do Angels Make Better Early Investors Than Venture CapitalistsVC funds invest large amounts of other people's money, and often are run by money-managers who have to invest in entrepreneurs that look the part.
  9. When Should You Launch Your StartupLaunch something as soon as you have enough that even 10 people would use. Watch those people, then building what they need to exist.
  10. Who Should Be Startup's Early UsersUnlike large corporations who run off inertia, "clever and impoverished outsiders" are leaders, sophisticated and cheap, driven by a desire to innovate.
  11. When Does Y Combinator EndAt the end of roughly 10 weeks, Y Combinator program culminates with a "Demo Day."
  12. Did the Recession Have Any Impact on the Y Combinator Deal FlowDuring the recession, VCs sensed they could get better deals and got away with owning more shares than they normally would.
  13. What Are the Similarities Between Hackers and PaintersPeople who make stuff have a lot in common with one another, regardless of whatever other differences they might have.
  14. In Which Ways Should Founders Be More Like ArtistsArtists who do no have money do not try to imitate wealth. Instead, they live in a way that is cheap, but not squalid .
  15. What Makes for a Great HackerIn both programming and paining, there are people who are amazingly talented and can produce great work, as long as they know exactly what to do.
  16. What Is One Problem That Every Hacker Struggles WithHackers are makers and they have to constantly fight a desire to just make cool stuff, instead of making what users actually want.
  17. What Was Paul Graham's View on Facebook and Twitter in 2009PG saw Facebook and Twitter as the new TV, an addiction that wasted time, ought to be kicked for a better hobby. He suggested it would make sense to avoid them.
  18. What Is the Best Economic Policy for the United StatesImmigrants start a disproportionate number of startups, and startups lead to economic prosperity.
  19. What Is the Best Way to Survive High-schoolIf you compared high-school to someone's day job, you'd realize that the workload is pretty easy, it's not really demanding on your time, and you might even…

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