Advantages Of A First-Time Founder

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the advantages of being a first-time founder and the instances when it pays to have experience founding a startup in the past.
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Introduction
00:47 - Setup
01:35 - Expert opinions are not what you want
04:07 - Picking your market
05:37 - Novel
06:58 - First time founder have to innovate more
08:08 - Honesty
09:57 - Auto pilot initially but it shuts off
12:07 - Devil's advocate
12:25 - Financial independence to think bigger
14:04 - Capital intensive businesses
17:33 - Building in a space you know really well
20:07 - Wrap up
Apply to Y Combinator: www.ycombinator.com/apply/
Work at a startup: www.workatastartup.com/
#startups #entrepreneur #tech

[@ycombinator]

Any first-time founders out there? Raise your hand 🙋‍♀

[@asyourlipslounge]

🖐

[@chan90s]

Yo

[@arjungupta-inventor-iaq]

Not first time but never stopped dreaming... :-)

[@domore1287]

Priceless

[@muhammadal-madani6066]

Loving the journey, the application process is already where ycombinator starts to accelerate your product. The rush is amazing.

[@praveenvootla1148]

I think YC is trying very hard to encourage first time founders by giving them all sorts reasons why it's also great to be a first time founder. Good stuff YC!!!

[@machomanrichards1534]

Indian dhoti out! Behave!

[@rtanaka]

Moment of appreciation for this info being publicly available for free. Thanks guys.

[@haydonhinson305]

As a first-time founder it has seemed daunting learning everything from scratch. All of these YC videos have been super helpful! Applied to the Winter 2023 batch to hopefully learn more at that next level. Thanks guys! 👊

[@arjungupta-inventor-iaq]

Hoping we both get in and get to see each other Haydon!

[@haydonhinson305]

@@arjungupta-inventor-iaq same best of luck to you!

[@quentin2578]

Any updates guys?

[@haydonhinson305]

@Quentin I myself did not get in. I suspect it's due to not having co-founders and too early on. Never hurts to apply though! Helps you understand the process better for next time.

[@quentin2578]

@@haydonhinson305 Definitely. Good luck!

[@100x_Developer]

What i love about being a first time founder is that i didn't know fully what i was getting into and how much work it'd take, all i cared about was building tech... It's good i didn't know everything involved because i'd have surely gotten overwhelmed..

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:47 - Setup 01:35 - Expert opinions are not what you want 04:07 - Picking your market 05:37 - Novel 06:58 - First time founder have to innovate more 08:08 - Honesty 09:57 - Auto pilot initially but it shuts off 12:07 - Devil's advocate 12:25 - Financial independence to think bigger 14:04 - Capital intensive businesses 14:38 - Movity 15:28 - Boom 16:48 - Brex 17:33 - Building in a space you know really well: Zenefits and Rippling 20:07 - Wrap up

[@jeffkayombo4664]

Harj's opening remarks about how it can be so discouraging to consume all the startup news about companies that have sold their companies etc, speaks so close to me! This is exactly how I'm feeling right now, this video come at the right time. Another thing that I could easily resonate with was the issue of deciding which market to target, it's so tempting to want to go into the buzzing markets - like FinTech. Thanks YC team!

[@medwincorreo3073]

first time founder from the Philippines

[@jehovahshabba]

I'm speaking as an unsuccessful first time founder. and I'm going back to the first startup. it was helpful to know after the rush of the first sale and new customer it will become shallow and not as exciting to make the next 100 or more sales and customers. Thanks for sharing the experience👊

[@kristofferkepin]

This is super helpful for first time founder like me. I do have several advantages of later stage founders as a first time founder since I entered a startup ecosystem program at my uni that has been supported by well-known local incubators but the points that you guys mentioned are really related to the current situation where I don't really care on how dumb my idea to other bigger people is as long as it's interesting to me and it does have a market and all. Overall, thanks for this video. It really helps a lot as a first time founder. Much love to Michael, Harj, and Brad.

[@rR-hr4kn]

👋Claire here - Appreciate your time on this - as a female founder with a revolutionary appliance idea - I previously didn't even 'conceive the scale' of potential impact/business until a lot of exposure in this "start-up world". Busy keeping home life on track really keeps an anchor on imagination for a world class change! 🙃😉 Now I'm here - far out - I cant wait to connect to "experienced" founders to help keep me pushing forward .... Thanks again, very insightful.

[@RealCivilEngineerGaming.]

⬆️ Thanks for the feedback, Tell Max I refer you for something new and profitable.... text the digits above and get more info!....

[@peterbloomingdale]

First time founder here. Absolutely love these videos and have found them super useful. Always look forward to new videos!

[@lalbabusingh9492]

As a first-time founder it is very hard to develop and find everything from scratch. Well I really appreciate YC being such a great and helpful platform for so many startups and mentor as well. I came to know about YC through KZbin and I am excited to be a YC member. I applied for next batch Winter 2023. Being a Health Startup we are trying to solve problems faced by people and have already served so many. I would like to say thank you to YC Team, as you are helping the world to develop and making it a better place for everyone.

[@chandaphiri7888]

Thank you YC for this insightful video. Being a first time found is so wild. Iit is so encouraging to listen to such conversations that enlighten us on the advantages we have even when its so hard when you are a beginner.

[@sabarish47]

Thanks for making this YC. A week back one of my friends, a first-time founder listed the disadvantages of being first-time founder and felt terrible about it. Shared your video with him now. You're really creating great content. Love from India

[@RealCivilEngineerGaming.]

⬆️ Thanks for the feedback, Tell Max I refer you for something new and profitable.... text the digits above and get more info!....

