0:02
We'll start with Kirsty. Kirsty. Hi everyone. I'm Kirsty Nathoo.
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I'm the CFO at Y Combinator.
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So I look after all of Y Combinator's money is and help the startups with their money questions. I'm Elizabeth Iorns.
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I'm just a part-time partner at Y Combinator.
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I'm the founder of Science Exchange and I help mostly with biotechs and medical device companies. And I am Keith Rabois.
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I'm the head of nonprofits which is a new venture for us at YC.
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And our architect cuz you were in my presentation.
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You just haven't seen it yet. And the architect. I'm Jessica Livingston.
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You all met me earlier and I'm wearing my coat cuz I feel like we're in the Arctic Circle right now. It's cold. I I might. I'm Carolyn Levy.
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I'm a partner and I'm general counsel at Y Combinator.
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And once again, I'm Kat Manalac.
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I started as YC's director of outreach last year and became a full-time partner in June.
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So we got Thank you for sending all of your questions to female founders and I aggregated them and we only have time to get through a few but we will start now.
1:10
So you know, I should shameless plug.
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The applications for the next YC batch are open.
1:16
So the first question that we got that I'm going to ask is what makes a good YC application and interview? Sure.
1:28
I'll go ahead and take that.
1:28
Um we talked about this a little bit in the back.
1:31
I think really truly the thing that makes a really good application is the ability to articulate your idea in a very concise manner.
1:42
As you you can imagine we have an enormous amount of applications to look through and what do you do is the very first question and so it's one of the most important questions on the application. I totally agree.
1:56
You'd be surprised how many people can't articulate what they're doing um in a few sentences or they just fill it with all sorts of marketing speak like leveraging this platform and blah blah blah and like our eyes glaze over.
2:09
Um the other thing in terms of content that we get really excited about is if you're trying to solve a problem that's like hugely broken and has just a huge market opportunity and you're a domain expert in that area. We love that.
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And we also put out some uh videos recently of our videos of applicants um who gave really good videos in their application form.
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So, you should have a look at those to see how those show how they talk about their ideas.
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We'll share that link after it will tweet it out in case you're interested in checking it out.
2:45
And here's a question that came that I think I'll direct directly you, Kate.
2:46
Um what are you looking for in nonprofit applications and what do you think uh nonprofits can hope to get from going through YC?
2:57
Yeah, so um we've been working in the nonprofit space for um three batches at this point and I think we've learned a lot in the last year and almost year and a half.
3:09
Um really truly, I think that we look for the exact same things in a nonprofit team that we look for in a for-profit team and when people talk about what it is that they're working on, one of the things that we found interesting is is if you can't really tell if it's a nonprofit um because this is the startup space.
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Um you have a three month sprint um to kind of pull things together.
3:42
Uh you have to work in the ways that for-profit startups work in order to accomplish a lot during YC.
3:51
Um so, we look for good founding teams who have clarity on their idea and the and have shown the ability to execute. They have some growth.
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And I think you know, Grace just got off the stage.
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I didn't get to listen to her talk, but my guess is that she might have said that being surrounded by a group of for-profit startups who have a lot of energy and momentum and enthusiasm is really the best benefit of of coming into YC as a nonprofit.
4:28
The nonprofit space doesn't always work that way out there in the world.
4:30
And so, I think we have found from founders that that is one of the best benefits is just being among all these other really smart people.
4:42
So, the next question is I So, in the past few years YC's gotten more hardware companies like the Pebble Watch and Bellabeat, which is like a Fitbit for pregnancy.
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And we've also gotten a lot of biotech companies through.
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So, this question I'll hand over to Elizabeth is how do you deal with hardware, health, and biotech startups since, you know, their growth timelines are usually much longer than a, you know, a SaaS startup company?
5:08
Yeah, I think actually a lot of the answers that Kate gave for the not for profits are similar for the biotechs as well.
5:14
So, we've definitely seen that biotechs and medical device companies also do well in the program and it's still very early.
5:21
So, there's only been two batches that had really accepted a lot of biotech companies, but we've seen that that three-month period of focus and really working on some key milestones that define the value of the company has really been hugely beneficial for those companies.
5:35
And so, I think one of the most exciting spaces at the moment is biotech and is the opportunity for young entrepreneurs who actually made those discoveries to actually be funded and be able to take those discoveries forward.
5:48
And I think Y Combinator is playing a huge role in that. Cool.
5:54
So, we got quite a few questions about founders who co-founded companies with their spouses.
6:00
Um so, the question is that I'll I'll turn to Jessica first and she did found a company with her spouse.
