Start up school curriculum is designed around helping you constantly practise talking about your start up. Here are things to avoid that makes things not clear, that makes your idea muddy. What you want to do is be conversational. A great pitch is one where you can tell it to your mam, and she gets it. She's not going to shake her head. And that means hi's got to be conversational - we don't talk like an mba. We'll have some examples of preamble but if you want to go straight to what you want to talk about, let's get there. Let's not have a winding path to eventually getting there! So when i hear your
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