September 2013 Most startups that raise money do it more than once. A typical trajectory might be (1) to get started with a few tens of thousands from something like Y Combinator or individual angels, then (2) raise a few hundred thousand to a few million to build the company, and then (3) once the company is clearly…
I went through my calendar recently to count all the clients I worked with in 2019 as part of my coaching practice. The answer: 101 powerful and extraordinary individuals. Wow, I was blown away, I had no idea that it would be this many. The kinds of people I had and continue to have the […]
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The most common question prospective startup founders ask is how to get ideas for startups. The second most common question is if you have any ideas for their startup. But giving founders an idea...
A detailed brain dump about how to go about starting web design for startups. Including design process, inspiration and required reading.
This is my talk from 2012 Startup School, pretty much exactly as delivered. It's been more than 7 years since we started YC. In that time, we've funded 467 startups so I've seen a lot of patterns....
There’s an old startup mantra — probably from the early Airbnb or Y Combinator days — that goes: “Do things that don’t scale.”
Dear friends- I wanted to let you know I am stepping away from YC. I've been involved at YC since early 2011 and in that time it has been my privilege to work with over 600 startups and over a...
And what it taught me.
You may one day find yourself in a position where you’re eager to work on a startup but limited by the amount of time you can put into it due to a day job, family or other obligations. In this post…
When managers and leaders don't specify the expected time investment of an ask, the time that is invested is almost never what was intended.
After integrating both Stripe and Paypal I've come to the realization that they are nearly the same, including all the evil.
产品看起来是给用户用的，但我觉得这可能是一种假象，它实际上更像是一种自我表达。 许多表达被不同的人创造出来，经历了自然选择后，存活下来的那一个，是用户喜欢的那个。 我的意思是，这个过程是这么发生的：你做一个东西，不是“我觉得他们可能需要这个”而做，而是“我觉得这个有点意思”而做。然后，别人在使用你的产品时，感受到了与你相同的那种感受，这时他说：“我觉得这个有点意思”。 从这个角度来说，产品就像一种情绪的存储器，作者存进去，复制一千份，用户从产品中取出来。 你不能自己不含任何情感，却期望用户使用后带有情感。 我觉得即使做了个没人想要的东西，也没关系。你唯一需要做的是确保你已经完整呈现了你的情感。…
Our Amazon journey started in January 2018 when HyperVolt released the first massage gun on the market. We were so careful with this…
Here I sit, in a cabin on Lake Superior by the fire, with late-season snow pelting the windows and ominous waves crashing against the rocky shore.
This is a very short summary with lots left out—here is the long version: http://startupclass.samaltman.com You should start with an idea, not a company. When it’s just an idea or project,...
August 2013 When people hurt themselves lifting heavy things, it's usually because they try to lift with their back. The right way to lift heavy things is to let your legs do the work. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake when trying to convince investors. They try to convince with their pitch. Most would be…
For a project I was working on, some of the research involved listening to thousands of sales calls from well known high-growth B2B SaaS companies.
The Pinboard Co-Prosperity Cloud is a startup self-incubator. Six successful applicants will receive a modest amount of funding and as much publicity as I can provide for their sustainable and useful business idea.
A retrospective of an eight-year stint.
The most random and amazing things happened at my company Browserling in the last few weeks. Someone in India discovered that they can use WhatsApp on very cheap $20 phones (Jio Phones) via Browserling. These cheap phones can't run WhatsApp but if you go to Browserling, you can use it via web.whatsapp.com. He made a...
