A Decade of Learnings from Y Combinator's CEO Michael Seibel 

Michael Siebel is the best friend that i have never met

I think the best thing about YCombinator is how much clear and precise information they have released for free without any strings attached, without any bs. It is really fascinating actually.

I'm a simple man. I see Michael Siebel and I throw an upvote.

Some of Michael's Top Learnings: - Assuming raising successful seed round means you've hit product-market fit - Taking on too many problems / products - Not understanding business model (example: pricing for SMB, but selling to Enterprise) - Not understanding when it's right time to sell - Assuming investors will be LARGE differentiator - Not establishing best practices around hiring (i.e. intelligent interview process, clear mission/culture, roles/responsibilities) - Not establishing best practices around management - Not creating transparency around how the business is doing (business KPIs and product KPIs) - Not clearly defining roles/responsibilities between the founders - Not having level three (intense, but pragmatic) conversations to alleviate tensions between founders - Assuming Series A will be as easy to raise as seed/angel rounds

*Chapters* YC stats & info: 0:20 *10 Failures in YC* 1. Assuming that raising a successful seed round means that you reach product market fit : 1:33 2. Hiring too quickly: 3:11 3. Not understanding your business model 5:05 4. Not understanding when it's the right time to sell for a tech startup : 6:01 5. Assuming investor will be a last differentiator : 8:29 6. Not establising best practice around hiring : 10:46 7. Not establishing best practices around management: 12:37 8. Not clearly defining roles/responsibilities between the founders: 15:06 9. Not having level three (intense, but pragmatic) conversations to alleviate tensions between founders: 16:25 10. Assuming Series A will be as easy to raise as seed/angel rounds: 17:45 *Last thought* 23:15 Most of the company has a good thesis or hypothesis how they can be big but because of these 10 problems *Last fun quote* 25:15 "The good time feel bad, and the bad time feel bad(too)"

easily the best video for startups i've ever seen. every single point of advice he has is 100% correct. this dude knows what he's talking about

Anything the YC folks have to say is valuable. Michael is exceptional. I've done numerous small startups and one small IPO. I wish I could have had this advice 25 years ago.

This guy's pretty amazing, so clear and succinct and well structured

Michael, Thank you so much. Great advice and I was very excited to share this with my team.

Pretty succinct, valuable experience-based. Thanks! We are living through the journey. The highs are very high and the lows are very low, but I wouldn’t change a thing about the experience we are gaining on this journey. 👊😉

You are a wonderful speaker and a thoughtful guy. Really enjoyed

Love Michael’s lectures, it’s so useful

Hi Michael as a startup at the commencement of the journey found your information invaluable

This is gold, like everything else that comes from him

Points worth giving a thought. Why not ? He's the man behind combinator

The quality of this talk is off the charts.

Thank you for sharing, that a nice dose of realistic motivation.

Awesome insights. Great guy 👍 Thanks.

A few minutes into this video, I smashed that subscribe button. Need more content like this! Thank you

Thank you 🙏🏼

This man has to write a book

He's just an awesome and a simple person.

this guy one of the few people that I believe in business advices

Great video - thanks!

Every time I see Michael, I like him more

Very nice. The good part is - some nuggets are thumb rules that are directly applicable to most scenarios.

Amazing talk.

super advice, love it love it love it love it love it

Beautiful.

That's great i love it x

Great info

gracias

Commitment is far more important than investing itself

4:19 product farkit fit

Hi Micheal, Can you share some advise on what options and equity share should be for start up?

What a great talk!

Wow, that's the real content!

pre-product-market-fit

The good times feel bad and the bad times feel bad 😂😂😂

I feel guilty for getting all this knowledge for free

what happened with sam altman

In Germany the investor would give at most 15,000 USD for 70% of the shares. The investor also wants the startup to be a free service agency for all non commercial things the investor needs. The startup people has to write multiple 100s of pages as application. They have to go through a not very transparent process of pitches, assessment center tests, courses, multiple application steps with complex written applications, being refused without any understandable argumentation. If the investor pays the money, the hell starts: startup courses, mindset and mentoring shit without competent consultants, writing reports every year, month, week and day, a lot of offtopic requirements have to be met: gender mainstreaming, ecological things, demographic society change, nondiscrimination - everything may be useful, but it has to be documented, reported, validated,...

Some people built a startup next to their ordinary job. So I ask, when is the moment, that these people should quit their normal job and focus on the startup. Is it the moment, when they raise money or rather sooner or later?

Looking for yc to help to solve a great pain a next unicorn

24:00 did he say 6yrs later, it was worth $24??

Expensivenottolisten

Ummm.... 😄

so i am a decade older now ? HS

I am not a fan of his use of certain language throughout his lecture. I would not advise others to follow his lead.

sync problem. dont look his lips