# YC Library Quick Index

Lightweight discovery index for routing queries to full resources.
**Do not answer from this index** - always load full source files.

## Resources

### Accelerator

- **LR** | Are We In An AI Hype Cycle? | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **Iv** | Critiquing AI startup websites with YC President Garry Tan | Aaron Epstein, Garry Tan | video | 111L | all
- **IU** | Dalton & Michael: The truth about Y Combinator | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 118L | all
- **Jd** | Dalton & Michael: Why Investors (Secretly) Love Y Combinator | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 18L | all
- **IS** | Dalton & Michael: Y Combinator is back in person | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 91L | all
- **DY** | Dalton & Michael: YC founders made these fundraising mistakes | Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel | video | 45L | all
- **Kh** | Day in the Life of Y Combinator President & CEO Garry Tan during the first week of the batch | Garry Tan | video | 12L | all
- **7P** | Does YC fund solo founders? | Jared Friedman | video | 94L | all
- **J7** | Garry Tan's tips for applying to YC | Garry Tan | video | 93L | all
- **JZ** | Garry Tan, President and CEO of Y Combinator | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **LX** | How YC Was Created With Jessica Livingston | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **KK** | How psychedelics will change society for the better | Garry Tan | video | 14L | all
- **Km** | How to Survive the Crypto Boom & Bust Cycle | Garry Tan | video | 18L | all
- **6t** | How to apply and succeed at Y Combinator | Dalton Caldwell | video | 146L | all
- **It** | How to apply and succeed at YC | Dalton Caldwell | video | 110L | all
- **7n** | Live office hours with YC's Kevin Hale and Dalton Caldwell (2017) | Kevin Hale, Dalton Caldwell | video | 1064L | all
- **84** | Live office hours with YC's Paul Graham and Sam Altman (2013) | Paul Graham | video | 126L | all
- **5w** | On Starting and Scaling Second Measure (YC W15) | Michael Babineau | video | 865L | all
- **6S** | On starting and scaling Dropbox (YC W07) | Drew Houston | video | 434L | all
- **JV** | Paul Graham, Co-Founder of Y Combinator and Viaweb | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **Eo** | Picking a good startup  : YC Startup Job Guide | Paige Omura | essay | 92L | all
- **Gu** | Snapdocs' Aaron King on navigating market cycles | Lindsay Amos | essay | 182L | all
- **Ek** | Stages of startups   : YC Startup Job Guide | Ryan Choi | essay | 114L | all
- **LA** | Standing Up For Startups - YC Goes To D.C. | Garry Tan | video | 18L | all
- **IG** | Successful YC Application video: Campus Job (YC W2015) | None | video | 16L | all
- **IH** | Successful YC Application video: Flip (YC W2015) | None | video | 16L | all
- **IJ** | Successful YC Application video: Teespring (YC W2013) | None | video | 16L | all
- **II** | Successful YC Application video: Zenefits (YC W2013) | None | video | 24L | all
- **M7** | The Engineering Unlocks Behind DeepSeek | YC Decoded | Diana Hu | video | 16L | all
- **Ke** | The Secrets of Y Combinator’s Early Success (with YC Co-Founder Jessica Livingston) | Garry Tan | video | 12L | all
- **L6** | The Untold Stories of Y Combinator with Co-Founder Jessica Livingston | Garry Tan | video | 12L | all
- **4i** | The YC Effect | Oleg Rogynskyy | essay | 95L | all
- **Kz** | Trevor Blackwell, Co-founder Y Combinator; Founder, Anybots | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **K7** | Why YC? We asked 50 founders why they applied to Y Combinator | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **6O** | YC Application Advice From African Startups | Dimeji Sofowora | essay | 425L | all
- **J8** | YC Application Tips: Include a demo | Stephanie Simon | video | 14L | all
- **JA** | YC Application Tips: When to apply | Stephanie Simon | video | 11L | all
- **J9** | YC Application Tips: You don't need to know someone | Stephanie Simon | video | 11L | all
- **N2** | YC Partners Answer Your Questions | Office Hours | Y Combinator | video | 15L | all
- **70** | YC Template Sales Agreements | Y Combinator | essay | 21L | launched
- **4r** | YC and Hard Tech Startups | Sam Altman | essay | 113L | all
- **Gh** | YC guide to business models | Aaron Epstein | video | 193L | all
- **L8** | YC's Group Partners Discuss Doing Things That Don't Scale | Garry Tan | video | 18L | scaling
- **Iy** | YC's Group Partners share their favorite pivot stories | Garry Tan | video | 102L | all
- **JT** | YC's Group Partners share their worst investor meetings | Garry Tan | video | 20L | all
- **4D** | YC's essential startup advice | Y Combinator | essay | 177L | all
- **K5** | YC’s Group Partners share productivity tips and advice on actually getting things done | Garry Tan | video | 18L | building