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What advice would you give to female founders who co-founded with their husbands?
6:10
Oh, well, um I think I said I was talking last year at this conference and people like ooh.
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But I said it's totally normal.
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Like so many of the people we fund are are husbands and wives.
6:24
Um and so, you know, it worked out for me.
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I happen to love working with my husband.
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We didn't do the same things.
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So, we weren't competitive and I think that that was useful.
6:35
Um we were always sort of trying to make YC better, but because we did different things, we, you know, had our own domains and that was probably good for our marriage.
6:45
Um I mean, it just depends on your relationship though.
6:49
I mean, try working together for a little while and if you argue um and are sniping at each other or anything, don't do that cuz obviously your marriage is so much more important than your company.
7:00
But a lot of people I think find they enjoy working with their spouses.
7:06
I know I've talked to Tracy who you saw earlier from PlanGrid.
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I don't know if she's still around, but she said that she and Ralph have like a set time at night.
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It's like 8:30 or 9:00 when they have to stop talking about PlanGrid.
7:15
So, it's it's interesting to hear how different founders kind of deal with working with their spouses.
7:22
Yeah, we never had any we never stopped talking about it.
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We talked we were so boring.
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We talked about YC during dinner and everything, but set guidelines if that works for you. Carolyn?
7:33
Yeah, so um Y Combinator's other lawyer is my husband John Levy.
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So, we didn't found a company together, but we work together at YC and we talk about Y Combinator all the time to the incredible annoyance of our children who can now parrot us and they say, "Blah, blah, blah, partner this, partner Anyway, so it's actually a good thing and a bad thing.
7:52
It It's mostly good though because it is really nice to have someone to run everything by.
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You just constantly get a second opinion on something you want to do or something you've drafted.
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And so I I think it's pretty helpful.
8:06
So this one's for Kirsty.
8:06
How do you handle equity splits between founders?
8:11
Uh so splitting equity is kind of a big question in the early days of a company and it's it's a really important conversation to have because it it drives a lot of other things and having that conversation can actually open up problems that that you didn't necessarily know that you had with with the co-founder that you're working with.
8:30
Um we generally say that equity should be split more or less equally between co-founders.
8:38
Um that doesn't necessarily mean exactly equally, but we generally find that where there is an equity split that's very mismatched, you know, one founder has 90% and the other founder has 10%, it actually seems that that causes a lot
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of problems as as you're then going through the com- you know, through the life cycle of the company where you do you're both working extremely long hours, you're thinking about it 24/7, you know, talking about it over dinner. Um and you know, it can it can
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Um and you know, it can it can it can cause problems because the person who only has 10% is thinking, "Well, why am I doing this for such a small percentage of of the upside compared to the other person?"
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So it can really cause problems down the line.
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So the the key advice is to talk about it very early, be very open about it and make sure that both parties or the three founders or however many there are feel that it is fair and that it is even and representative.
9:37
I have one more thing to say about that.
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I think a mistake that founders make is that they come to the equity discussion and they're only looking backwards.
9:44
They're thinking about who had the idea and who worked the longest on it at the beginning and who has the MBA and who's going to be CEO and that it doesn't matter.
9:52
It's what Kirsty said, all the work's ahead of you.
9:54
So, the default is more or less equal because it doesn't really matter what the past was. It's what the future is.
10:03
So, this question is is for everyone, really.
10:05
Do you see women founders starting different types of companies and solving different types of problems or approaching them in new ways? I don't really.
10:17
Um there's nothing that I'd say, oh, more women start this type of company than not.
10:22
I we're seeing more women apply with all different types of ideas.
10:28
Yeah, we've in the past, you know, batch reading through applications, we've we saw a lot of women applying with biotech companies and hardware and and you're seeing a pretty diverse range of companies come through, which has been really cool.
10:41
Um and so, the second part of that question was what are you most excited about in getting more female founders to go through YC?
10:51
What are you most excited about in getting, you know, more women to apply, get more women to go through YC?
10:55
Well, I'm going to answer that right now. for it.
10:58
More successful female founders.
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Like so that when a 15-year-old girl or a recent college graduate looks out there and says, what do I want to do when I get older or what do I want to do now, they have more role models of female founding CEOs of tech companies.
11:25
So, here's a question about being a solo founder.
11:27
So, the question was, I'm technical enough to start working, you know, build a working prototype and get early customers on my own.
11:34
Is that enough to succeed as a solo founder?
11:36
And what advice would you give to solo founders?
