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

Michael Seibel is CEO and a partner at Y Combinator and co-founder of two startups - Justin.tv and Socialcam. He has been a partner at Y Combinator since 2013, advised hundreds of startups, and has been active in promoting diversity efforts among startup founders. Hear his take on the future of work with a decade in learnings from YCombinator.
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[@doncorleone3901]

Michael Siebel is the best friend that i have never met

[@Saastr]

Right!? We think so too! Great guy with a ton of knowledge to share!

[@prithviraj1080]

@@Saastr Yeah! He's super helpful.

[@MrMoneyTV]

Don Corleone agreed! He is an amazing guy

[@DrewRoberts]

Can I be friends with both Michael Siebel and Don Corleone? #godfather

[@nosaiyare2151]

Facts. Lol

[@nonefvnfvnjnjnjevjenjvonej3384]

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.

[@cory99998]

And now when the next generation of founders are looking for funding, they see YC as a clearly desirable choice. It's a win / win

[@tonebalone90]

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

[@sskohlhoff]

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

[@markrussellfilaroski5035]

The best people always take notes and make bullet points. ThX for doing this! awesome sauce, Yum yum!

[@maltejohnsson8578]

Thanks alot! Very helpful!

[@erasmocierra3276]

Thanks

[@camdynvalentin9051]

Instablaster...

[@unclejuju12]

Thank you for this, we appreciate you!

[@lootyhaga5699]

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

[@Saastr]

Seconded! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@William_Clinton_Muguai]

This guy speaks so clearly that one almost never finds a question to ask.

[@zetendra]

*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)"

[@howardmarles2576]

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.

[@talentsherpa]

That’s quite an accomplishment. What if you have a great Saas which is just the right timing, and you’re not a coder?

[@jimmyadaro]

@@talentsherpa You get yourself a technical co-founder 😊

[@markrussellfilaroski5035]

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

[@wdai03]

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

[@JosephProsnitz1]

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

[@nicafaustinoVC]

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. 👊😉

[@8mariag]

Love Michael’s lectures, it’s so useful

[@resonantaudiotv]

Thank you 🙏🏼

[@thecryptoplayground7235]

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

[@PrecookedEagle]

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

[@HandcartRule46]

This is gold, like everything else that comes from him

[@CO8848_2]

The quality of this talk is off the charts.

[@Yuri_Ukraine]

Awesome insights. Great guy 👍 Thanks.

[@Aman13579]

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

[@DrewRoberts]

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

[@Saastr]

Glad to hear it! 🚀

[@dasunudas3661]

@@Saastr same here!

[@ahmedalhisaie7698]

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

[@edungdivinefavour6977]

He's just an awesome and a simple person.

[@JaydenLawson]

Great video - thanks!

[@PrinceKumar-hh6yn]

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

[@husamwadi2635]

Amazing talk.

[@LordNases]

Every time I see Michael, I like him more

[@DavidFernandez-bc8vl]

This man has to write a book

[@nelsonnigel4775]

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

[@lisahackett3599]

That's great i love it x

[@LiQitskateboards]

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

[@Alex-xo6xh]

gracias

[@CuchBe]

Beautiful.

[@ZhengCheng]

Great info

[@Saastr]

Thank you!

[@topkek9335]

4:19 product farkit fit

[@maltejohnsson8578]

Lol

[@kartikgarasia5685]

I was looking for it

[@edungdivinefavour6977]

Lol.. saw this comment was patiently waiting for it😂

[@Space8K]

Commitment is far more important than investing itself

[@dasunudas3661]

What a great talk!

[@dasunudas3661]

👌💐👌

[@dasunudas3661]

👏👏👏👏

[@ProfitWhales]

Wow, that's the real content!

[@techytimo]

pre-product-market-fit

[@juanpablo-tp6uw]

what happened with sam altman

[@JaimeGuajardo]

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

[@petermuller1191]

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?

[@NetiNeti25920]

Search for "ramen profitability"

[@kalpavriksha666]

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

[@ayushsoni3253]

I feel guilty for getting all this knowledge for free

[@Tesla42]

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,...

[@dommcnally7488]

You’ll struggle in Germany unfortunately.

[@dariovicenzo8139]

Not to mention in Italy... the europe is not suitable for this stuff.

[@melondonkey]

Not a lot of hot startups coming out of Germany these days

[@jeremiah8437]

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

[@julkiewicz]

I assume he meant $24 mln. I mean they were profitable at that point - the story he told earlier. So it objectively was worth something, just not that much.

[@jeremiah8437]

@@julkiewicz Oh woaw!! Forgot about this comment. Thanks 🙏🙏

[@jeremiah8437]

@@julkiewicz makes sense

[@Miguel-zo1th]

Yes, $24 not $24 million, it was worth noting, they just kept going because they loved working together.

[@elpina587]

Expensivenottolisten

[@punisherash388]

so i am a decade older now ? HS

[@learnwithlearner4895]

Ummm.... 😄

[@MrDarryl90210]

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

[@oziltechyoutube]

sync problem. dont look his lips