Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport.Flexport is a global freight forwarder powered by software and analytics. They are making international trade easier for over 10,000 companies in 70 countries. They were part of the YC Winter 2014 batch.***Topics0:23 - What is a freight forwarder?3:08 - Selling electric scooters on eBay 15 years ago5:53 - Ryan’s business school experience10:23 - Amazon competing with their vendors13:23 - Matt Susk asks - What were the most important takeaways from Columbia Business School? Would you encourage entrepreneurs to pursue a MBA?17:03 - Tyler Hogge asks - How did you get your first three clients at Flexport?20:03 - Being a solo founder23:08 - Varun Khurana asks - What's your strategy for rapidly hiring the best talent in so many different global hubs?25:53 - Challenges of scaling Flexport27:38 - Some of Ryan’s favorite books29:43 - Scaling culture34:23 - Jassim Ali asks - How has the Trump policy on foreign trade affected your business so far?39:23 - PowerDecal asks - How do you poach clients from legacy providers?46:23 - Automation in freight forwarding49:23 - Jason Yannos asks - If you weren't operating Flexport and had to source a new idea to work on, where would you start?53:23 - Derisking product ideas56:53 - Biggest lessons learned at Flexport

David Zeevi is a James S. McDonnell independent fellow at the Rockefeller University Center for Studies in Physics and Biology. He focuses on developing computational methods for studying microbial ecology in the human gut and in the marine environment, and its contribution to human and environmental health.He was one of the authors on the paper Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.Apply for $120K in funding from YC.***Topics01:15 - Why did David start working on personalized nutrition?4:45 - How did the measure the effects of food in their study?11:55 - How was the study standardized across people?15:55 - How they measured an individual’s gut microbiome.17:30 - What is the gut microbiome?22:05 - Is there an ideal gut microbiome?23:20 - How do you manipulate your gut microbiome?24:50 - Fecal transplants.26:55 - Elizabeth Iorns asks - Does post prandial glucose response regulation track with weight regulation? I.e. can they use their test to determine what individual people should eat or not eat to lose weight?28:35 - Has this research been turned into a product?29:35 - Who else worked on this research?30:35 - How was their predictive algorithm made?35:15 - Did they end up with any dietary suggestions?36:15 - David’s bread study.38:55 - Has David changed his own diet?39:25 - Why fat was vilified.43:15 - David’s ocean microbiome and other research.51:05 - Traveling and your microbiome.56:35 - Trying this out yourself.

Jessica Brillhart is the founder of Vrai Pictures. They’re an independent immersive content studio.Before founding Vrai, Jessica was the Principal Filmmaker for VR at Google.The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.***Questions 00:23 - Starting VRAI10:23 - Story in film vs. VR12:38 - Gaming19:53 - Conditions at Omaha - The Weather Channel in VR22:38 - Jessica's upcoming projects27:48 - Andrew Peterman asks - How long until we'll be able to create 3D 360° video from cell phone hardware+amazing software?30:13 - Matt asks - Where do you see VR in 10 years?30:28 - Michael Hodapp asks - Does VR still have long term mass adoption potential, or will the market shift to AR?32:23 - Will people be in VR for a significant percentage of their time in the future?40:58 - Virginia Pigato asks - How can a traditional storyteller adapt to vr?50:13 - Can Olcer asks - What key but non-obvious thing is missing for VR to become mainstream?52:08 - Matt MacVey asks - What are some of the most exciting or scariest parts of social VR and what is the storytelling potential of social VR?55:38 - Tony Cassara asks - What kind of dog do you have?

Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung are both partners at YC.This episode is about Startup School. It’s a free, online course we’re offering that starts on August 28th.We’re also offering equity-free grants of $10,000 to 100 companies that participate in the course.Anyone can sign up for the course at StartupSchool.org.Read the transcript here.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.***Topics0:40 - What is Startup School?3:40 - Who are the speakers this year?5:00 - What are the different paths in Startup School?7:00 - Success stories from last year’s Startup School.8:55 - Why offer $10,000 grants?10:00 - What deals are offered to the startups in Startup School?11:00 - When does the course start?12:45 - What are the requirements to complete the course?15:15 - What are the topics that will be covered?18:00 - What happens during office hours sessions?22:30 - Who else is working on this course at YC?

Michael Seibel is a Partner and the CEO of YC. He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the Winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the Winter 2012 batch.For this episode we took questions from the internet. If you have questions for a future office hours episode, just tweet them our way.Read the transcript here.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. Apply here.Questions00:25 - Why is YC worth 7% of your company?6:25 - Generating leverage when fundraising12:07 - Youssef asks - How did you validate your product market fit?15:00 - LC Carrier asks - How does YC feel about companies who don't want to raise VC after the program?17:05 - Edmilson Rodrigues asks - Do companies need to be incorporated already to participate in YC?18:50 - Alex Rodriguez asks - What do you look for in startups that haven't had good growth but continue to push through (e.g. AirBnB) that makes you accept them?26:50 - Fedor Paretsky asks - Do you have techniques you encourage to make pitches sound more exciting?35:05 - David Chen asks - How to find mentors and advisors?39:25 - building EatNeat asks - What if anything are you specifically looking for in a startup that wants to be a part of the Startup School 2018?40:00 - Ryan Carl Mercer asks - What's your preferred way organizing your time?41:05 - John Rigler asks - Can intrapreneurship be effective? I recently returned to IBM, have a patent, and yet have only vague ideas about how to signal and organize other like-minded folks. Could this path sabotage my dreams?41:55 - Horacio Chávez asks - How would you approach an investor who says "I won't invest unless you have a patent"?42:35 - Yahya Elamrani asks - Why does it feel like entrepreneurs aren’t marriage material? Should an entrepreneur look for an entrepreneurial spouse?44:15 - Yahya Elamrani asks - How intense do you really have to be to found a startup?48:50 - Is there a particular stage of company that's best served by Startup School?50:35 - How do you get the most out of Startup School?