11:43
We see um a number of solo founders applying to Y Combinator, and it's it's tough.
11:50
You know, we we don't accept that many proportionally to to the numbers that apply because there's so much to do in a startup.
11:56
You know, even if there's two founders or three founders, everybody doesn't have enough time in the day to do everything.
12:02
So, when there's only one person, it's really hard because you constantly, if you're doing one thing, nobody else is doing anything else.
12:10
Um so, that's to say that it doesn't necessarily mean that you won't succeed as a as a single founder, but you've just got to understand that it's much much harder.
12:22
And it's also the emotional ups and downs.
12:24
Um you know, Adora was saying that two bad things happen every day on average and two good things, and that's true.
12:30
It's like a roller coaster, and if you're all by yourself, you you it's hard to handle the ups and downs and the swings.
12:38
So, if you have a co-founder, you can say, "Oh, this is so bad.
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I don't know how I'm going to go forward."
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And your co-founder can say, "Don't worry, it'll be fine."
12:45
And then you can do the same the next day.
12:50
You know, though uh Um the fact that this solo founder built a prototype, I mean, that's a great start.
12:58
Can you succeed with just that? I mean, who's to say?
13:02
I mean, that that's pretty amazing, but um at some point, you know, you're going to have to hire, and um and and that's a whole other, you know, question because hiring can be so difficult.
13:12
I'm sure, you know, people have heard horror stories, but yeah, I mean, that it's a great start, but you're going to have to do more than, you know, just do it by yourself.
13:23
So, the next question is about average age.
13:25
So, what is the average age of YC founders, and you know, are there examples of people who gone through YC as, you know, with as parents with, you know, children to take care of?
13:36
So, I can answer the I actually, um, just crunched the numbers on this batch, and the average age of YC founders in this batch currently is around 30.
13:45
Um, and so, it looks like the youngest founder that we have is 20, and the oldest is in his late 60s.
13:49
Um, but it's a quite, you know, quite a a wide range.
13:55
Um, Jessica might have a little bit more on that as well.
13:58
Well, I think the average age of the YC founder, and this is not exact numbers, I think was 26.
14:06
Um, we always when we first started, we always had younger people applying for some reason.
14:11
Um, probably cuz YC seemed so lame.
14:15
Um, but I did a couple years ago, um, look at our top, uh, portfolio companies in terms of valuation.
14:26
And maybe I used like 10, and I found that the average age of when we funded them was 24 years old.
14:34
So, I don't know if that's useful or not, but I feel like that number it's getting higher.
14:40
Yeah, I I and in terms of the question of are there founders that could go through who are parents, who are moms and dads?
14:45
Um, Susan Johnson of women.
14:47
com, who you saw earlier today, had, you know, a baby, and there were quite a few, uh, women, I remember, in the last batch who had, you know, infants and small children, and so, it absolutely can be done. It's it's hard. It's tough.
15:00
Jessica knows she's two kids, and, you know, Carolyn, you guys have I think it's hard.
15:04
It's hard no matter what you're doing.
15:05
That's a work-life balance thing, and it's just always it's just always hard.
15:09
But, that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it and and people should.
15:16
And so, um, kind of here's a here's one question.
15:18
Um, it's I struggle with self-promotion and taking responsibility for my talents.
15:25
Um how can I get out of my own way? Can you repeat it?
15:32
So basically I the person writes that they're good at networking, but they're not good at kind of self-promoting or, you know, kind of owning what you are building.
15:42
So earlier in your in the very first talk Jessica you said, "I never like to sound braggy."
15:47
Um so how do you get past Like what is that line?
15:50
Like how do you get past not wanting to be braggy, but you know, taking, you know, full being proud of what you've done and talking about it comfortably?
15:59
Well, I've talked to a lot of um female VCs, not a lot, but a handful, and the one thing that they say that they notice when female founders come in to pitch them is that they don't um take enough credit for what they do.
16:14
And I kind of think that that could be true.
16:16
I we had a woman um I probably shouldn't name her, but she had a scientific startup that was doing this really cool technology that she invented um in her PhD thesis, but she invented this cool technology that's like helping detect cancer.
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And in her demo day pitch, when we first did rehearsal day with her, she got up and she talked about it and everything, but she never said that she invented the technology and we kept being like, "Oh my gosh, just start with that."
16:46
Um so I think you just have to know that to convince people to join your company or to invest in you or use your product, you have to take a little bit of credit. It's your company.
16:59
You should be proud of what you're doing.
17:00
So just even if it feels awkward, maybe try it out a little bit and get used to it.
