RetailReady’s Post

Recently Y Combinator announced a new fall batch. If you're a founder, doing YC is likely one of the best things you can do for your company, and not for the obvious reasons. Obvious reasons: 💰 $500k on great terms 🟧 YC brand Non-obvious: 💔 Even after raising capital, many founders run out of emotional fuel before running out of money. Building something from scratch is hard. You build something, no one wants it you throw it away. And you do it again. All in hopes of eventually finding things people want. 🤝 YC really hammers in focusing on customers that LOVE your product, not use your product. It sounds obvious, but in the day to day, its easy to forget that and instead focus on features that won't matter or metrics like number of employees or how much your raise. 🏘️ Community. This stands out above everything else. Being a founder is lonely journey. Having access to some of the best founders in the world that will take your call even if you've never met them is wild. Plus just being able to quickly chat with founders and learn about 100s of different domains and problems is invaluable. No matter the situation, some founder you know has gone through it and you can ask. I remember when Aaron Villalpando and I first called Rajiv Ayyangar (ex-founder at long standing a competitor of ours at the time). He picked up a random number, we told him we were founders in the W23 batch and we had a great conversation that eventually led us to building Boundary (YC W23). And 18 months later, Rajiv and us still keeps in touch and we continue to learn from him. I didn't want to do YC initially, but I indulged Aaron at that time. Now if I ever do 2nd start up, I hope I get the opportunity to do it again. I've applied 4 times to YC, rejected 3 of those. The last time when we got in, we only spent <2 hours on the application cause we were focusing on our customers instead. Give it a shot, it won't take that long: https://lnkd.in/gTaa5gtT

Great info here. I would add that a deck that you give in a live pitch (Zoom or in person) should be very different from a deck that will be read by the audience, rather than presented. Too many live presentation have decks with too much info on them. If your audience is reading your slides, then they are not listening to you.

Uncomfortable truth: Your startup idea is probably not unique. When I was on the Admissions team at Y Combinator, it was rare to read an idea I hadn't seen before. This isn't something unique to YC - it's true for most investors. When writing your YC application, or crafting your pitch deck, pretend someone will be reading it right after one written by a similar company. Similar explanation of their idea, similar customer segment, similar market size. What can you add to yours to make it stand out?

Y Combinator espouses to fight for "little tech." But over nearly two decades, the famed startup accelerator has come to operate the biggest machine in Silicon Valley. Look around San Francisco these days, and YC’s community of startup founders, now 10,000 strong, is ubiquitous. YC companies dominate unicorn rankings (Stripe, Faire, Brex, Rippling) and lead IPO classes (Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart). Nearly all the players involved in the OpenAI leadership fiasco several months ago were YC alums. Under new CEO Garry Tan, a YC alum who made millions betting on YC startups at his firm Initialized Capital, the organization is going back to its roots and doubling down on its underdog mentality. Only these days, when it comes from YC partners-turned-Silicon Valley power brokers grandstanding on X, the "little tech" message doesn't ring quite as true. Read my deep-dive feature on how the YC machine runs and how it's flexing its political muscle in the latest issue of Fast Company: https://lnkd.in/egzcxmAd

😡 I have a beef with Y Combinator. YC founders are told not to bother about competitors and instead focus on their customers. More often than not, when I ask a sincere question about how a YC company's product is different from something better known, founders tell me that they aren't concerned about competitors—period—end of the conversation. 🤝 Now, I agree that customers, not competitors, are who you want to obsess over. 🤼 However, when you are one of 50 startups in a space, you need to know and track what the biggest and noisiest ones are doing. And here's why... 👉 We are not in a FOMO economy anymore. Your customers are scared of messing up, and so are prospective investors. 👉 If you want their business, then make it easier to help them become your champions. 🛑 This also means just sowing FUD about competition doesn't cut it and is also poor business practice. 💡 Knowing your competition does not have to be a distraction. 🎯 When you approach understanding competition with the right mindset, you can make that know-how an asset. 📚 It pays to put in the effort to understand how you differentiate from your key competitors truly.

