Latest Interviews
Showing 226–240 of 334 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Y Combinator20 min
Fireside Chat with Kat Mañalac, Kathryn Minshew, and Alex Cavoulacos
Kathryn Minshew, Alex Cavoulacos, Kat Minialek, Catherine Minshew, Alex Kamalakis
The Muse, a Y Combinator-backed career platform serving over 50 million users, leverages strict ethical standards and value-based hiring to cultivate an inclusive culture that rejects superficial "culture fit" in favor of diversity and mutual respect. Founders successfully navigated critical challenges including early missteps in sales recruitment, the dismissal of a co-founder candidate, and the termination of a corrupt investor term sheet to secure new funding. By maintaining a "no assholes" policy and enforcing shared values with partners, the company has established a reputation for integrity that attracts aligned talent and major clients like Facebook and Goldman Sachs.
- Y Combinator3h 39m
Female Founders Conference - New York
Jessica Livingston, Kathryn Minshew, Alex Cavoulacos, Mariya Nurislamova, Reshma Shetty, Shan-Lyn Ma, Reham Fagiri, Tiffani Ashley Bell, Alana Branston, Katherine Minshew, Kirsty Nathoo, Adora, Stephanie, Holly Liu, Sharon Pope, Kat Mignolet, Matthew, Carolyn
Y Combinator and a diverse panel of founders, including Jessica Livingston and representatives from Zola and Scentbird, convened to discuss scalable startup strategies that prioritize values alignment, efficient hiring, and rapid product-market fit validation. The discussion highlighted critical insights such as the dangers of bias in "culture fit" evaluations, the necessity of avoiding "crappy yeses" during fundraising, and the importance of maintaining founder-led scrappiness even after significant capital deployment. By contrasting successful pivots in sectors ranging from wedding registries to virtual data science, the event underscored that sustainable growth relies on unique founder traits and disciplined metric management rather than traditional VC heuristics or rapid scaling alone.
- Y Combinator26 min
Announcing Work at a Startup
Jared Friedman, Matt Long, Craig Cannon
Scheduled for July, the Work at a Startup conference reunites Y Combinator partners Justin Kahn and Sam Altman with over 80% of the accelerator's hiring companies for a scaled event featuring 35 pitches across software, robotics, and deep tech. Attendees will engage directly with startups ranging from unicorns like Instacart to early-stage hardware firms offering roles in AI, DevOps, and co-founder positions, while also viewing live hardware demonstrations from entities such as Starsky Robotics. The gathering addresses critical market trends including remote work expansion, equity transparency, and the shifting definition of startup engineering to counter traditional compensation gaps.
- Y Combinator48 min
Advice for Students and Recent Graduates on Finding Jobs – Liz Wessel of WayUp
WayUp co-founders and former Google associate product marketing manager and his partner Joel Flegelman launched their job platform after validating a user base of tens of thousands during their senior year at the University of Pennsylvania. Leveraging insights from mentor Roloff Botha and a strategic stint at Google, the duo differentiated the service from general job boards by utilizing rich, 360-degree candidate profiles to achieve a one-in-three hire rate. Today, the company operates under a distinct management philosophy that prioritizes personality alignment and skill-based hiring to help students navigate the transition into their careers.
- Y Combinator1h 33m
John Preskill on Quantum Computing
John Preskill, Steven Hawking, Kip Thorne, Craig Cannon
Established by Richard Feynman's early theoretical work, the field of quantum computing has evolved from theoretical challenges in the 1970s to a practical reality enabled by mid-1990s error correction and recent hardware advancements in superconducting and trapped-ion systems. As current devices approach 100 qubits, they are poised to disrupt public-key cryptography through Shor's algorithm while simultaneously offering transformative capabilities in quantum chemistry simulation and materials science. The industry now focuses on bridging these applications through hybrid classical-quantum systems and developing post-quantum security measures to address the imminent threat to existing encryption standards.
- Y Combinator28 min
Kieran Snyder of Textio at the Seattle Female Founders Conference
Founded in 2014 by linguists and Microsoft veterans Kieran Snyder and Jensen Harris, Textio has developed a machine-learning platform that analyzes 350 million job postings to predict engagement and reduce bias. The company recently pivoted its pricing to a flat-fee enterprise model and formed data partnerships with major clients like Amazon and Johnson & Johnson to accelerate revenue growth. With a workforce that is 50% female or non-binary, Textio aims to expand its "augmented writing" capabilities beyond HR to eventually challenge major office software providers in a planned IPO within seven years.
- Y Combinator1h 3m
Helping Landlords Find Tenants – Sean Mitchell of Rezi
Resi operates a full-risk leasing marketplace in New York and the Bay Area that transfers vacancy and tenant performance risks from landlords to itself while enabling apartment lease-ups in under ten minutes. The company funds these guaranteed upfront rent payments through a debt securitization model targeting mid-teens to 20% returns, preserving equity capital while utilizing automated underwriting to minimize discrimination. Early growth was driven by high-volume direct outreach to individual landlords, and the firm now leverages proprietary pricing algorithms to optimize unit rents ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 monthly.