### Admin

- **Mq** | How This 25-Year-Old Built A $675M Legal AI Startup (With No Legal Experience) | Y Combinator | video | 17L | all
- **JR** | How to Start a Startup: Startup mechanics | Kirsty Nathoo | video | 14L | all
- **7R** | Startup legal mechanics | Carolynn Levy | video | 233L | all

### Ai

- **LD** | 10 People + AI = Billion Dollar Company? | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **KL** | 33 AI Startup Founders Debate the Creation of Artificial General Intelligence | Y Combinator | video | 17L | all
- **4A** | A guide to seed fundraising | Geoff Ralston | essay | 486L | all
- **MR** | AI Apps Are Broken — Here's How To Fix Them | Tom Blomfield, David Lieb, Pete Koomen | video | 20L | all
- **N7** | AI Is Eating Logistics | Y Combinator | video | 16L | all
- **M5** | AI Revolution: Why This Is The Best Time To Start A Startup | Y Combinator | video | 18L | all
- **MV** | Alexandr Wang: Building Scale AI, Transforming Work with Agents & Competing With China | Y Combinator | video | 23L | building, scaling
- **MW** | Andrej Karpathy: Software Is Changing (Again) | Y Combinator | video | 25L | all
- **Mf** | Andrew Ng: Building Faster with AI | Y Combinator | video | 19L | building
- **Mp** | Anthropic Co-founder: Building Claude Code, Lessons From GPT-3 & LLM System Design | Y Combinator | video | 18L | building
- **Mg** | Aravind Srinivas: The Race to Build the AI Browser of the Future | Y Combinator | video | 19L | building
- **L9** | Better AI Models, Better Startups [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 7] | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **9M** | Billionaires build | Paul Graham | essay | 260L | building
- **JW** | Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb | The Social Radars | essay | 14L | all
- **JW** | Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb | The Social | podcast | 42L | all
- **Jx** | Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb (Part II) | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **Kl** | Building AI Models Faster And Cheaper Than You Think  [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 4] | Y Combinator | video | 16L | building
- **Ix** | Critiquing startup websites with Instacart's first designer, Zain Ali | Aaron Epstein | video | 104L | building
- **MU** | Cursor CEO: Going Beyond Code, Superintelligent AI Agents And Why Taste Still Matters | Garry Tan | video | 18L | all
- **Ik** | Dalton & Michael: How future billionaires get sh*t done | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 93L | all
- **Ie** | Dalton & Michael: Will OpenAI kill all startups? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 66L | all
- **Da** | Data rooms and additional documents to prepare for seed fundraising | None | essay | 101L | all
- **MD** | Design Experts Critique AI Interfaces | Aaron Epstein | video | 17L | building
- **My** | Every AI Founder Should Be Asking These Questions | Y Combinator | video | 17L | all
- **Mb** | Fei-Fei Li: Spatial Intelligence is the Next Frontier in AI | Y Combinator | video | 22L | all
- **Mn** | Figma CEO Dylan Field: How AI Will Transform Design | Y Combinator | video | 18L | building
- **Jz** | Founder FAQ: 40 AI startup founders on the current state of AI tech | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **7I** | Fundraising Fundamentals (SUS 2018) | Geoff Ralston | video | 73L | all
- **MF** | GPT-4.5 = Big Model Energy | Tom Blomfield | video | 13L | all
- **Mr** | GPT-OSS vs. Qwen vs. Deepseek: Comparing Open Source LLM Architectures | Ankit Gupta | video | 17L | all
- **Js** | Garry's Channel: 3 steps for billion dollar startups (How Airbnb & DoorDash succeeded) | Garry Tan | video | 14L | all
- **Ju** | Garry's Channel: An interview with Kai Stinchcombe, founder of True Link Financial | Garry Tan | video | 16L | all
- **LN** | Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit On AGI, Open Source Models, Freedom | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **MP** | How AI Coding Agents Will Change Your Job | Tom Blomfield, David Lieb | video | 20L | all
- **MB** | How AI Is Changing Enterprise | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **Ly** | How David Lieb Turned a Failing Startup Into Google Photos | David Lieb | video | 15L | all
- **6Y** | How Much Should You Spend After Fundraising? | Gustaf Alstr | video | 432L | all
- **M4** | How Scaling Laws Will Determine AI's Future | Garry Tan | video | 18L | all
- **LZ** | How To Convert Customers With Cold Emails | Aaron Epstein | video | 14L | all
