Lecture, Tutorial
Geoff Ralston's Intro - Startup Investor School Day 1
- Y Combinator launched its inaugural Startup Investor School, operating as a hybrid Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with live streaming accessible at investor.startupschool.org.
- The in-person sessions are held in Mountain View, with daily doors opening at 9:30 a.m. and classes commencing promptly at 10 a.m.
- Daily schedules consist of lectures followed by Q&A sessions, with breaks estimated at 10 minutes and most sessions concluding around 12:30 p.m.
- Virtual audience participation is facilitated via the Twitter hashtag #YCSIS, while on-site instructors reserve the right to accept questions during specific talks.
- Accredited investors attending in person will receive a virtual invitation to YC's Winter 2018 Demo Days on March 19th and 20th.
- Ten accredited investors will be randomly selected from the cohort to attend the YC Demo Days in person as a special occasion.
- The four-day, 10-hour curriculum focuses on startup investing fundamentals, covering the "why, how, and which" of company selection, investment mechanics, and founder interaction strategies.
- The course aims to create a permanent, crowd-sourced information repository available online, with a call for user submissions to startup school at Y Combinator.
- Historical context provided notes George Dorio's 1957 seed investment of $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which returned $35 million and catalyzed modern venture capital wealth creation.
- Instructors for the program are volunteers from within and outside Y Combinator, donating time to share experience regarding the critical role of angel and seed investors in the startup ecosystem.
- Participant feedback is requested both via end-of-class surveys and real-time email to Jeff Ralston at jeff@ycombinator.com.
- Course organizers acknowledge a mix of accredited and non-accredited investors and note that the program is designed to improve investor decision-making and provide insights into future market trends.