17:07
I think it does take practice.
17:07
You know, when when you first start trying to say how amazing you are, you know, you you kind of doing it through gritted teeth and you're like, "Oh no, I'm so going to get found out because I'm really not.
17:18
And actually, as you get as you get more used to to explaining here's what I did and here's here's why it's, you know, here's why it's good or, you know, I've I've um discovered this science or whatever it might be, then, you know, you get more used to saying it and it becomes more natural.
17:32
But the more, you know, you you have to push yourself out of that comfort zone and do it because in in the startup world, nobody else is going to push you forward.
17:41
You have to do that yourself. Okay.
17:45
So, um I'm going to to kind of wrap it up cuz we we want to get to the reception and meet all of you.
17:54
Uh and then you can ask us more questions.
17:55
Um I guess I want to ask um what is your favorite part of working at YC?
18:01
And, you know, what inspires you?
18:04
Like what makes you happy to wake up every day?
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And, you know, and if that, you know, is relevant for Science Exchange as well. I'm starting.
18:13
Um So, I used to work at a big law firm.
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So, I wake up so happy every day that I work at YC cuz it's such a nice place to work.
18:23
Um this sounds a little generic, but it is really the people.
18:26
I mean, it really is about the people.
18:27
I work with wonderful people and they're super smart.
18:32
So, that's another awesome thing, too.
18:34
You're I just learn something new every day when I'm at YC and it's just it's a great place to work.
18:41
Well, I like the people too, but just to be a little bit different.
18:43
I mean, the main reason I do what I do and have been kept doing it is that I love working with founders and it's just so much fun seeing companies succeed and going through the hard times and the good times.
18:56
Um it's just founders are so inspiring to me.
19:02
And I would say the thing that sort of captivated me because I was sort of always on a bit on the outskirts of working with YC.
19:09
I was like behind the scenes, not that many people really saw me around or knew me.
19:15
Um but what captivated me and brought me to almost every single dinner at YC for the last 10 years is the energy of the room.
19:27
Like everybody there so wants to be there, both the founders and all of us.
19:34
Um and the energy when we have Tuesday night dinners is just contagious.
19:37
It's a wonderful environment um and and inspiring.
19:45
Yeah, I think I'm not at YC every day, but I've just loved taking part with um being able to interview in particular for the biotech companies that are coming in to YC because it's so interesting to kind of learn about all of these different fields where people
20:01
are starting to think about taking a really basic discovery and bring it to market and sort of seeing that YC could have such a major influence in that particular field that's historically been a lot more difficult to actually do startups and is is really inspiring. I think, you know, I I would echo that
20:18
I think, you know, I I would echo that that the people make it so fun.
20:20
Um but the other thing that that I really love about it is that, you know, we're we're working on the forefront to make startups so so much more normal for thing for people to do.
20:32
And being on the forefront of that and seeing the evidence of that and seeing more applications and more and more people considering startups as an option is just so inspiring.
20:42
And for me, um I used to work at Wired magazine and I I loved I love being at the future at the forefront of things, like where people are building the future.
20:51
Um and so I love working with all these entrepreneurs who are working on building the future every day.
20:55
We have, you know, nuclear fusion and fission, you know, startups in in YC and people working on the next hardware and um world-changing software that, you know, basically like we don't even know where it's going yet.
21:10
And so um that to me is is some of the most exciting um you know, the most exciting piece.
21:14
And of course, the people like when I started working at YC, you know, everyone's going to be smart and that goes without saying, but um what I found was that the community now there's you know, Jessica was saying over 2,000 founders and everyone is so willing to help.
21:29
Um you know, you send a shoot an email to an alum or any of the partners and you know, within minutes you get tons of responses.
21:35
So that to me you know, the community and being you know, where the future is being built um is why I work here. Should I wrap up? Yeah.
21:45
Because we have to vacate the stage in like 1 minute. Uh literally.
21:49
So I hope you all enjoyed today. I really do. I know I did.
21:55
Um the talks were really amazing. I'm inspired.
22:00
I want to again thank Tara and the team at YC for putting this whole conference together.
22:06
It was flawless, I think.
22:10
Um thank you all for traveling, many of you from so far away to come and for sticking with us through the whole afternoon here.
22:17
We're going to have a cocktail reception with food out there for an hour.
22:24
I hope you'll stick around and join us and I hope you'll keep in touch after this conference.
22:27
I know a lot of you have been getting to know each other and I think it's wonderful.
22:33
So keep doing that and keep founding your companies and hang in there if you've already started one. Thanks.