Last 4 years - A Journey filled with UPs and DOWNs! 🤷♀️ 👩💻 Starting a tech business with just an idea about doing quality work was the beginning after finding out the number of startup founders/teams facing challenges to find the right tech partner or service provider who can understand the needs and product goals. 🛠️ Fast forward through these years of non-stop 12/14-hour days, striving to be better, and here we are with over 60+ clients. It was more than just business decisions; it felt personal every step of the way. Certainly, there were days so challenging that productivity seemed like a distant dream but also many achievements that went unnoticed in the hustle. Bootstrapping meant this was more than a business; it felt like all projects were owned by TechStaunch Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ❤️ 💡The biggest lesson? It's about finding joy in the challenges, not just getting through them. Staying positive and consistent has been key for me. 🌄 To all the founders out there, remember, the road less traveled might be tough, but the views are worth it. I'm still on my way to where I want us to be, but I can see it getting closer. I hope my story adds a little positivity to your day. ✨ PS: I've joined Y Combinator, getting into product development and on the lookout for dynamic partners to innovate and transform ideas into reality. (I was looking at our team's pics from the 1st year and decided to share this as I felt highly motivated and positive) #BootstrapJourney #TechStartup #FounderLife #Resilience #GrowthMindset #Innovation #YCombinator

Not many people know this, but Y Combinator accepts late applications Some of the most successful YC startups applied AFTER the deadline, including Airbnb and Instacart If you're still thinking about applying, apply now! I talk about this in more depth in my new YouTube video: https://lnkd.in/e569fZ_n Here are some of the key questions on the application: Founders - Who writes code or does technical work on your product? Was any of it done by a non-founder? Progress - How far along are you? - How long have each of you been working on this, and how much of that has been full-time? - What technologies are you using or planning to use for the product? - Are people using your product? (Yes/No). - Do you have revenue? (Yes/No). - If you applied before with the same or a different idea, what has changed? - Have you participated in or committed to any other incubator/accelerator programs? Idea - Why did you pick this idea? Do you have domain expertise? How do you know people need it? - Who are your competitors, and what do you understand about your business that they don’t? - How do/will you make money? How much could you make? (Provide an estimate). - What other ideas did you consider applying with?

Here’s what no one is saying about the magical pitch deck structures provided by Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Sequoia, and others. 👇 Structures and templates are great - but they are not one-size-fits-all. If you follow the Y Combinator structure exactly, you automatically break the rules of the other structures. Oh no! What does that mean? It means: ✅ Each slide is a tool. ✅ All tools are not needed for all jobs. ✅ Choose the slides you need to tell your story. ✅ Ditch the rest. Don’t use a structure if it is not good for your story. You are a founder - get ready to color outside of the lines. My approach is to start with my list of primary slides and slowly integrate secondary slides or blend secondary messages into primary slides. Here are my primary slides when I start a deck: → Problem → Solution → Market size → Business model → Revenue projection → Traction → Team → Competitors → Ask Here are my secondary slides - I either add as a standalone slide or blend the info into another slide: → Why now?: blend into the problem → Use of funds: blend into the Ask → How it works: normally standalone, can blend into solution. → Timeline: blend into Ask as goals → Founders slide: I will add if the team is huge → GTM: different message for each stage → Title → Thank you → Company’s Vision: rarely used → Company’s Mission: rarely used I’m rooting for you.

3 months ago Stan Liu and I got into Y Combinator's W24 batch. Since then, we've been building PartnerHQ, a marketplace for B2B businesses to buy warm intros. 👉 Startups are all about learning and iteration. Here's my top 3 learnings on "how to learn:" 👂 Talk to your customers. A startup is only 2 things: building your product and talking to your customers. Everything else is a distraction. 🤷🏻♀️ Don't be afraid of looking stupid. Being a founder means doing things you've never done before, and may not good at (yet). Don't let fear stop you from trying, failing, and trying again. 💡 Ask questions! Anyone can be a source of information and inspiration. Special shoutout to our YC group partners Gustaf Alströmer 🇺🇦, Brad Flora, Dalton Caldwell, David Lieb, our fellow YC founders Ka Ling Wu, Sasha Zhang, and Saroop Bharwani, and friends Joyce Guan West, Richard Lu, Katherine Lui, CFA, and Yohan Kim! #newbeginnings #startup #founders #YC #ycombinator #learningandgrowing #product