Recent Posts (Advice)
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Same, Same but Different with Vanta and Zapier
by Y Combinator7/7/2022
Both Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo and Zapier CEO WadeFoster made the decision to take a disciplinedapproach to fundraising.
Startups For Students Guide
by Tamanna Khemani, Kat Mañalac1/18/2022
In the past two years, we’ve met over 6,000 students during our virtual outreach tours. We compiled a list of the questions they most frequently asked about startups, and created this Startups for Students Guide.
Venture Debt 101: Basics and Approach
by Jon Levy8/26/2021
In this guide, YC Managing Director Jon Levy talks about venture debt. He covers what it is, walks through some of its benefits and risks, and gives advice on how to approach the process of taking on venture debt.
From Self-Doubt to Starting Up: Words of Wisdom for Women Founders From YC Continuity Partner Anu Hariharan
by Lindsay Amos3/30/2021
We’ve been talking about the unique challenges facing women founders for years,but the pandemic was particularly hard for women looking to start their owncompanies. According to recent data,funding to women-founded companies dropped from 2.8% in 2019 to 2.3% in 2020.
Syndicated rounds: When you can’t find a Series A lead
by Janelle Tam6/24/2020
Series As usually require a founder to secure a single large investor: a lead.This is because the Series A is usually a company’s first priced round, which iswhen crucial terms around governance and control (like board composition) aredecided.Having a lead makes it easier to agree on terms: you negotiate 1:1 with the leadand everyone else follows. It also simplifies the fundraising process: all youhave to do is convince one person to believe in your vision.
Advice for job seekers on resumes and standing out
by Ryan Choi5/19/2020
In my role here at YC, I spend a lot of time with job seekers doing 1-1s andresume reviews. Below are my most common pieces of advice.Mail me your resume (ryan@ycombinator.com ) if youwant feedback or pointers.
Startup HR: What’s important?
by Renee Mars5/7/2020
In the early stages of working on a startup, there is little time to spend onareas other than product development and talking to users. However, as you startto hire people and build a team, there are HR fundamentals worth investing in.Having basic HR practices in place can help your startup scale quickly and mayeliminate unforeseen and often costly problems down the road.The People PersonMany founders ask me “when is the right time to hire a HR person?”.