Latest Interviews

Y Combinator co-founder Jessica Livingston on the beginnings of YC.

Jessica Livingston, Gary

Established in 2005 Boston, this venture capitalized on a capital-starved market to create a dedicated early-stage vehicle addressing the scarcity of small seed funds. The entity launched a distinct strategy of issuing modest checks specifically to provide founders with the liquidity needed to quit their jobs and validate ideas before pursuing larger funding rounds. This approach successfully filled a critical gap in the angel investment landscape by bridging the gap between untested concepts and traditional venture capital requirements.

We’re still in the early innings with AI.

YC-backed ventures like DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber exemplify smartphone-driven success stories that launched roughly four years after the iPhone's release. These examples demonstrate that determining which ideas will succeed and where value will accumulate requires a significant period of maturation before market dominance can be achieved.

Gmail creator Paul Buchheit on the very first version of Google’s “Did you mean?” feature

Paul Buchheit

A former Google engineer designed the original "Did you mean" spell correction feature after analyzing query logs that revealed roughly one-third of searches contained errors. Although the initial implementation used a standard spell correction library, it frequently produced incorrect suggestions, such as recommending the fish "Turbot" for "TurboTax." These early accuracy failures highlighted the complexity of auto-correction and drove subsequent refinements to the system's reliability.

The artistry is actually in that interface between the human and the technology itself.

The speaker argues that while artificial intelligence will significantly assist with backend development and API writing, it cannot fully automate the creative interface between humans and technology where true software artistry resides. By leveraging strongly typed systems and natural language to translate requirements into specifications, AI serves as a powerful tool that augments human productivity rather than replacing it. Ultimately, the event emphasizes that defining the fundamental scope of products remains a critical human responsibility that transcends mere code generation.

Better models, better startups.

B2B companies are leveraging advanced AI models to achieve productivity scales where a single employee performs the equivalent work of ten, while simultaneously upselling premium features to drive year-over-year revenue growth. End-users focus on functional utility rather than model architecture, allowing vendors to incrementally charge for enhanced capabilities as technology improves. This strategy has proven highly effective, with a Y Combinator cohort demonstrating rapid expansion from $6 million to over $30 million in annual revenue within a single batch cycle.

It only really matters if you can find a handful of users that use your product habitually.

Early-stage founders are advised to prioritize identifying users who habitually integrate their product into daily workflows over pursuing vanity metrics like total signups. Success is defined by the retention of a core user base that returns repeatedly, rendering other performance data insignificant without this foundational evidence of habitual usage. Consequently, high acquisition numbers remain secondary unless they demonstrate tangible integration into the users' regular routines.

To be able to create something different, you have to be somewhat contrarian.

The event posits that the unlikable traits of founders, such as confrontational candor and an innate compulsion to fix broken systems, are essential contrarian mindsets required to disrupt the status quo. While this critical behavior often leads to conflict with authority and creates difficulties as an employee, it serves as a prerequisite for identifying operational failures and driving innovation. Ultimately, the presentation argues that the same dissatisfaction with inefficiency which marks a "shitty employee" is the defining characteristic of a successful founder.

Find the one narrow thing that you can do well, and carve out something that's great.

The presentation outlines a strategy where founders dominate specific, narrow verticals to achieve organic revenue targets of $10 to $20 million before pursuing broader expansion. This approach prioritizes generating $100 million annually through cash flow over seeking immediate external capital, allowing founders to maintain significant equity ownership. By avoiding one-size-fits-all products and focusing on distinct sub-segments, companies secure a stable foundation that creates strategic options for future scaling.

San Francisco (and Silicon Valley) is for the builders.

San Francisco distinguishes itself through a dense ecosystem that manufactures luck via peer collaboration, fostering a cultural environment where entrepreneurship is celebrated rather than stigmatized as an anomalous occupation. This supportive local dynamic stands in stark contrast to global norms where early-stage founders often face social ridicule, effectively validating the struggles of those building new companies. The event further contextualizes this environment by exploring how the city serves as a critical refuge for misfits, such as the speaker who migrated from Chile, to pursue legitimate and difficult startup journeys.

Build product. Talk to users.

Startup founders are cautioned against engaging in high-risk activities like consuming generic advice or attending vague networking events, as these create an illusion of productivity without yielding tangible results. These behaviors are deemed most dangerous because they distract from the critical goal of building a product and acquiring users necessary to achieve product-market fit. True progress remains impossible until the business secures paying customers, rendering all other efforts worthless in the earliest stages.

We fund smart founders, irrespective of what they want to work on.

Although a prevailing public perception suggests Y Combinator prioritizes AI startups through a dedicated investment thesis, YC partners clarify that selection criteria actually center on founder intelligence rather than specific subject matter. This reality explains why approximately 50% of the Summer 2023 batch focuses on large language models, a trend partners characterize as an emergent phenomenon driven by the interests of the most qualified applicants rather than institutional bias. Consequently, the high concentration of AI ventures reflects the specific capabilities and ambitions of the founders who applied, not a strategic shift in funding priorities.

RFS: Spatial Computing

I'm convinced that spatial computing is the next platform. I spent the last decade working on it. I started a augmented reality SDK that was cross-platform for game developers. Then what is spatial computing? It's really a combination of augmented reality, virtual reality, and the ability to really understand the real world and render digital content. And now we're finally getting closer with the hardware, especially with the release of the Apple Vision Pro and the meta quest 3 founders can build interesting applications where content can fit in infinite screens in the real world or interact with 3d content or perhaps working immersively with others or any other applications that are beyond gaming that founders may come up if you're excited about the space and want to be at the frontier on it apply to yc to work on spatial computing

Drawing on a decade of experience founding an AR SDK for game developers, the speaker defines spatial computing as the convergence of augmented and virtual reality systems capable of rendering digital content within the physical world. Citing the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 as critical infrastructure catalysts, the presentation highlights how founders can now build applications with infinite virtual screens and immersive multi-user environments that extend far beyond gaming into yet-to-be-defined markets. The speaker explicitly invites interested developers to apply to Y Combinator to lead innovation in this emerging computing platform.

Founder burnout happens a lot. A good co-founder can help shoulder the load.

Co-founder relationships inherently rely on offsetting transient low-energy periods through operational balance, yet the designation of burnout indicates a shift to persistent fatigue requiring targeted investigation. Because underlying causes for this condition are unique to specific individuals and ventures, generic mitigation strategies fail to resolve the issue without first identifying the precise root source. Successful recovery therefore demands a context-specific diagnosis and solution to the singular factors driving the sentiment rather than blanket advice.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's philosophy on management is highlighted as the most impactful advice, specifically focusing on the leader's responsibility to ensure their team fully understands their perspective. The speaker attributes past career failures to unspoken assumptions and context gaps, emphasizing that leadership requires the continuous ability to explain ideas clearly. This approach enables colleagues to execute concepts independently without needing constant clarification from their supervisors.

Startups take on the personality of its founders, so work on getting yourself right.

Founder therapy often requires years of intensive work, yet the case of the failed startup Posturus demonstrates that neglecting underlying psychological issues allows unexamined personal trauma to dictate organizational strategy. This alignment between leader and company created an inability to make critical decisions at scale, a flaw that proved impossible to correct after the business had already expanded. Consequently, the speaker urges entrepreneurs to invest in early therapeutic intervention, noting that founders frequently waste resources on external fixes while ignoring the core emotional voids that ultimately undermine their ventures.