Craft & teaching · Global & US
Y Combinator's channel & Startup School
The accelerator's own library of talks, founder interviews and startup teaching — the most concentrated free education in early-stage company building anywhere.
Why an angel should listen
Y Combinator has funded more early-stage companies than any other institution, and it publishes what it teaches them. The material is aimed at founders rather than investors, which is precisely why an angel should watch it: it tells you what good founders are being told to do, and therefore what to expect from the ones who have listened.
The most useful material is the unglamorous operational advice — how to talk to users, how to prioritise, why most early startups die of building the wrong thing rather than building it badly. When you meet a founder who has internalised this, it shows in how they answer questions.
The application and fundraising material is also worth an hour of your time, because it explains the standard against which an enormous number of the companies you will see have been shaped.
Watch one
Start with this episode
How to Apply And Succeed at Y Combinator | Startup School
What the most selective early-stage programme in the world looks for, from the people who decide. Useful to an angel as a checklist of what a strong pre-seed company looks like before it has any results.
Published by Y Combinator. Channel verified from ycombinator.com, and YouTube's own oEmbed response names that channel as this video's author. Pressing play loads content from YouTube.
Where to begin
Start with these
- The talks on talking to users — the single most-repeated piece of advice YC gives, and the thing most early founders do badly.
- Anything on fundraising, for the founder-side view of the negotiation you are on the other side of.
- Founder interviews about the early, unimpressive period, before the company was fundable.
In short
Good for
Listening orders