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Invest Like The Best
Episode 190 Lessons from Thousands of Startups
Invest Like The Best

Episode 190: Lessons from Thousands of Startups

Invest Like The Best

Episode 190

Lessons from Thousands of Startups

Hosted by Patrick O'Shaughnessy

09.08.2020

  • Business Building
  • Professional Investors
  • Venture Capital

Michael Seibel is a Partner at Y Combinator and the CEO of YC’s startup accelerator. We cover what he looks for in Y Combinator applicants, frameworks to identify problems worth solving as an entrepreneur, and what it feels like to find product-market fit.

This episode is brought to you by:

Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.

(00:02:22) – (First question) – Emerging trends among founders

(00:06:00) – The long-term impact of Covid on business

(00:07:16) – What an application to YC looks like and what stands out for him

(00:11:46) – What he wants to learn in the interviews

(00:13:54) – Poise in the interviews

(00:15:40) – How the YC experience has evolved and improvements they’ve made

(00:18:38) – How he defines technology

(00:18:50) – Every Company is Becoming a Software Company

(00:21:12) – His thoughts on non-software companies and how they play into what YC does

(00:23:48) – Why frequency and intensity of the problem matter to him

(00:28:32) – Serving the supplier and building the demand

(00:30:38) – Bravery in founders

(00:36:07) – Partnerships and collaboration in venture capital investing

(00:37:58) – Second-time founders focus on distribution

(00:39:23) – Coaching the psychological component of being a founder

(00:44:16) – Learning as a founder vs the education system

(00:46:08) – Customer vs investor focus of founders’ mindset

(00:48:16) – How teams know they are really onto something

(00:52:38) – Is being a founder trainable or innate

(00:54:08) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

09.08.2020

Hosted by Patrick O'Shaughnessy

  • Business Building
  • Professional Investors
  • Venture Capital
Lessons from Thousands of Startups
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Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast
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Introduction

Patrick
My guest this week is Michael Seibel. Michael is a partner at Y Combinator and the CEO of their startup accelerator. He was the co-founder and CEO of Justin.tv, which eventually became Twitch and Socialcam. In this conversation, we discuss all Michael has learned reviewing thousands of applications to YC, interviewing countless new entrepreneurs, and watching young companies begin to grow, and occasionally, finding product-market fit. Listeners will also enjoy when Michael traps me big time in my thinking about Airbnb and his framework for great problems to solve. Enjoy this great conversation with Michael Seibel.

Prevailing Startup Trends

Patrick
Michael, I've been really looking forward to doing this with you. I always try to think of titles for the episodes ahead of them. And what I considered for you is “The man who gets to see the future.” And that's true because of anyone in the world; maybe you see more nascent, new companies, and founders being built of just about anybody. And so, I thought it an interesting place to begin, since I know demo day just wrapped up so I'm sure you've been working your tail off, to ask for what some of the emerging trends ... Assuming you do believe that you get to see the future in some way that you saw in this most recent batch of young founders.

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