We've cut down the fourth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.First a lecture from Kat Manalac. Kat is a partner at YC. Her lecture focuses on how startups should think about launching and why you should do it repeatedly.Then a lecture from Gustaf Alströmer. Gustaf is also a partner at YC and in his lecture he covers how to measure product market fit and growth channels.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 - Intro00:35 - Kat Mañalac - How to Launch (Again and Again)1:51 - Ways to launch2:14 - Why launch continuously?3:15 - Silent launch4:25 - Friends & Family5:40 - Strangers7:03 - Online communities12:08 - Request access13:29 - Social media15:13 - Pre-order16:13 - New Product or Feature17:42 - Build your own community19:20 - Launching isn't one moment in time19:48 - Gustaf Alströmer - Growth for Startups21:06 - Most startups have nothing22:13 - Do things that don't scale27:13 - Startups take off because founders make them take off28:23 - Measuring product market fit31:20 - Retention34:33 - Worse ways to measure product market fit35:23 - Bad metrics to measure as product market fit36:18 - Growth channels and tactics38:17 - Conversion rate optimization41:26 - Growth channels to explore45:33 - Referrals and vitality48:05 - Paid growth50:09 - Search Engine Optimization53:00 - Making decisions using A/B testing55:02 - Summary

We've cut down the third week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.First, a lecture from Anu Hariharan. Anu is a partner at YC. Her lecture covers nine common startup business models and the metrics investors want to see for each.Then, a Q&A with Anu and Adora Cheung. Adora is also at partner at YC. During their Q&A they’ll answer questions from Startup School Founders on how investors evaluate startups.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 - Intro00:39 - Anu Hariharan on Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want1:44 - Enterprise4:09 - SAAS8:55 - Subscription11:33 - Transactional14:44 - Marketplace19:04 - E-commerce21:14 - Advertising23:12 - Hardware23:44 - Common mistakes25:35 - Anu Hariharan and Adora Cheung on How Investors Measure Startups Q&A26:07 - Team, product market fit, and market opportunity27:10 - What if the founder doesn't have experience in the are in which they're building a product?28:19 - How do investors know you're moving fast?29:40 - Local vs remote30:40 - Evaluating solo founders31:45 - Clarity of thought33:35 - International founders35:17 - Solo founders36:21 - Should I fundraise?38:33 - How does an investor evaluate a company with a heavy MVP?39:36 - How do you avoid investors who say "it's too early for us"?40:06 - Is it sensible to engage with investors before product market fit?40:26 - How do you find the perfect investor?41:21 - What are the best approaches for minority female founders to gain visibility within VC?42:36 - How do investors come up with valuations?

We've cut down the second week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.First, a lecture from Michael Seibel. Michael is CEO and a partner at YC. His lecture is about How to Plan an MVP.Then, a lecture from Adora Cheung. Adora is a YC partner and a cofounder of Homejoy. Her lecture is about How to Set KPIs and Goals.Last, a lecture from Ilya Volodarsky. Ilya is a cofounder of Segment. His lecture is about Analytics for Startups.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 - Intro00:43 - Michael Seibel - How to Plan an MVP1:25 - The goal of a pre-launch startup3:10 - Iterating vs pivoting3:59 - Lean MVP5:06 - Heavy MVP6:19 - Launching7:35 - Learning is easier with an MVP8:07 - How to build an MVP quickly10:17 - Adora Cheung - How to Set KPIs and Goals11:51 - What are the right KPIs to set?15:50 - Revenue or active users16:28 - Why choose active users?18:55 - Biotech or hardtech KPIs20:25 - Secondary metric21:25 - What if you haven't launched?22:20 - Setting goals23:47 - How fast should you grow?25:13 - Defining your own goals28:40 - Tracking progress30:27 - Ilya Volodarsky - Analytics for Startups30:46 - Why analytics?31:36 - Funnel32:51 - Collecting data, analytics, and data flow34:16 - Metric - Signups per week35:28 - Metric - Retention cohorts36:30 - Which metric to pick?36:57 - Have I reached product market fit?37:27 - Metric - Revenue37:51 - Dashboards38:35 - Advisor updates39:01 - The startup stack42:13 - Recommendations for the MVP process

We've cut down the first week of Startup School lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast. First, a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is a YC partner and a cofounder of Wufoo. His lecture is about How to Evaluate Startup Ideas.Then, a lecture from Eric Migicovsky. Eric is a YC partner and the founder of Pebble. His lecture is about How to Talk to Users.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 - Intro00:43 - Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas2:04 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?2:50 - A startup idea is a hypothesis5:44 - Problem6:59 - Solution8:16 - Insight8:57 - Unfair advantages13:45 - Two beliefs about startups15:19 - Eric Migicovsky on How to Talk to Users17:36 - Three common errors people make when talking to users20:20 - Five questions to ask in a user interview20:28 - What's the hardest part about doing the thing you're trying to solve?21:02 - Tell me about the last time that you encountered this problem21:22 - Why was this hard?23:08 - What, if anything, have you done to try to solve this problem?24:10 - What don't you love about the solutions you've already tried?25:21 - Three stages in which talking to users is extremely beneficial26:07 - Idea stage30:40 - Prototype stage33:41 - Iterating towards product market fit

Diana Hu cofounded Escher Reality, which went through the Summer 2017 batch of YC. They were acquired by Niantic and she is now the head of their AR platform.She's on Twitter @sdianahu.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 - Intro00:40 - Getting into AR2:55 - Her first exposure to AR4:40 - AR's future role in media7:45 - Deciding where to go with the product 9:55 - Innovations that enabled AR14:25 - Building a product in a new market17:25 - Raising money for a new market21:40 - Advice for founders after an acquisition 26:40 - Immigrating to the US31:10 - Advice for Immigrant founders33:49 - Advice for founders in/after YC

Aaron Harris is a Partner at YC and before that he cofounded Tutorspree.He’s on Twitter @harris.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 - Intro00:42 - Seed fundraising process3:32 - Emailing investors9:32 - Parallelized fundraising process12:17 - Meeting with investors14:17 - Overcapitalization17:07 - Communicating your plan to investors19:02 - Evaluating investors 22:57 - Fundraising process for a Series A company27:02 - Meeting Series A investors28:57 - Post-Demo Day psychology

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?