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 https://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: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Work at a startup: https://www.workatastartup.com/ #startups #entrepreneur #tech
Former YC Partner and founder of TripleByte Harj Taggar, along with his cofounder Ammon Bartram discuss a topic startups often struggle with most: finding and hiring the key engineers who will build your product. You can find the lecture transcript and slides here: https://www.startupschool.org/videos/44 Learn more at https://www.startupschool.org/
Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the many different mistakes founders make when they approach hiring for their startup and how to grow your team the correct way. Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:41 - Challenges in startup hiring 02:15 - Lies about hiring and how it doesn't solve all problems 10:14 - Devil advocate - Big companies will have a lot of employees 12:49 - Specialist can save a company a lot of money 14:28 - Takeaway 16:26 - Instinct to over-hire 17:18 - Founders main causes of burnout 18:50 - Summary
Harj Taggar advises on choosing a startup to work at. Harj Taggar is a partner at YC and was the CEO and co-founder of Triplebyte.
Harj Taggar explains how a startup can compete with FAANG Companies when hiring employees. Harj Taggar is a partner at YC and was the CEO and co-founder of Triplebyte, a tech recruiting startup.
Harj Taggar talks about the reasons many startups fail. Harj Taggar is a partner at YC and was the CEO and co-founder of Triplebyte.
Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the traps founders often fall into when looking at the competition. They identify the particular types of companies you should watch out for and many more you are wasting your time worrying about. Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Competitors 00:51 - Fear of the Competition 01:42 - Lies Founders Tell Themselves 02:32 - Most Common Outcomes 03:28 - Perception vs Reality 06:57 - Copycats - Twitch 08:15 - Back to Basics 08:50 - Real Competitive Concerns 09:40 - A Better Product - Socialcam 10:14 - Structural Advantages - Kiko and Perfect Audience 11:20 - "Good Enough" example - Microsoft Teams and Slack 12:30 - FAANG Fails 13:40 - Instacart vs Amazon 14:16 - Cruise vs Google 15:00 - Build a Better Product #ycombinator #startups #competition #bigtech
In this Startup School lecture, YC Partner Harj Taggar shares advice on how to find the right co-founder for your startup. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/8h-how-to-find-the-right-co-founder 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 0:25 Why have a co-founder at all? 3:43 Starting without a co-founder 7:10 What to look for 11:13 What about skills? 13:38 Where to look for a co-founder 20:18 Making the leap 22:36 Deciding equity 24:40 Who's the CEO? 27:28 Formalizing things Looking for a co-founder? Try YC's new co-founder matching platform: https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching
Harj Taggar is the CEO and cofounder of Triplebyte (YC S15), a marketplace for connecting software engineers with companies that are hiring. https://triplebyte.com/ Before Triplebyte Harj was a Partner at YC and cofounded Auctomatic (YC W07). --- 00:15 - Harj's intro. 1:07 - What is Triplebyte? 2:07 - Where did the idea for Triplebyte come from? 3:40 - What type of engineer are companies looking for? 6:05 - Should people go to bootcamps? 8:20 - Why did Harj do YC twice? 9:58 - What was fundraising like the second time around? 11:14 - What was it like doing office hours for the second time? 12:58 - How should you take advantage of your time during YC? 14:08 - What learnings did Harj take from being a partner to being in the batch? 17:50 - Did Harj advise startups in the batch with him? 18:20 - What were Triplebyte's stats at the end of the batch 19:15 - What are good ways to find engineers? 21:05 - Any tips for vetting someone remotely? 21:55 - Was Harj worried that doing YC a second time would be seen as a sign of weakness to a VC? 22:55 - Did Harj's background help or hurt him in fundraising? 24:05 - How can people that have previously been successful check themselves when selecting new projects? 25:48 - How to choose a startup idea? 28:00 - How to find cofounders? 30:15 - Harj's thoughts on his sabbatical after being a YC Partner.
In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Harj Taggar shares his advice on the types of people best suited to be startup founders and how to prepare to start a company in the future. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:48 - How to decide whether to be a startup founder. 02:42 - Resilience is the most important quality 03:35 - Founder of Benchling (S12) 05:11 - Startup resilience - Initial motivation isn't important 07:04 - As a curious founder ask "What do I have to lose"? 09:10 - Startup experience can improve your career opportunities 10:50 - Getting ready to start a startup in the future 12:52 - Best environment is working at a startup 14:28 - When to take the leap and start a company? 16:14 - Advice #startup #tech #entrepreneur Y Combinator Musicbed SyncID: MB013EDUBCAZ4PG
Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss what startups waste money on—from marketing and sales to legal and hiring. Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 02:19 - Hiring lies 04:50 - Contractors 06:51 - Marketing spend 09:53 - Brand advertising 11:02 - Approach events like a startup founder 12:20 - PR 16:01 - Lawyers 20:22 - Advisors 24:39 - Devil's advocate Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Work at a startup: https://www.workatastartup.com/ #startups #money #tech #business
Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss when you should start charging your users and some exceptions when you shouldn't. Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 01:30 - Why are people not charging? 02:47 - Successful startups are always testing 04:21 - Advice on pricing plans 05:24 - Anti-signal of not charging big companies 07:13 - Assumption - Learn from people using for free 07:44 - Devil's advocate - Open core model 08:54 - Slack strategy 10:19 - Consumer business 11:57 - Takeaway
We are entering the era of Fintech 3.0. Regulatory clarity, growing consumer adoption, and low-cost chains have paved the way for a golden age of building in crypto — and at YC, Base, and Coinbase we want to fund builders to seize this moment. In this episode of Main Function, YC's Harj Taggar and Base's Jesse Pollak sat down to discuss what kinds of companies they're most excited to see, why this is such an exciting time in crypto, and what the future could look like onchain. More on our latest RFS: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/build-onchain Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs Chapters: 00:00 – The Golden Age of Crypto 02:00 – Jesse’s Path to Coinbase & Base 04:00 – From Fintech 1.0 to Fintech 3.0 07:00 – Why Lowering Costs Changes Everything 10:00 – L1 vs. L2, Simply Explained 13:00 – How to Build Your First Crypto App 16:00 – Regulation: Bottleneck or Unlock? 19:00 – Stablecoins as the Killer Use Case 23:00 – Beyond the Dollar: Local Stablecoins 27:00 – Tokenization of Assets 31:00 – New Asset Classes & the Creator Economy 35:00 – What Coinbase Looks for in Founders 39:00 – The Future of Crypto in 10 Years