Lightcone: Consumer is back, What’s getting funded now, The vibes immaculate

What's happening in startups right now and how can you get ahead of the curve? In this episode of the Lightcone podcast, we dive deep into the major trends we're seeing from the most recent batch of YC using data we've never shared publicly before. This is a glimpse into what might be the most exciting moment to be a startup founder ever. It's time to build.
YC is accepting late applications for the Summer 24 batch: ycombinator.com/apply
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Coming Up
01:51 - AI companies in the batch
02:40 - Consumer ideas
04:46 - B2B ideas
06:45 - Developer tools
13:37 - Technical founder
16:41 - Platform shift
20:31 - What has YC funded less of?
31:56 - New initiatives
41:42 - Outro

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Coming Up: YC Batch Energy, Platform Shift, Growth 00:36 - Intro: YC Winter 2024 batch big trends 01:51 - AI companies in the batch 02:11 - Replicate Story 02:40 - Consumer ideas return in batch 03:21 - Pivoting into consumer ideas 04:46 - Boring B2B SaaS vs Consumer apps 06:45 - Developer tools trend 08:34 - DevTools business model 09:48 - Open source parallel to Consumer social 11:23 - Supabase Hacker News story and 73 companies use it 13:08 - Open Source Dev Tools 13:37 - Most technical batch ever and why? 14:39 - Example: Flexport 16:41 - Tech platform shift and tech enabled 17:53 - What really matters: Gross Margin 18:51 - YC companies that has gone public 20:31 - What has YC funded less of? 21:11 - Fintech 22:18 - International companies and Companies In Bay Area 23:46 - Marketplace and Crypto 26:50 - Example: MIT crypto story 30:40 - Median age of the YC batch 31:56 - AI companies: Product Day 33:24 - BookFace launch: Live Demo 36:15 - Retail AI 37:09 - ARR of the batch 38:49 - In-person investor reception 39:38 - Octolane AI: Salesforce rebuild 40:33 - What's in store for the next batch? Most pivots 41:42 - Summary: We are just getting started

[@sonicjoy2002]

YC and the tech startup community is what I wish I am in the US, you guys have such a good environment for entrepreneurs to thrive to test ideas, and spoiled with investors.

[@dinoscheidt]

Don’t fall for the marketing. YC is a business + being a shark in a fish tank can be proportional better than being one of many in an ocean.

[@J35Y1]

You need money to start your company and be super profitable or insane credentials to get funded by vc in this market. Its alot but it's still like top 5%

[@MikeeJ]

You don’t need YC or any in-person startup community to build a profitable bootstrapped business. You can do it from anywhere today. Unless your government doesn’t allow you.

[@sonicjoy2002]

@@MikeeJ I‘ve been burning my own saving in my startup, but it's getting to a point I cannot continue without some external funding. It's research based product development so it is hard to bootstrap like normal business.

[@MikeeJ]

@@sonicjoy2002 what type of business are you building? Did you validate before starting? You gotta presale your customers before you build so you have money to work with

[@alexjacquet1946]

It’s always nice listening to all of you talking. This was super insightful. Thanks for sharing 😊

[@mnkmshr747]

I pay my internet bill to watch this! ❤

[@george_davituri]

was so cozy to hear all the trends and shifts in YC batches, thanks ☺️👍🏻

[@CianMcCarthy-mx4ir]

Such good viewing. Great format. Great discussion. Great delivery.

[@DanielleNewnham]

Love this format - great to see YC behind the scenes

[@yashgupta417]

Loved the energy!! Thanks for doing this.

[@surajvijay1937]

From 4:43 to 5:03, everything holds true (at least for me). As a young founder (22 years old), I can honestly say that B2B doesn't excite me. Let's put money aside for a moment; I see money more as a reward for achievements. The primary reason I don't enjoy B2B is that only a few people around us benefit (obviously, the people mentioned here are highly profitable to us). On the other hand, with consumer ideas (no offense, definitely not those mentioned at 3:37), many people benefit from what I do (like my neighbor walking down the street, my barber, my doctor, and anyone else not in the tech job, etc.), and that brings me a sense of self-satisfaction. Of course, I wouldn't claim to make the world a better place for free; I'll definitely charge for my services (but I'm not greedy). Anyway, I'm eagerly waiting for my application to be selected. 😊

[@otea-app]

agreed

[@Treggify]

Your excitement around this era of companies is contagious. Let's go. Let's build cool stuff people want.

[@vanditjain]

Great and a super insightful podcast. Loved all the deep diving all 4 of you went for. Gave some amazing perspectives. Just a couple of points, if I may. Companies building for local markets have the potential to go global as well. The only question is are we willing to bet on them while they work for the domestic market and test hypothesis? Second, AI is exciting yes and we are in this huge movement and moment of AI however the best founders also work in existing markets and boring problems and try to innovate an old model that is rugged and not working. May not look all shiny from the outside but definitely a lot to offer from the inside. Just 2 bits, thanks for reading my comment 😃

[@randmized]

I've applied for the first time, getting started for the interview

[@MysticLogics]

Love the energy, see you in SF one day!

[@briankim9183]

watching this got me so hyped. s24 lets gooooo!!

[@NA18NA]

Literally the best time to build!

[@motownmoneygang]

see you this summer!

[@leadgenjay]

It's about finding the intersection where your expertise meets unique customer needs that aren't widely addressed yet.