- **M8** | How To Get AI Startup Ideas | Y Combinator | video | 17L | idea
- **MN** | How To Get The Most Out Of Vibe Coding | Tom Blomfield | video | 20L | all
- **Mw** | How To Train An LLM with Anthropic's Head of Pretraining | Y Combinator | video | 16L | all
- **M3** | How To Use AI In Your Startup | Y Combinator | video | 15L | all
- **5l** | How not to fail | Jessica Livingston | video | 218L | all
- **Il** | How startup fundraising works | Brad Flora | video | 124L | all
- **71** | How to Get Meetings With Investors and Raise Money | Aaron Harris | video | 74L | all
- **Me** | How to Spend Your 20s in the AI Era | Y Combinator | video | 17L | all
- **JM** | How to Start a Startup: Raising money and succeeding long-term | Jess Lee, Aaron Harris, Ali Rowghani | video | 13L | all
- **65** | How to cold email investors | Michael Seibel | video | 74L | all
- **6i** | How to launch (again and again) | Kat Manalac | video | 56L | launched
- **N4** | Inside The MIT AI Study Everyone Misunderstood (And What It Means For Startups) | Y Combinator | video | 16L | all
- **N6** | Inside The Startup Launching AI Into Space | Aaron Epstein | video | 20L | launched
- **J1** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: Investors said no, now what? | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 75L | all
- **J3** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: Turning users into paid customers | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 65L | launched
- **Lq** | Now Anyone Can Code: How AI Agents Can Build Your Whole App | Y Combinator | video | 14L | building
- **5G** | On raising Seed and Series A as a woman founder | Amber Atherton, Iba Masood | video | 810L | scaling
- **6a** | On starting and scaling direct mail automation startup Lob | Harry Zhang | video | 592L | all
- **Jc** | Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **Mi** | Replit CEO Amjad Masad: Coding Agents, Autonomy, and the Future of Work | Y Combinator | video | 17L | all
- **MY** | Sam Altman: The Future of OpenAI, ChatGPT's Origins, and Building AI Hardware | Y Combinator | video | 21L | building
- **MZ** | Satya Nadella: Microsoft's AI Bets, Hyperscaling, Quantum Computing Breakthroughs | Y Combinator | video | 18L | all
- **Ml** | Scaling and the Road to Human-Level AI | Anthropic Co-founder Jared Kaplan | Y Combinator | video | 20L | all
- **KZ** | Should your startup bootstrap or raise venture capital? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 18L | all
- **MQ** | Startup Ideas You Can Now Build With AI | Y Combinator | video | 19L | building, idea
- **MS** | State-Of-The-Art Prompting For AI Agents | Y Combinator | video | 21L | all
- **Ln** | The 10 Trillion Parameter AI Model With 300 IQ | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **Mx** | The 7 Most Powerful Moats For AI Startup | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **Mt** | The FDE Playbook for AI Startups with Bob McGrew | Y Combinator | video | 19L | all
- **Mm** | The Finance Startup Bringing Agentic AI to Wall Street | Y Combinator | video | 19L | all
- **JG** | The Main Function: How to go from startup dream to reality | Garry Tan | video | 16L | all
- **MM** | The Next Breakthrough In AI Agents Is Here | Garry Tan | video | 21L | all
- **Kb** | The Truth About Building AI Startups Today [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 1] | Y Combinator | video | 13L | building
- **N3** | Transformers Explained: The Discovery That Changed AI Forever | Ankit Gupta | video | 15L | all
- **Lt** | Vertical AI Agents Could Be 10X Bigger Than SaaS | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **ME** | Vibe Coding Is The Future | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **N1** | What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About AI And Jobs | Garry Tan | video | 18L | all
- **Lj** | Why Design Matters: Lessons from Stripe, Lyft and Airbnb | Aaron Epstein | video | 14L | building
- **Ll** | Why OpenAI's o1 Is A Huge Deal | Garry Tan | video | 15L | all
- **Lr** | Why The Next AI Breakthroughs Will Be In Reasoning, Not Scaling | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **Lg** | Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **9u** | Why do startups fail? | Harj Taggar | video | 12L | all
- **63** | Why fundraising is different in Silicon Valley | Michael Seibel | video | 52L | all
- **MO** | Windsurf CEO: Betting On AI Agents, Pivoting In 48 Hours, And The Future of Coding | Y Combinator | video | 19L | all
- **Lm** | You Don’t Have To Be A Billionaire To Launch Satellites | Jared Friedman, Diana Hu | video | 17L | launched

