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

Simone Giertz describes herself as a maker/robotics enthusiast/non-engineer. She’s also known as the Queen of Shitty Robots. She runs a YouTube channel about those robots and is a cohost on Tested with Adam Savage from MythBusters.You can find her on YouTube and on Twitter @SimoneGiertz.She also has a Patreon.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 - Intro1:41 - "Whatever feeds the ego kills the soul."4:21 - Maintaining passion for your work7:16 - Building a sustainable business as a creator9:01 - Shipping a real product - The Every Day Calendar - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonegiertz/the-every-day-calendar18:01 - Being scared to step away19:31 - Generating ideas20:46 - Finding out she had a brain tumor, having surgery, and sharing it26:01 - Returning to work after brain surgery28:01 - Learnings from taking time off29:01 - Asking for help30:31 - Evaluating how she's spending her time32:16 - Giving herself permission to try other things34:21 - Challenges as a creator and entrepreneur 36:01 - Not feeling guilty about play and pursuing the things you enjoy41:01 - Becoming less disciplined in certain areas over time42:46 - Ali asks - How to get started when dealing with imposters syndrome?43:06 - beep boop asks - What's your favorite robot?43:46 - Beste asks - Are there any moments where she is bored and feels like giving up on creating new things?44:56 - Khawar Shehzad asks - What thing do you wish you knew when you started your career?46:06 - Olaf Doschke asks - What would have happened if Simone's toothbrush helmet wouldn't have gone viral?48:36 - Johnathan Nader asks - What is the best version of yourself?

Michael Babineau is cofounder and CEO of Second Measure. Second Measure analyzes billions of credit card transactions to answer real-time questions on consumer behavior. They were in the Summer 2015 batch of YC and you can check them out at SecondMeasure.com.Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.You can find Michael on Twitter @mikebabineau and Kevin is @ilikevests.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 - Intro00:35 - What idea did Mike apply to YC with?01:20 - Where did the idea come from?4:35 - From project to company10:20 - What info did investors want to know that Second Measure could provide?12:05 - Their first customers14:35 - The primary use case of Second Measure for VCs15:20 - What questions are they trying to answer?19:35 - Data examples from their blog21:05 - Post: Fashion retailers have nothing to fear (yet) from the rise of Stitch Fix23:35 - Post: Holiday sales rocket Peloton memberships ahead of SoulCycle active riders25:05 - Post: Prime members deliver for Amazon every day27:35 - Second Measure's product development process29:35 - Finding good data scientists who work from first principles37:05 - Why is credit card data so messy?42:05 - Cleaning data44:20 - Using their product for competitive analysis47:35 - Their sales process49:05 - Raising money from Goldman Sachs and Citi52:05 - Focusing on a specific problem54:05 - Keeping the product compelling when it's table stakes

Vidit Aatrey is cofounder and CEO of Meesho. Meesho is a platform in India that allows people to resell products using their social networks. They were in the Summer 2016 batch of YC and you can check them out at Meesho.com.Adora Cheung is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC she cofounded Homejoy.You can find Vidit on Twitter @viditaatrey and Adora is @nolimits.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 - Intro01:20 - What is Meesho?3:20 - Why not just sell directly to consumers?5:05 - What are the macro trends in Meesho's favor in India?7:30 - A trust deficit market8:55 - How does Meesho help users get online and start selling?11:45 - Most impactful user stories13:50 - Growth drivers15:50 - Balancing growth and quality17:25 - What if Facebook copies Meesho?18:50 - When did Vidit and his cofounder know they wanted to start a startup?21:20 - Their first startup idea and the inspiration for Meesho25:40 - When did they know Meesho was working?27:20 - How hard was it to pivot the business and how did they manage it?30:05 - As a CEO how does he stay in touch with users?34:50 - How has Vidit's role changed over time?36:55 - How has he learned to be a CEO?38:30 - What mistakes have they made?39:35 - What was his best decision?40:15 - What's a strong opinion he had about running a startup that he's changed since running Meesho?41:45 - How has the Indian startup ecosystem evolved?43:20 - Big problems worth solving in India43:05 - Can foreigners come to India and start a startup?45:10 - Best advice for aspiring Indian founders46:20 - After Meesho, what's the most exciting startup in India?47:20 - Why is Delhi the best IIT?48:15 - What's a must read book and why?49:10 - What's a startup idea he'd be working on if Meesho didn't happen?49:25 - In 100 years, what does he hope Meesho is?

Chris Best is the cofounder and CEO of Substack. Substack makes it simple for a writer to start a paid newsletter. They were in the Winter 2018 batch of YC. You can check them out at Substack.com.Jonathan Gill is the cofounder and CEO of Backtracks. Backtracks is a podcast analytics and hosting platform. You can check them out at Backtracks.fm.Chris is on Twitter @cjgbest and Jonathan is @jgill333.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 - Intro1:03 - Paid vs advertising in podcasting3:33 - Are advertisers overpaying for podcast ads?6:13 - What percent of the market will ultimately be paid content?8:13 - Payment mechanisms9:48 - Price anchoring12:28 - Individual creators vs brands17:23 - Deplatforming18:53 - Spotify20:23 - Discovery and growth in newsletters22:53 - Public and private feeds25:23 - Apple's role26:38 - Will education be the driver of paid content?30:23 - Educational podcasters in China32:23 - How are their newsletter and podcast customers growing?36:18 - Jack Ryder asks - In 5 years time, are personal newsletters going to replace social networks like Facebook?38:13 - Debdut Mukherjee asks - Do podcasts actually work? If so, how do startups calculate the ROI & the CAC?43:38 - Measurement45:23 - Best practices for new podcasters and newsletter creators