Andrew Kortina is the cofounder of Venmo and Fin. Fin is a high quality, on-demand, personal assistant and executive assistant service. You can get a $100 credit to try Fin at https://fin.com/yc Andrew blogs at https://kortina.nyc/ The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:32 - Human dignity and work 8:07 - Creating jobs 10:07 - From The Beautiful Struggle // The Beautiful Game - You might argue that we’re already in a sort of failure mode, where our ability to assign dignity to a...
Nov 20, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brian Donohue is President of Instapaper and a Product Engineering Manager at Pinterest . You can find him on Twitter @bthdonohue . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:19 - The history of Instapaper 8:19 - Free competitors enter the market 10:19 - How Brian joined Instapaper 14:34 - Transitioning from paid to freemium 19:19 - Pinterest's acquisition of Instapaper 26:34 - Moving to California 29:04 - Working on Instapaper within Pinterest 32:19 - Spinning Instapaper out of Pi...
Nov 14, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Altman expands on ideas that have come up in several of his essays. Specifically: choosing projects, creating value, and finding purpose. Sam’s the president of YC Group and co-chairman of OpenAI . You can find him on Twitter @sama . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 1:25 - From The Days Are Long But The Decades Are Short - Minimize your own cognitive load from distracting things that don’t really matter. It’s hard to overstate how important this is, and how bad most peop...
Nov 08, 2018•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Laura Deming is a partner at The Longevity Fund . They invest in companies that will allow us to live longer and healthier lives. You can learn more about them at Longevity.vc . Laura’s on Twitter @LauraDeming . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:22 - Why focus on longevity now? 2:12 - How did Laura get started in longevity? 3:22 - Why raise a fund? 5:52 - What does Laura do personally for longevity? 9:07 - Worm and mouse studies 10:44 - Craig's personal habits 12:37 - Huma...
Oct 23, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shola Akinlade is CEO and cofounder of Paystack . Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid online and offline. They’re based in Lagos, Nigeria and were part of the Winter 2016 batch. Shola’s on Twitter @shollsman . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:26 - What is Paystack? 01:06 - Shola's background and previous company 4:26 - Paystack's YC application 6:01 - Meeting his cofounder 7:26 - Interviewing at YC 10:21 - Joining YC as a Nigerian company 10:56 - Differences betw...
Oct 16, 2018•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast David Hua is CEO and cofounder of Meadow . Meadow makes retail and delivery software for dispensaries. They were part of the Winter 2015 batch. You can check them out at GetMeadow.com . David’s on Twitter @Hua . Vincent Ning is CEO and cofounder of Nabis . Nabis is a cannabis services group. They offer distribution, logistics, sales, and marketing. You can check them out at GetNabis.com . Vincent's on Twitter @vcning . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:38 - What David brou...
Oct 11, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mathilde Collin is the cofounder and CEO of Front. Front is a shared inbox for teams and they were part of the YC Summer 2014 batch. You can check out Front at https://frontapp.com/ The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:25 - Tuomas Grannas asks - What's your favorite LEGO theme? 1:25 - What is Front? 3:50 - Google Inbox shutting down 5:25 - Prioritizing features 7:50 - Features that have increased Front usage 9:50 - What Front looked like at launch 12:45 - Early user acquisiti...
Oct 03, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Eli Schwartz is the Director of SEO and Growth at SurveyMonkey . He came in to answer commonly asked questions about SEO. Eli blogs about SEO and growth at elischwartz.co You can find him on Twitter at 5le . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:23 - Does SEO matter in 2018? 2:23 - Where should a company start with SEO? 3:53 - Who’s doing SEO well? 4:48 - Why is Amazon doing SEO well? 5:48 - How should you crosslink? 7:33 - Paying for links 7:58 - SEO don’t dos 8:38 - Th...
Sep 27, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joan Lasenby is a University Reader in the Signal Processing and Communications Group of the Cambridge University Engineering Department, and is a College Lecturer and Director of Studies in Engineering at Trinity College. Here's a list of her published work . In this episode we talk about Joan’s research into 3D reconstruction from multiple cameras and her interest in geometric algebra. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:32 - What's a tangible example of geometric algebra?...
