Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Y Combinator
Y Combinator Startup Podcast

We help founders make something people want.

  1. How To Use AI In Your Startup

    15 JAN

    How To Use AI In Your Startup

    AI continues to improve at an exponential pace. So what can you do as a founder to take advantage of it? In this episode of Office Hours, YC Partners discuss what you should consider if you’re thinking about pivoting to or incorporating AI as part of your startup.

    14 min
  2. How To Build The Future: Parker Conrad

    10 JAN

    How To Build The Future: Parker Conrad

    In this episode of How to Build the Future, Garry sits down with Parker Conrad, Co-founder & CEO of Rippling, the all-in-one HR, Finance, and IT software company that’s valued at $13.5 billion. Parker is the co-founder of two unicorns and has one of the more dramatic startup journeys in recent years. In this interview, he shares his origin story, the lessons learned from his first two companies, how AI is changing the game, and why he thinks the future will be defined by "compound" software startups.

    43 min
  3. Building A $2 Billion SaaS Company: Lessons From A Two Time Founder

    8 JAN

    Building A $2 Billion SaaS Company: Lessons From A Two Time Founder

    Two-time founder Rujul Zaparde knows a thing or two about resilience and learning from failure. After dropping out of college to build FlightCar, he worked as a PM at Airbnb, and later as a visiting partner at YC. In 2020, he co-founded Zip, a procurement software company that has since raised $370 million and reached a $2.2 billion valuation. In this conversation with YC's Dalton Caldwell, Rujul demystifies the world of enterprise sales, shares his hard-earned lessons about scaling a business from zero, and explains how founders can use first-principles thinking to better approach the challenges of building a startup.

    25 min
  4. How David Lieb Turned A Failed Startup Into Google Photos | Backstory

    18/12/2024

    How David Lieb Turned A Failed Startup Into Google Photos | Backstory

    YC General Partner David Lieb’s story is all about perseverance. In 2008 he co-founded Bump, one of the hottest startups of the early iPhone era. But even with 150 million users, he couldn’t find a way to create a sustainable business. For many founders, that would be the end of the road. But he didn’t quit there. Instead, David and his team pivoted several times, got acquired, and eventually went on to build Google Photos. In this episode of Backstory, he shares his advice for finding the right idea, what mistakes to avoid, and how to maintain a positive mindset no matter what gets thrown at you.

    20 min
  5. How To Start A Dev Tools Company with Nicolas Dessaigne | Startup School

    26/11/2024

    How To Start A Dev Tools Company with Nicolas Dessaigne | Startup School

    YC's Nicolas Dessaigne was the co-founder and CEO of @algolia, a Search API used by millions of developers to build great search experiences into their apps and websites. Today it powers over 1.75 trillion searches annually for 17,000+ customers worldwide. In this episode of Startup School, @dessaigne shares his advice for founders building a dev tools company from the ground up— covering everything from team and idea to GTM and sales.

    33 min
  6. Twitter vs. X: Product Lessons For Startup Founders | The Breakdown

    21/11/2024

    Twitter vs. X: Product Lessons For Startup Founders | The Breakdown

    Since Twitter rebranded to X, the platform has added new features and implemented a few major updates to both its UX and algo. So what can founders interested in product design learn from all this? In the first episode of our new series, The Breakdown, YC’s Tom Blomfield (co-founder of Monzo) and David Lieb (creator of Google Photos) take a closer look at X to find what lessons there are for founders building consumer products.

    23 min
  7. How To Build The Future: Sam Altman

    18/11/2024

    How To Build The Future: Sam Altman

    It’s fair to say that few people in tech are positioned to have a bigger impact on the future than Sam Altman. At OpenAI, Sam and his team have overseen monumental leaps forward in machine learning, generative AI, and most recently, LLMs that can reason at PhD levels. And this is just the beginning. In his latest essay Sam predicted that ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) is just a few thousand days away. So how did we get to this point? In this episode of our rebooted series "How To Build The Future," YC President and CEO Garry Tan sits down with Sam to talk about the origins of OpenAI, what’s next for the company, and what advice he has for founders navigating this massive platform shift.

    47 min
  8. How Do Billion Dollar Startups Start? | Office Hours

    17/11/2024

    How Do Billion Dollar Startups Start? | Office Hours

    The biggest companies in the world all had to start somewhere. In this episode of Office Hours, the Group Partners explore the humble origins of several top YC companies to try and identify common traits of the most successful founders. They’ll explore what it takes to keep your company alive in the early days, where to focus your energy and how to find product market fit that leads you to mega success.

    19 min
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