[@bowlerkid]

Seriously thank you for posting these!!! These are key to help some of us stay motivated about our ideas and our startups

[@kamiasmith5721]

🙋‍♀️This is interesting. I'm a first time founder working on this full-time and I'm having a blast! Definitely is energizing. Just learning about this startup world is cool. Finished DC startup week yesterday and that helped a lot. Transitioning from government world to startup world is incredibly refreshing!

[@BrianMartensOfficial]

So choosing startup ideas is like trying to choose winning stocks. You're equally well off just throwing darts at a board.

[@abhishekraj7123]

Really needed this , thanks for making this session

[@domore1287]

This is unbelievably so useful 📌

[@pokegan52]

Facts.. I don’t care what people think about what I’m doing or the risks I take- except if you’re reviewing my YC app for W23 lmao

[@okesalman7508]

Thanks, insightful

[@bmejia220]

Awesome thank you!

[@keerthichandReddy]

14:45 you have amazing examples. Open door example: Being second time founder helps in raising funds like Ericwu

[@toofy7253]

🙋‍♂️. In the phase of finding a team. That's actually a hard phase for me because I did everything solo in a super niche, and finding the right team may require me to fly from Florida to Ontario at times.

[@devstuff2576]

What are you building?

[@toofy7253]

@@devstuff2576 a Dental video platform for dentists and for patients. I've proven that it is possible to shoot high end video in the mouth during a dental procedure (given the new cameras, lenses, editing software, and outsourcing available) so that all of the techniques can be shown just like dentists and patients have always wanted to see it. I've shown it to many patients, and they were happy to experience the videos. I can produce the videos in a short period of time at a fraction of the cost that it takes to hire a video person, and with better quality because I'm passionate about maximizing every ounce of potential that video has to offer dentistry's future, and I know the field very well (it solves my own problem). I'm certain that I can create an entire dental video library within a short period of time with the right work flow. I'm shooting video and doing other business ventures on the side until I find a small team of around 2 or more people. I admit that I don't enjoy reaching out to other dentists often, so I'll have to Network better if I'm going to find a team. A local dentist growing in popularity wants me to share the videos on their platform. Maybe I'll use that as a way to network

[@toofy7253]

That's one of my last main videos. I can definitely shoot better video than that video, but I haven't found another dentist with better quality yet, and I know that it's time to network rather than out do myself by shooting video of myself working.

[@margaretcezar1109]

Oh my, 2 miles/hr 🤦🏻‍♀️. Very insightful 🙂Thank you

[@arnavsahu5152]

awesome video

[@founderkatelyn]

this made me smile!!! 😊🎉

[@RealCivilEngineerGaming.]

⬆️ Thanks for the feedback, Tell Max I refer you for something new and profitable.... text the digits above and get more info!....

[@BrendanDell]

Love this conversation. Something that the listeners of my podcast (Billion Dollar Tech) will certainly want to watch and discuss in more detail. Thank you!

[@RealCivilEngineerGaming.]

⬆️ Thanks for the feedback, Tell Max I refer you for something new and profitable.... text the digits above and get more info!....

[@CaliforniaRussianRiverBees]

📣Great Information 🛠🧰Thank You 🐝🐝🐝

[@spencerchubb]

17:33 That was an interesting anecdote about a second-time founder that started another business in the same space. What are the pros/cons of founding a new company vs integrating that business with the current company?

[@natarajanshanker5103]

"Instead of spending it on rockets they'll spend it on too many employees"... hahaha love that! Classic Seibel.

[@vlogmoinc5597]

a second time founder is like a boxer who made it. its hard waking up at 5am to run when youre sleeping in silk sheets in a big mansion. first times founders are hungrier they invested so much time in their start up they have to make it work.

[@chuhaoliu5050]

7:05 "Because it's hard for first-time founders to raise money or hire employees, they tend to have to innovate more. They are constrained into building something good."

[@marcusx3605]

I can’t wait until my startup comes to fruition

[@rudhisundar]

Now, I have just one wish in life: laughing hysterically with that bald oracle.

[@brandonbakhtiar7451]

How does a founder learn how big I need to be before needing consulting on hiring? I have two locations but the product is a specialty service for which I need to train people hence I can not approach additional locations without the personnel to staff them....and I lose $ when hires are idle.

[@RealCivilEngineerGaming.]

⬆️ Thanks for the feedback, Tell Max I refer you for something new and profitable.... text the digits above and get more info!....

[@varunmahajan8703]

Can i apply I don't have tech experience

[@emmanuelokorafor1705]

Are YC interviews remote for international founders?

[@ycombinator]

All YC interviews are remote-international or not

[@derek-yap]

Frst time founder ✋. Just looked in the mirror and yeah I guess I do have desperation in my eyes.

[@quachhengtony7651]

Haha yeah what am I gonna do if my future startup will only net 100 mil yearly

[@flaguser4196]

the advantage is lost for first time founders trying to impress their social media followers

[@the_overman8302]

🙋‍♂️

[@uzwlsolanki2189]

5:15

[@mahayati2826]

Since when? By whom u got your lifetime achievement? Friends who always want to become you though mimicking you though said i helped you instead of yourself. Always jealous and said i help you become financial freedom. 15years because of yourself longing, sadness your family your death parents or missing yourself who already dead because your friends said i help you become like that.

[@AtobaLongkumer]

:D

[@q4982]

Hello

[@q4982]

buddy

[@q4982]

awefawefawefawef

[@q4982]

awefawfe1231

[@Ludinjapan]

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!

[@algernonnewton6307]

Was waiting for a new video 🫡 awesome and informative

[@alysiawu3031]

Good frame of mind, so great, thanks for the content! (Applied for YC) excited to hear back 🚀❤️🦄🧧

[@BizLytInteractive]