[@Anwarxthexboss]

Interesting trends thanks 🌹

[@dana-jr1ci]

See you guys soon 😘😘

[@sipmutualfund7340]

informative and useful

[@sun-ship]

Great conversation

[@JosePinzon-hb7cx]

4 words is surgical targeting, I can do over 90% accuracy on promopts on infiniotely changing document formats. that was the proof of concept that I had to build in stealth

[@parkerrex]

Yep this is a good one

[@faseehqureshi]

Hey @ycombinator do you fund solo technical founders in 2024 bcz at least mvp can be easily built alone. And Co-Founder matching interface is quite frustrating we should be having profile cards in grids so we can roll through quickly and pick the ones who match.

[@ameliaj4242]

If you are a non tech founder, is it better to skill up in tech (will add longer runway to launching business) or just run as tech enabled?

[@hustlin_heev]

Would love to see these 4's perspective on: Is crypto a SISP?

[@bajawell]

this is the time 🖋

[@northtouk]

I find it interesting to hear the statistics on trends, but I’m wondering if that’s more a reflection of YC and its preferences or the amount of developers % applying and the founders preferences (e.g., 70% funded are ‘AI’ companies vs 8% in 2020). It is interesting to hear advisors surprised by the numbers they directly selected.

[@ycombinator]

We select for clear communicators who are capable of building. What exactly they build is entirely up to them. Crypto wasn’t something we called: we saw it first in Brian Armstrong at Coinbase and funded him because he is a capable builder and clear communicator. Then he built the future. Yes we select according to that bar but the specific sectors and what they build is always a surprise.

[@northtouk]

@@ycombinator Clear and concise, the challenge for every founder. I definitely empathize with your challenge of selection. I think this challenge/skill is really important when it is a new technology and not a derivative (which I would put Coinbase in). Trying to explain fundamentally societal changing topics like LLMs, augmented reality, blockchain, or the next equivalent if the listener that has no contextual link to attach to is very difficult. Some things are just experiential (a limitation on language). I would love to see some of those video submissions of novel technologies and how they attacked that communication problem in one minute and a few sentences (without sounding like it’s vaporware). Love to see the great work and content you produce to support entrepreneurs and people trying to change the world.

[@marcellodomenis]

We are so back

[@JosePinzon-hb7cx]

Arisan for consumers but actually works with great ux

[@mahamatadoum9061]

we applied for the first time for S24 and building a fintech startup, let's Goooo!!!!!

[@ozozge]

🖤 Fume 32:49

[@gunaysoni6792]

If we have exponenetial growth then there will be more "this time is different" moments

[@theotheothelonious]

lol the graph at 12:17 does not show 30%

[@wakatime]

B2P (Business to professional) which is B2B but for an specific title/role is really taking off and is a great space to be part of. It follows the B2B product creation, but B2C buyer psychology.

[@millingabani]

The term I have heard around it is prosumer and ya it’s really interesting

[@saatvik-mohan]

That's a good term. Calling it B2B is an oversimplification.

[@hadithitv7517]

I know its late but can i still apply?trying to convince a very good co-founder.

[@dagknights_com]

Next S25, I promise I'll be applying as I was late this time, but never late if you're still breathing.

[@parma2414]

What about W24?

[@vilimcvenk1323]

you actually still have time

[@JosePinzon-hb7cx]

if u choose level 2 u cannot exit the companies ever, until I finish decentralizing profits

[@chriswilfrid]

I love Garry Tan talk less but once he talk it's very significant.

[@JosePinzon-hb7cx]

no dark mode on hyundai

[@Kingromstar]

I agree, B2B ideas are so boring.

[@sitrakaforler8696]

Interesting 🤔

[@nikitavarga6594]

If Germany only had sth like YC it would be great but sadly here the investors do not seem to understand the startup culture and market at all

[@ErikBjareholt]

The German government is the root of the problem. You wouldn't want to start a startup in Germany in the first place, given their laws and bureaucracy.

[@joshuaklind]

The majority of developers will never know what HN is, let alone go there for information.

[@ycombinator]

I think you might be surprised.

[@ericshively4082]

@@ycombinator This podcast said there were 20m developers for dev tools, yet there's only ~5m monthly active users for Hacker News, not all of which are developers.

[@jamesjara4638]

Why do people feel "bad" about a crypto crash? what about emotional IQ in the MIT? I took that success as an opportunity to get into the new wage, called fintech.

[@ahsanmohammed1]

24:28 Tell us each of your ballpark networth please. Makes listening more breathtaking. Haha lol Sorry

[@robertoooooooooo]

b2c is back

[@maximlitvinov84]

I have aplied 7 times so far. All i ask is the interview.

[@superresistant8041]

Just sell your product already.

[@fanaccount6600]

YC’s primary criteria for selecting founders is having FAANG or Ivy League experience on their resume.

[@moeyyad]

7 times means it's been at least 3.5 years since you began. How much progress have you made?

[@otea-app]

accept otea

[@imjusteyex]

Lovleh

[@0x0michael]

Let's Delve into this

[@imadtaieberrahmani9221]

Garry the crypto tourists are in AI that you are massively funding

[@ycombinator]

It doesn’t matter where people are from. It only matters where they are going. -Garry

[@arifhossainnew8189]

.k

[@noahloyd9]

Hey @ycombinator , what advice would y’all recommend to young entrepreneurs? At what level does not having a prestigious degree disadvantage someone? Thank you, Noah A. Loyd

[@ycombinator]

Build great things and your resume doesn’t matter. It’s about the skills to create things to solve problems.

[@DanielRLuke]

I doubt that's true.​@@ycombinator

[@DanielRLuke]

​@@ycombinatorNo, it's not about the "skills". Great architects know nothing about plumbing and brick laying. The ideas YC supports come from elites 99% of the time even though they make a big noise about that 1%, and have slogans like "Make Great Things". Actually, do make great things. Just look inward. Be self-reliant.