Dan Hockenmaier is the founder of the growth strategy firm Basis One. Prior to Basis One he was the Director of Growth Marketing at Thumbtack. You can learn more at BasisOne.com. Gustaf Alströmer is a Partner at YC. Prior to YC he was the Product Lead for Growth at Airbnb. You can find Dan on Twitter @danhockenmaier and Gustaf is @gustaf. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon. Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:20 - Dan's most unpopular advice 1:15 - What growth strategies do people jump on too soon? 1:50 - Questions Dan asks a company he's advising 3:20 - Traits Dan looks for in early growth hires 6:00 - How product and growth are tied together 11:00 - Good/bad learnings from Facebook's growth team 13:30 - A/B testing 16:30 - Retention and other metrics 20:15 - The importance of experimentation 23:15 - Getting ideas for A/B tests then choosing which to do 24:30 - Advice for employees who want to get a growth program going 28:30 - B2B vs consumer growth tactics 33:30 - Pricing experiments 35:00 - Paid marketing 39:00 - Launching in new markets 39:45 - Hiring for marketing 43:15 - Metrics for marketing hires 45:15 - Toni asks - Why did Airbnb grow so fast? 48:15 - Step function growth changes for companies that already had scale 49:25 - Michael Savage asks - It would be great to discuss growth into new regions for example Africa and UAE. What would their approach be, how does it differ from region to region, culture to culture? 52:00 - Justin LaRosa asks - What are some of the most common drivers of viral growth? 54:50 - Hiring a growth agency vs building your own team 57:50 - How do you think about growth in the context of improving humanity?
Fusion may still sound like science fiction—but it might not be for much longer. With AI pushing demand for clean power to new highs, a breakthrough may finally be close. In this episode of YC Decoded, General Partner Gustaf Alströmer explains the history of fusion, the physics behind it, and the engineering challenges that stalled it for nearly a century. He also looks at how Helion Energy is approaching the problem differently, as they develop a new fusion system expected to deliver power to Microsoft by 2028. Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://workatastartup.com Chapters (Powered by https://ChapterMe.co) - 00:00 - Intro00:40 - Nuclear Fusion 01:48 - How to make fusion happen? 02:54 - Achieving the breakeven point 03:34 - Helion 04:36 - What’s at the heart of Helion 06:35 - Hardware first mindset 07:05 - Helion’s goal: Fusion electricity 07:52 - Outro
YC Partner and growth expert Gustaf Alströmer talks about how to measure product market fit, how to decide on a growth channel, metrics that lie about PMF and other mechanics of growth for startups. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6k-growth-for-startups This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 Introduction 1:36 Do things that don't scale 3:55 Case study: Airbnb 8:33 Product-market fit 16:30 Growth channels and tactics 18:29 Conversion rate optimization 21:37 Growth channels to explore 25:46 Referrals & virality 28:16 Paid growth 30:20 Search Engine Optimizaion (SEO) 33:12 A/B Testing 37:45 Conclusion
YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer, who was most recently a growth expert at Airbnb describes strategies for scaling your user base. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! https://www.startupschool.org/ Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 0:00 Introduction 2:56 Growth - Startup School 2018 4:02 Why is growth important? 4:49 Startups = Growth 12:47 You can impact your growth rate. 15:38 Now, measure your retention 19:18 Raise your hand if you are measuring your retention rate 20:10 Growth or Marketing? 20:56 Growth channels & tactics 34:44 Paid Growth 37:17 Search Engine Optimization 44:03 Making Decisions 44:43 Decisions have consequences 45:00 Use experimentation to validate your decisions 46:32 Experiment Review 50:25 Product decisions are hard
#startup #founder #airbnb #entrepreneur #startupstory #founderstory best startup stories, airbnb origin story, founder story podcast clips
Gustaf Alströmer is a Group Partner at Y Combinator, where he has worked with over 600 startups. He’s also a fellow Airbnb alumnus and even started the original Airbnb growth team. In today’s podcast, Gustaf discusses common reasons startups fail and how he helps coach founders on avoiding these mistakes. He explains the attributes that the best founders tend to have, and signs that a company has potential. We also cover the growing space of climate tech, for which Gustaf has a huge passion and where he’s already had an incredible impact. He shares some key areas of innovation and investment in climate tech, some notable companies he’s helped fund, and where he sees potential going forward. — Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development: https://linear.app/lenny | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/ | Pando—Always-on employee progression: https://www.pando.com/lenny Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-working-with-600-yc Where to find Gustaf Alströmer: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/gustaf • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustafalstromer/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ Referenced: • Airbnb tweet: https://twitter.com/gustaf/status/1580330162725347330 • Startups Are an Act of Desperation: https://blog.eladgil.com/p/startups-are-an-act-of-desperation • The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html • Do Things That Don’t Scale: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html • Marc Andreessen: https://a16z.com/author/marc-andreessen/ • How to Talk to Users: https://youtu.be/z1iF1c8w5Lg • How to Get Your First Customers: https://youtu.be/hyYCn_kAngI • Pachama: https://pachama.com/ • Request for Startups: Climate Tech: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/rfs-climatetech • Climate Draft: https://www.climatedraft.org/ • Seabound: https://www.seabound.co/ • Fleetzero: https://www.fleetzero.com/ • Unravel Carbon: https://www.unravelcarbon.com/ • CarbonChain: https://www.carbonchain.com/ • Sinai: https://www.sinaitechnologies.com/ • Enode: https://enode.com/ • Statiq: https://www.statiq.in/ • Heart Aerospace: https://heartaerospace.com/ • The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change: https://www.amazon.com/100-Solution-Solving-Climate-Change/dp/1612198384 • Without a Doubt: How to Go from Underrated to Unbeatable: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982147903?tag=simonsayscom • Emily in Paris on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81037371 • Everything Everywhere All at Once on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/titles/3493875/everything-everywhere-all-at-once • How to Apply and Succeed at Y Combinator, by Dalton Caldwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiOcCPvyNE • Y Combinator on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ycombinator In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Gustaf’s background (04:15) What made Airbnb so special (07:21) How culture interviews and hiring founders contributed to Airbnb’s success (10:31) Motivations for starting companies (13:17) Why Gustaf helps founders understand their motivations (14:13) Reasons you should not start a company (16:03) The magic that happens at YC office hours (20:45) Why founders in coworking spaces should schedule time to talk (21:36) Questions Gustaf asks founders (22:26) Common reasons startups fail (26:23) Getting over the fear of rejection (27:57) The importance of solving for pain points and why you should watch users (34:21) The value of having a technical co-founder (37:42) How founders without technical expertise have succeeded (40:46) Attributes of the most successful founders (44:57) Why it’s hard to predict success and how YC advises against failures (46:59) Indications of potential for success (50:03) Speed vs. quality (51:11) Confidence vs. humility (52:48) Execution and tactics vs. strategy (54:36) Autocratic vs. collaborative-driven founders (56:27) Why you should focus on product first (59:03) The economic incentive for investing in climate tech (1:02:16) The clean-tech bubble of 2008 (1:04:59) Why you don’t need to be super-scientific to work in climate tech (1:06:51) Areas of climate tech and promising companies (1:12:27) What’s going well in the climate-change space (1:16:49) Lightning round Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Forum post: https://www.startupschool.org/posts/32873