Sep 17, 2018•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Peter Reinhardt is cofounder and CEO of Segment . Segment helps companies capture data from every customer touchpoint and send it to the tools where it can be used most effectively. They were part of the YC Summer 2011 batch. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:26 - What is Segment? 1:56 - Segment’s first customers 3:31 - Their YC application 4:26 - Going through YC 5:56 - Realizing their first product didn’t work 10:56 - Launching Analytics.js 12:11 - Experienc...
Sep 06, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport . Flexport is a global freight forwarder powered by software and analytics. They are making international trade easier for over 10,000 companies in 70 countries. They were part of the YC Winter 2014 batch. *** Topics 0:23 - What is a freight forwarder? 3:08 - Selling electric scooters on eBay 15 years ago 5:53 - Ryan’s business school experience 10:23 - Amazon competing with their vendors 13:23 - Matt Susk asks - What were the most important takea...
Aug 30, 2018•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast David Zeevi is a James S. McDonnell independent fellow at the Rockefeller University Center for Studies in Physics and Biology. He focuses on developing computational methods for studying microbial ecology in the human gut and in the marine environment, and its contribution to human and environmental health. He was one of the authors on the paper Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Apply for $120K in funding from YC . *** Topics...
Aug 22, 2018•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jessica Brillhart is the founder of Vrai Pictures . They’re an independent immersive content studio. Before founding Vrai, Jessica was the Principal Filmmaker for VR at Google. The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Questions 00:23 - Starting VRAI 10:23 - Story in film vs. VR 12:38 - Gaming 19:53 - Conditions at Omaha - The Weather Channel in VR 22:38 - Jessica's upcoming projects 27:48 - Andrew Peterman asks - How long until we'll be able to create 3D 360° video from cell phone h...
Aug 16, 2018•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung are both partners at YC. This episode is about Startup School . It’s a free, online course we’re offering that starts on August 28th. We’re also offering equity-free grants of $10,000 to 100 companies that participate in the course. Anyone can sign up for the course at StartupSchool.org . Read the transcript here . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 0:40 - What is Startup School? 3:40 - Who are the speakers this year? 5:00 - What are the differen...
Aug 07, 2018•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Seibel is a Partner and the CEO of YC. He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the Winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the Winter 2012 batch. For this episode we took questions from the internet. If you have questions for a future office hours episode, just tweet them our way. Read the transcript here . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . We're accepting applications from startups for the Winter 2019 funding cycle. Apply here . Questions 00:25 - Why is YC worth 7% of y...
Aug 03, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Elad Gil is an entrepreneur, operator, and investor. He cofounded Color Genomics and Mixer Labs. Worked at Google and Twitter. And has invested in companies including Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe. He just released the High Growth Handbook , which is a guide to scaling startups published by Stripe Press . It contains tactical advice on key issues for post product-market fit companies such as the role of the CEO, hiring executives, late stage fundraising, M&A, and other topics. It also include...
Jul 27, 2018•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jocko Willink and Mike Sarraille served together as Navy SEALs and now work together at Echelon Front , a company Jocko cofounded. We met up to talk about a new initiative they’ve set up called Overwatch . Overwatch is a talent acquisition firm that matches employers with veterans from special operations forces and combat aviation. You can learn more about Overwatch at EFOverwatch.com . They’re also hosting an event called the Muster in San Francisco on October 17th and 18th. You can sign up at ...
Jul 20, 2018•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Recorded live at our Female Founders Conference in New York, an AMA with Kat Manalac , Kirsty Nathoo, Adora Cheung , Holly Liu , Jessica Livingston , and Carolynn Levy. This panel was hosted by Sharon Pope, Head of Marketing Programs at YC. We’re also posting the other talks from the Female Founders Conference today. You can see all of them and read the transcripts at blog.ycombinator.com If you’d like to learn more about the Female Founders Conference, head over to femalefoundersconferenc...
