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How to pick startup ideas
One of the most important things I learned from running a startup is that on a macro scale the innovation market is efficient. If the market conditions allow for a startup to arise, it’s overwhelmingly probable that multiple startups already exist in that market. The converse is also true — if there are no startups in…
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The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in startup's metrics
Growing startups and evaluating startups share common skills Earlier this year, I joined Andreessen Horowitz as a General Partner, where I focus on a broad spectrum of consumer startups: marketplaces, entertainment/media, and social platforms. This was a big moment for me, and the result of a long relationship that…
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Fellowship V2
Last fall, YC ran an 8 week experiment calledThe Fellowship [https://ycombinator.wpengine.com/yc-fellowship]to fund and work with startups at the idea or prototype stage. The goal was to see if we could create a program that could help more early-stage startups at scale. The experiment went well and I have a few…
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Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture
Kaikki nettikasinot and other similar projects can be exhausting, due to their demanding schedules. How do I organize myself? Learn now!
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What Startups Are Really Like
October 2009 (This essay is derived from a talk at the 2009 Startup School.) I wasn't sure what to talk about at Startup School, so I decided to ask the founders of the startups we'd funded. What hadn't I written about yet? I'm in the unusual position of being able to test the essays I write about startups. I hope the…
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How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup
Canny recently hit a major revenue milestone: one million dollars in annual recurring revenue. Here's how we built a $1m ARR SaaS startup from the ground up.
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Y Combinator's Stake in OpenAI (0.6%?)
The fact that Paul Graham personally has billions of dollars at stake with OpenAI doesn’t mean that his public opinion on Sam Altman’s trustworthiness and leadership is invalid. But it certainly seems like the sort of thing that ought to be disclosed when quoting Graham as an Altman character reference.
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A fourteen-day free trial ain’t gonna cut it
Ramblings about common free trial lengths and time-to-convert.
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What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Startups 4 Years Ago
The year is 2007, and I had just left Microsoft to dive into the startup world. Like many first time entrepreneurs, I was very excited about the adventure. And like many first time entrepreneurs, I didn’t know where to start.
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How to Build a Great Series A Pitch and Deck
YC's Janelle Tam on how to put together a great Series A pitch and deck.
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Yes, but what does your startup do?
I recently signed up for a hackathon. Part of the deal these days is that sponsors get to send promotional messages to the attendees. Fair enough. The only problem is, most of these messages are rubbish! Here's the verbatim message I received - there were no links other than to Twitter. See if you can work out what…
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Unit Economics
Commentators are looking hard for what’s wrong with startups in Silicon Valley. First they talked about valuations being too high. Then they talked about valuations not really meaning anything. ...
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A new team at Reddit
Last week, Yishan Wong resigned from reddit. The reason was a disagreement with the board about a new office (location and amount of money to spend on a lease). To be clear, though, we didn’t...
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You won't find a technical co-founder
Breakneck is the ultimate SaaS Starter Kit for .net developers. Lettings you focus on your business instead of boilerplate code.