Elad Gil is an entrepreneur, operator, and investor. He cofounded Color Genomics and Mixer Labs. Worked at Google and Twitter. And has invested in companies including Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe.He just released the High Growth Handbook, which is a guide to scaling startups published by Stripe Press.It contains tactical advice on key issues for post product-market fit companies such as the role of the CEO, hiring executives, late stage fundraising, M&A, and other topics. It also includes interviews with people in tech, including Sam Altman, President of YC Group.You can find the High Growth Handbook on Amazon.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. Apply here.***Topics01:04 - Why should an entrepreneur read the High Growth Handbook?5:35 - On Marc Andreessen's comment, "The companies that charge more tend to grow faster."6:50 - Myths about startups7:50 - Leon Coe asks - What types of businesses do you avoid investing in?9:20 - Things to just say 'no' to12:40 - Companies that may be too early14:52 - On Naval Ravikant's comment, "The most successful class of people in silicon valley on a consistent basis are either the venture capitalists, or people who are very good at identifying companies that have just hit product/market fit. They have the background, expertise, and references that those companies really want to help them scale."17:41 - On Claire Hughes Johnson's "Guide to Working with Claire"19:40 - Masud Hossain asks - How did most of the companies you interviewed get their first 10 customers?20:55 - Masud Hossain asks - Is content really king?22:50 - Narayan Mallapur asks - Where do founders make the most mistakes? Is it on hiring? What steps should they take to avoid these pitfalls24:55 - Brianne Kimmel asks - What are some lessons learned in highly regulated sectors? When should you hire a General Counsel? How do you prioritize public policy and lobbying efforts?29:05 - Media cycles30:55 - Marius Chawa asks - What are the top three things a startup "must" achieve before VC firms would line up to fund them?34:45 - Taylor Caforio asks - My company is at our early MVP stage. What is he best way to find a balance between giving our earliest customers the 6 star treatment while also having swift and exponential growth in the back of our minds.36:54 - Tanmay Khandelwal asks - When you are sprinting in growth stage, how do you predict engineers required and hire accordingly?38:41 - TD Bryant II asks - When your organization is experiencing exponential growth, how do you choose which functions to outsource vs build/hire?41:50 - Andrew Pikul asks - Who is your favorite Dragon Ball (Z/GT/Super) villain?

Jocko Willink and Mike Sarraille served together as Navy SEALs and now work together at Echelon Front, a company Jocko cofounded.We met up to talk about a new initiative they’ve set up called Overwatch. Overwatch is a talent acquisition firm that matches employers with veterans from special operations forces and combat aviation. You can learn more about Overwatch at EFOverwatch.com.They’re also hosting an event called the Muster in San Francisco on October 17th and 18th. You can sign up at ExtremeOwnership.com.If you’d like to hear more from Mike and Jocko, check out Jocko Podcast Episode 134.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. Apply here.***Topics01:04 - Intros5:07 - Mike and Jocko on how they transitioned out9:37 - How the military prepares people for the private sector13:47 - What is Overwatch?23:32 - Preconceptions about veterans28:24 - Advice for companies looking to hire veterans31:03 - Jocko's next book, The Dichotomy of Leadership33:58 - Mike and Jocko's working relationship45:20 - How to set up your team so everyone can contribute55:02 - What Mike and Jocko are trying to improve about themselves58:45 - Alex Badalyan asks - What are some military tactics startups could adopt to increase team effectiveness and throughput?1:00:47 - Allen asks - From your experience as a SEAL and in the business world, do two or more co-founders/leaders have a higher success rate? What are your thoughts on a solo leader/founder with a strong team and culture?1:06:56 - Armando Neves asks - I liked Jocko's episode on strategy and the way of the Samurai (The Book of Five Rings), how much of the warrior mindset is he implementing on a day to day basis?1:11:17 - Ryan Carl Mercer asks - Favorite MRE and thank you for your service sir.1:14:59 - Spencer Clark asks - Is culture more decided by micro or macro policies & interactions?

Recorded live at our Female Founders Conference in New York, an AMA with Kat Manalac, Kirsty Nathoo, Adora Cheung, Holly Liu, Jessica Livingston, and Carolynn Levy.This panel was hosted by Sharon Pope, Head of Marketing Programs at YC.We’re also posting the other talks from the Female Founders Conference today. You can see all of them and read the transcripts at blog.ycombinator.comIf you’d like to learn more about the Female Founders Conference, head over to femalefoundersconference.org

João Batalha and Luís Batalha are cofounders of Fermat’s Library.Fermat’s Library is a platform for annotating papers. Each week they send out a paper annotated by their community. Some recent papers were Birds and Frogs by Freeman Dyson and Von Neumann's First Computer Program by Donald Knuth.They’ve also built a Chrome Extension call Librarian for the arXiv which allows you to get direct links to references, do BibTeX extraction and make comments on papers.You can find them at FermatsLibrary.com.Read the transcript on our blog.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Scott Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. Before teaching at UT, he taught Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. His research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally.If you’ve listened to our other episodes about quantum computers and are curious to learn more, check out Scott’s book Quantum Computing Since Democritus.And if you want to read Scott’s blog you can find that at scottaaronson.com/blog/.Read the transcript on our blog.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.