Success in your career looks different for everyone — but no matter your industry, you'll need to take risks. Company and community builder Molly Graham shares three key skills to learn before jumping off the metaphorical cliff, outlining a path off the corporate ladder and into true professional and personal growth. (Recorded at TEDNext 2024 on October 23, 2024)

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In this episode of Startup School, YC General Partner and Co-Founder of Algolia Nicolas Dessaigne explains the ins and outs of starting a dev tools company from the ground up. He'll explain how to find the right idea, who should be a part of your team, and whether or not you need a sales and marketing team when you're ready to go to market.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/OfficeHours-apply
Work at a startup: https://yc.link/OfficeHours-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
02:15 - Founding Stage
05:10 - AI Trend
07:20 - Where to start?
10:00 - Talking to users
12:00 - Launches
16:15 - GTM
18:45 - Monetization
21:10 - Selling
25:10 - Marketing
27:35 - Support
31:00 - Outro

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Burn rate, MVP, TAM — if you’re interested in tech and startups, you probably hear terms like these regularly. But what do they really mean? In this episode of Startup School, Managing Partner Dalton Caldwell breaks down some of the most common terminology that you’ll come across in the startup world.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
00:30 - MVP
01:05 - VCs and Angels
03:20 - Profit and Burn
05:31 - Seed and Series A, B, C...
07:39 - PMF and Bootstrap
10:26 - Convertible Note and Equity
12:35 - TAM and Valuation
15:16 - IPO and ARR
17:40 - Outro

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Building a startup and trying to break into an established market is very difficult, especially if you’re trying to do it alone! That’s why it’s critical to find the right co-founder for the journey. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Harj Taggar explains why you need a co-founder, when to bring them on, where you can find one and how to maintain the relationship.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
02:55 - Should you start a company without a co-founder?
04:40 - What should you look for in a potential co-founder?
08:30 - Where can you find co-founders?
13:15 - How do you get started working together?
15:10 - Common reasons for co-founder breakups
17:59 - How do you avoid getting into a co-founder breakup?
19:57 - Summary

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Whether it's for sales, recruiting or making new connections, cold outreach is a necessary tool for helping build your startup. But as you probably know, most cold emails either are ignored or end up in the trash. So what can you do to make sure your emails break through the noise? In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein shares expert advice on how to write cold emails that have all the right ingredients to get noticed and convert new customers.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
01:47 - Map your funnel
07:49 - Finding emails
09:52 - How to get more responses?
22:12 - Examples
30:59 - Final thoughts

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At YC our motto is make something people want. But how do you actually know if you’ve accomplished that in the early days? One of the best ways to measure successful growth is a concept called cohort retention, which tracks the fraction of new users that come back time and time again to use your product. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner David Lieb explains how to define cohorts, track active users and determine the appropriate time frame for measuring successful retention rates.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Cohort Retention
02:31 - Key Insight
05:21 - Best action to pick.
10:29 - What is good?
14:49 - Ways to fool yourself
21:27 - Ways to improve the curve
26:43 - Conclusion
29:05 - Outro

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In order to get your startup off the ground it's critical to keep your co-founders motivated. One of the best ways to do that is to figure out a fair co-founder equity split. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Michael Seibel explains the ins and outs of co-founder equity, why it's important to be generous with that equity, and how to avoid bad advice that can lead to co-founder breakups.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
02:03 - Co-founder equity split
06:39 - Co-founders break-up
09:42 - Bad reasons for very unequal equity splits
14:06 - Common bad advice
17:14 - Final thoughts

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If you're a startup founder, how much should you charge for your product or service? It's a simple question that can make many lock up. What number should you pick? In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield guides you on how to come up with a price and then justify that number to customers.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
01:19 - The Value Equation
04:28 - Cost
06:26 - Competition
10:08 - Pricing
13:42 - Free trials
16:42 - Recap
17:30 - Outro

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Y Combinator Group Partner, Pete Koomen, led his startup, Optimizely, to $100M ARR. In this video, Pete breaks down the enterprise sales funnel and shares his top tips on how a technical founder can start closing real deals for their startup.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
03:29 - Prospecting
05:15 - Outreach
10:09 - Qualification
15:00 - Pricing
18:13 - Closing
18:58 - Avoid surprises in procurement process
20:02 - Implement
22:01 - Outro

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