Jay Reno is the CEO and founder of Feather. Feather is a furniture subscription service. They were in the Summer 2017 batch of YC.You can check out their furniture at LiveFeather.com and if you live in LA, SF, or New York you can try out the service.Jay is on Twitter @jayjreno.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:49 - Opting out of owning furniture6:29 - Feather's prototype9:19 - How much did he make from his MVP?9:59 - How many products did they have?12:14 - Legacy competitors 14:04 - Changing branding from RentFeather.com to LiveFeather.com15:59 - Customer interviews and learnings18:29 - Scaling a company with physical products21:29 - Why expand to other markets vs focus on one?23:59 - Who to hire and when in a logistics-heavy business26:09 - Unexpected learnings from scaling Feather27:54 - Feeling his role change over time29:44 - Counterintuitive advice35:19 - Advice for YC founders after Demo Day

Russ Roberts, host of the podcast EconTalk and author of How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, discusses the meaning behind creating startups, the human nature and capitalism, key economic concepts for founders, teaching economics, the emotional aspect of giving your company away, and incorporating unquantifiable aspects of well-being into economics.

Today’s episode is a preview of the Startup School podcast. We’re putting all the Startup School lectures on their own podcast feed. You can subscribe here:   iTunes  RSS  This is the first lecture from Startup School 2019. It’s Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas.It’s also not too late to sign up for Startup School. The course just started and the deadline to sign up is August 4th. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:42 - Why we're starting with evaluating ideas2:07 - YC doesn't just fund companies with traction3:31 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?5:57 - A startup idea is a hypothesis7:37 - The problem11:37 - The solution13:07 - The insight14:42 - Founder's unfair advantage15:42 - Market growing 20% a year16:22 - Product 10x better17:12- Acquisition model18:37 - Monopoly19:32 - Threshold belief19:52- Miracle belief20:42 - Example: YC24:02 - Example: Wufoo

Anu Hariharan is a partner at YC. Today’s episode is about her recent post, How To Manage a Board.You can find her on Twitter @anuhariharan.If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org. The course just started and the deadline to sign up is August 4th. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:57 - Why Anu wrote How to Manage a Board2:27 - Board composition4:27 - Adding independent board members 6:27 - The responsibilities of a board member9:12 - Productive board meetings12:52 - Sharing materials before the meeting13:42 - Bringing executives into the meeting16:57 - Dealing with board conflict18:22 - Following up after a board meeting21:12 - Dealing with difficult board members23:57 - Reality distortion24:52 - Agustin Feuerhake asks - What does it take to be a great board member?27:22 - Dave Bailey asks - To what extent should the board culture reflect the company culture? 29:42 - Connor Abene asks - How do you think about adding board members who haven't worked in your industry but you think are good?33:22 - Rhina asks - Could you address managing a board during product market fit time/ pivot times?

Camille Fournier is a Managing Director at Two Sigma and the former CTO of Rent The Runway. She’s also the author of The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change.You can find her on Twitter @skamille.If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org. The course begins on July 22nd and goes for 10 weeks. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:47 - Why do many individual contributors (ICs) never experience a good manager?3:27 - How did the ideology of management being bad become pervasive in startups?5:27 - What should a new manager do in their first 90 days?8:57 - Getting better at 1:1s11:17 - More tips for the first 90 days13:17 - Remote management15:12 - Mistakes rookie managers make19:27 - Letting people go23:37 - Being a manager and still wanting to write code27:57 - Feeling overwhelmed as a manager31:27 - Getting a team to gel38:42 - Giving people kudos39:57 - Non-engineers running engineering teams42:07 - Staying legit technically as a manager43:27 - Management vs leadership

Sarah Nahm is the CEO and cofounder of Lever. Lever builds modern recruiting software for teams to source, interview, and hire top talent. They were in the Summer 2012 batch of YC. You can try Lever out at Lever.co.Holly Liu is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before that she cofounded the gaming company Kabam.You can find Sarah on Twitter @srhnhm and Holly is @hollyhliu.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:41 - Did Sarah grow up thinking she'd be a founder?8:01 - Why did she decide to leave Google and start Lever?13:56 - Thinking about product in the early days of Lever15:51 - Fundraising and figuring out the team24:06 - How do you figure out someone's career motivations?27:26 - Getting concrete when interviewing29:31 - Hiring remote employees32:11 - Writing job descriptions around impact37:41 - Eva Zhang asks - What's the biggest roadblock you faced in trying to make hiring more inclusive to diverse candidates?42:06 - What does thinking about inclusion mean at a small company?47:21 - Not buying into technical and nontechnical people50:26 - Setting up a culture that allows for conversations about diversity and inclusion

Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.Kevin’s on the podcast today to do some Office Hours and talk about this year’s edition of Startup School.If you’d like to sign up or learn more, check out https://StartupSchool.org.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:51 - Stats from Startup School 20182:11 - Updates for Startup School 20198:41 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org9:16 - Sean Maina asks - In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience?11:56 - Design affordances14:11 - Sunil Tej asks - How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started?18:11 - Building an audience before a product20:41 - Wufoo's growth23:56 - Coming up with the idea for Wufoo27:56 - Companies pivoting during YC29:26 - Building a product in an unsexy space32:56 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you know if you've achieved product market fit? Or if your product just isn't noticed yet? 43:56 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you gauge the size of a market? 46:26 - Tips for Startup School success50:41 - Advice on vetting cofounders54:11 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org

Dan Hockenmaier is the founder of the growth strategy firm Basis One. Prior to Basis One he was the Director of Growth Marketing at Thumbtack. You can learn more at BasisOne.com.Gustaf Alströmer is a Partner at YC. Prior to YC he was the Product Lead for Growth at Airbnb.You can find Dan on Twitter @danhockenmaier and Gustaf is @gustaf.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:50 - Dan's most unpopular advice1:45 - What growth strategies do people jump on too soon?2:20 - Questions Dan asks a company he's advising3:50 - Traits Dan looks for in early growth hires6:30 - How product and growth are tied together11:30 - Good/bad learnings from Facebook's growth team14:00 - A/B testing17:00 - Retention and other metrics20:45 - The importance of experimentation23:45 - Getting ideas for A/B tests then choosing which to do25:00 - Advice for employees who want to get a growth program going29:00 - B2B vs consumer growth tactics34:00 - Pricing experiments35:30 - Paid marketing39:30 - Launching in new markets40:15 - Hiring for marketing43:45 - Metrics for marketing hires45:45 - Toni asks - Why did Airbnb grow so fast?48:45 - Step function growth changes for companies that already had scale49:55 - Michael Savage asks - It would be great to discuss growth into new regions for example Africa and UAE. What would their approach be, how does it differ from region to region, culture to culture? 52:30 - Justin LaRosa asks - What are some of the most common drivers of viral growth?55:20 - Hiring a growth agency vs building your own team58:20 - How do you think about growth in the context of improving humanity?

Jeremy Rossmann is the cofounder of Make School. Make School is a college for computer science headquartered in San Francisco. Make School students don't pay until they have a job after graduation. They were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch.You can find MakeScool on Twitter @MakeSchool.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:32 - What is Make School?01:12 - How is their intensive track different than a traditional college course load?2:22 - How are their students differentiated from students educated in a traditional CS program?3:12 - Interacting with the parents of Make School students8:12 - William Triska asks - What are some ways to encourage greater independence and autodidactic behavior in students pursuing technical skills and knowledge?10:02 - The autodidact myth15:57 - Two stakeholders making purchasing decisions: potential students and parents 20:07 - The education landscape 20 years from now23:57 - Education stacking25:02 - Vikram Malhotra asks - When are we going to do away with degrees?32:42 - Evan Ward asks - Should liberal arts colleges consider adopting ISA's?35:17 - Are there instances of predatory ISAs?37:27 - Make School students who want to be entrepreneurs40:27 - Advice for people in YC

Tracy Young is a cofounder and the CEO of PlanGrid. PlanGrid makes mobile construction productivity software. They were acquired by Autodesk in 2018 and were part of YC’s Winter 2012 batch.Kat Manalac is a Partner at YC.You can find Tracy on Twitter @Tracy_Young and Kat is @KatManalac.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.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/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:46 - How Tracy got into the construction industry2:51 - What convinced Tracy and her cofounders to build PlanGrid?3:31 - Finding a technical cofounder6:26 - Tracy still sees herself as an engineer7:16 - PlanGrid's MVP and their first customers11:56 - Their sales process13:46 - Product breakthroughs17:21 - Not firing fast enough20:31 - What does she look for when hiring someone?26:01 - Tim Cook's closing statement at WWDC28:46 - Fredi Fernández asks - Does Tracy track wellness levels of the team?29:26 - At what point did Tracy hire an office manager?30:16 - How does Tracy take care of herself?31:46 - Founding a company with a partner33:31 - Managing a company as a new parent35:46 - Seyed Rasoul Jabari asks - What's your big plan to go from 1.5 to 10 million projects?36:46 - Holly asks - What has been your single largest influence in helping you scale?38:06 - Why do some executives not work out?38:56 - What skills did Tracy have to work on when scaling?42:41 - What do a lot of startups get wrong?46:21 - Tracy's recommended books48:01 - What Tracy wishes she knew when she started out