- Y Combinator50 min
Crypto Investors - Linda Xie and Avichal Garg
Linda Xie, Avichal Garg, Craig Cannon, Avicil
Industry experts Avicil and Linda project that blockchain adoption will initially prioritize decentralized exchanges and digital collectibles over complex distributed applications due to current scaling limitations. The discussion highlights a trajectory where underserved regions with inflationary currencies lead mainstream integration while technical development remains concentrated in traditional hubs like Silicon Valley and Berlin. To ensure long-term viability, the speakers advocate for mandatory default privacy, rigorous investor protection mechanisms, and a shift away from public token sales toward milestone-based venture funding structures.
- Y Combinator45 min
Claire McDonnell and Jennifer Kim on Building an Inclusive Company Culture
Claire McDonnell, Jennifer Kim, Kat Manalac
Founders Jennifer Kim and TruLink CEO Isaac demonstrate that treating culture and Diversity & Inclusion as survival mechanisms drives superior long-term performance and retention compared to relying on tangible perks. Implementing specific tactics such as TruLink's "no blame" protocols and Lever's diverse interview panels allows early-stage companies to mitigate bias while fostering psychological safety. These strategies are supported by resources from organizations like Project Include and Capra Capital, emphasizing that intentional cultural design is a critical competitive advantage for sustainable growth.
- Y Combinator28 min
Anne Wojcicki : How to Build the Future
Anne Wojcicki, William Brangham, Dr. Kathleen King
Anne Wojcijk founded 23andMe to democratize genomic data by shifting healthcare incentives from illness monetization to preventative health, despite initial skepticism from medical professionals regarding direct-to-consumer genetic testing. Overcoming early market volatility and a regulatory transition, the company now boasts a community of over five million customers and has secured FDA approvals to leverage its massive dataset for drug discovery and large-scale intervention studies. This persistent execution of a decade-long vision aims to eventually enable personalized longevity strategies by linking genetic profiles with environmental factors like diet and exercise.
- Y Combinator55 min
Cost vs Quality in Edtech – Keith Schacht, Avichal Garg, and Geoff Ralston
Keith Schacht, Avichal Garg, Geoff Ralston
Avicii and Keith Peltz examine the evolution of EdTech since 2011, analyzing how the industry's historical struggle with the "cost versus quality" trade-off and misaligned venture capital expectations for growth curves have shaped current market dynamics. They identify a pivotal structural shift where high-speed internet access and teacher-led adoption are dismantling the "free school" barrier, enabling companies like Mystery Science to prove that superior digital products can succeed in the mass market. The founders conclude that future innovation will likely bypass traditional public systems to focus on "learning companies" addressing individual outcomes, job training, and adult self-directed education rather than relying on institutional bureaucracy.
- Y Combinator1h 2m
3D Home Printing for the Developing World – Alexandria Lafci and Brett Hagler of New Story Charity
Alexandria Lafci, Brett Hagler, Craig
New Story, a Y Combinator alumni non-profit, partners with local governments and impoverished families to deliver dignified housing in Haiti, Latin America, and emerging markets. The organization transitioned from traditional aid models to a transparent crowdfunding strategy that funded 100 homes in 92 days, before launching a 3D-printing initiative with partner Icon to drastically reduce construction costs and time. This technological pivot now targets global scalability through open-source templates and community-driven micro-economies that empower residents to co-design their own homes.
- Y Combinator50 min
Funding Is an Outcome of Building a Good Business - Porter Braswell of Jopwell
Jopwell, a for-profit career advancement platform founded in 2014 by a former Goldman Sachs trader, connects Black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American professionals with 44 million qualified underrepresented workers to resolve corporate recruitment pipeline challenges. Leveraging a $12 million funding raise including a Y Combinator investment, the company utilizes a "referral at scale" model that verifies diverse applicant funnels while rejecting non-profit status to operate as a scalable business. Founded on the premise that diversity is a demographic and financial imperative rather than a vague mandate, Jopwell has grown to 35 employees and serves as a data-driven bridge between underrepresented talent and companies explicitly seeking verified, diverse hiring solutions.
- Y Combinator53 min
Researching Psilocybin's Effects on Depression - Dr. Rosalind Watts
Dr. Rosalind Watts, Craig Cannon
Led by Professors Robin Carhart-Harris and David Nutt, a pioneering research initiative successfully demonstrated that high-dose psilocybin can deactivate brain regions linked to negative rumination and offer a "reset" for patients with severe, treatment-resistant depression. Although the study achieved a 100% preference rate for psilocybin over prior treatments among its 20 participants, long-term efficacy remains limited by the absence of formal integration therapy, prompting calls for structured follow-up sessions to sustain behavioral changes. Currently constrained by reliance on single-source funding, the researchers are prioritizing comparative trials against antidepressants while advocating for a holistic therapeutic model that combines preparation, ego-dissolving experiences, and sustained support to address the growing crisis of ineffective psychiatric medication.
- Y Combinator31 min
Ron Conway - Startup Investor School Day 4
SV Angel co-founder Ron Conway outlines a robust angel investing framework that prioritizes founder character over ideas and mandates diversifying capital across five to ten startups to mitigate a 40% to 60% industry failure rate. He emphasizes post-investment value through active team building, enforcing rapid execution to combat founder procrastination, and utilizing rigorous screening to avoid co-founder friction, while also highlighting the transformative potential of Web 3.0 and the critical need for ecosystem transparency. The session concludes by connecting investor integrity to civic engagement and detailing Y Combinator's efforts to refine financial instruments like SAFEs to prevent unintended consequences in startup financing.