8/10/12

YCombinator grew out of a talk I gave at Stanford about how to start a startup, and PG’s gf interviewing at a VC firm at the same time…

• The best source of money was someone who started a startup because then they can give you advice and money

YC is orange because we wanted to make it the anti- VC firm. VC’s were forrest green and blue because geared towards LPs and wanted to appear trustworthy. (and because PG also likes orange)

“80% of the problems that any startup faces are the same.”

Helped to get all these founders in a room together to discuss issues because related to others, and could also help each other.

“Make something people want.” written in an essay

• lesson comes from experience building first startup that didn’t work

Grandness can only be achieved at the expense of clarity.

People need to understand what you do, if not, they will be bored.

example: Grand: We’re changing the future of food reality: We’re making forks

go with clarity, keep it simple.

Space of ideas vs. space of ideas that people actually want - PG

I want some indicator that that the founders are builders, creators, doers - Jeff

RECAP:

• over 10,000 founders participated in SUS this summer

• 21 live talks

  

8/8/12

Applying to YC