Jul 11, 2018•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast João Batalha and Luís Batalha are cofounders of Fermat’s Library . Fermat’s Library is a platform for annotating papers. Each week they send out a paper annotated by their community. Some recent papers were Birds and Frogs by Freeman Dyson and Von Neumann's First Computer Program by Donald Knuth. They’ve also built a Chrome Extension call Librarian for the arXiv which allows you to get direct links to references, do BibTeX extraction and make comments on papers. You can find them at FermatsLibra...
Jul 06, 2018•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scott Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. Before teaching at UT, he taught Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. His research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally. If you’ve listened to our other episodes about quantum computers and are curious to learn more, check...
Jun 29, 2018•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Henrique Dubugras is the cofounder of Brex , which provides corporate cards for startups. Anu Hariharan is a Partner at YC. Brex went through YC in the Winter 2017 batch and just closed their Series B, which was led by YC Continuity . In addition to discussing how the Brex team built out their service, Anu and Henrique also cover the specifics of what it takes to build a fintech startup in 2018. And Henrique shares advice for young founders, as he started his first company at 16. Rea...
Jun 27, 2018•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jared Friedman is a partner at YC and before that cofounded Scribd (YC S06). Matt Long a software engineer at YC and before that cofounded Crocodoc (YC W10). Today we’re talking about a project Jared, Matt, and several other people at YC have been working on. It’s called Work at a Startup and it’s like a common application for engineers to apply to many YC companies simultaneously. We’re also hosting a Work at a Startup Expo on July 28th in Mountain View where you’ll be able to meet 35 rapi...
Jun 22, 2018•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Adora Cheung is a partner at YC and she also cofounded Homejoy, which went through YC in the Summer 2010 batch. For this episode we took questions from the internet. If you have questions for a future office hours episode, just tweet them our way. Questions 0:41 - topherPedersen asks - How many users did you have when you applied to YC? Also, how much revenue had you generated? 2:55 - Hatlii asks - How do you keep going if you can’t raise any money? 4:54 - Alejandro Ruperti asks - When/how do yo...
Jun 13, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Liz Wessel is the cofounder and CEO of WayUp . WayUp is a job and internship platform for college students and recent graduates. They were part of the Winter 2015 YC batch. Read the transcript here . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon ....
May 31, 2018•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Simon Benjamin is a Professor of Quantum Technologies at Oxford. He is also the Principle Investigator for Oxford’s project on Quantum Optimisation and Machine Learning . This episode is more technical than last week’s episode with John Preskill . We start by covering some fundamentals then go into different approaches for constructing and scaling a quantum computer. Read the transcript here . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon ....
May 25, 2018•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Preskill is a theoretical physicist and the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. He once won a bet with Steven Hawking , which as he writes made him “briefly almost famous.” John and Kip Thorne bet that singularities could exist outside of black holes and after six years Hawking conceded that they were possible in very special, “nongeneric” conditions. In this episode we cover what John’s been focusing on for years: quantum information, quantum computing, an...
May 16, 2018•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Carola Schönlieb is an applied mathematician at the University of Cambridge. She’s also a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and the head of the Image Analysis group at Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics . In this episode we cover mathematical approaches to image processing. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon ....
May 09, 2018•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sean Mitchell is the cofounder and CEO of Rezi . REZI helps landlords find high quality, long-term tenants in 48 hours. They were part of the Winter 2017 batch. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon .
May 04, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Linda Xie is the cofounder of Scalar Capital , a cryptoasset fund. Before that she was a Product Manager at Coinbase (YC S12). Avichal Garg is a Managing Partner at Electric Capital , a value fund for digital assets. He’s also an Expert at YC. Prior to that he was the Director of Product Management at Facebook. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon ....
May 02, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Patrick Moberg is the cofounder of Playdots , which is a mobile game studio in New York. They make Dots , Two Dots , and Dots and Co . Holly Liu is is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before that she cofounded the gaming company Kabam . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon ....
Apr 27, 2018•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