### Avoiding Failure

- **66** | Biggest mistakes first-time founders make | Michael Seibel | video | 71L | all
- **LP** | Co-Founder Equity Mistakes to Avoid | Michael Seibel | video | 14L | all
- **DZ** | Dalton & Michael: Co-founder mistakes that kill companies and how to avoid them | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 49L | all
- **Ic** | Dalton & Michael: The two mindsets that can kill your startup | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 109L | all
- **Jl** | Garry's Channel: 6 Skills for Successful Startup Founders | Garry Tan | video | 11L | all
- **Jh** | Garry's Channel: My $200 million startup mistake | Garry Tan | video | 19L | all
- **J2** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: Don't make these hiring mistakes | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 92L | all
- **8t** | The 18 mistakes that kill startups | Paul Graham | essay | 467L | all
- **8a** | The 5 things that kill startups post seed rounds | Michael Seibel | video | 183L | all

### B2B

- **LF** | Enterprise Sales for Founders | Pete Koomen | video | 13L | launched
- **4m** | Enterprise sales for hackers | Ryan Junee | essay | 186L | launched
- **Lu** | How To Start A Dev Tools Company | Nicolas Dessaigne | video | 16L | all
- **73** | How to Start a Startup: Building for the Enterprise | Aaron Levie | video | 1004L | building

### Biotech

- **8G** | Advice for Hard-Tech and Biotech founders | Jared Friedman | video | 108L | all
- **4L** | How biotech startup funding will change in the next 10 years | Jared Friedman | essay | 136L | all

### Building

- **7s** | Building product | Michael Seibel | video | 238L | building
- **DT** | Dalton & Michael: Simple products that became big companies | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 97L | building
- **4e** | Guide to product development | Michael Seibel | essay | 97L | building
- **JK** | How to Start a Startup: Building products users love | Kevin Hale | video | 12L | building, launched
- **86** | How to Start a Startup: Finding Product-Market Fit | Peter Reinhardt | video | 871L | building
- **7y** | How to build a product with Reddit's Steve Huffman and Twitch's Emmett Shear | Michael Seibel, Emmett Shear, Steve Huffman | video | 815L | building
- **7a** | How to build a product with WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum | Jan Koum | video | 863L | building
- **Io** | How to build an MVP | Michael Seibel | video | 80L | building
- **62** | How to build product as a small startup | Michael Seibel | video | 61L | building
- **7V** | How to find product-market fit | David Rusenko | video | 237L | building
- **8C** | How to measure your product | Suhail Doshi | video | 237L | building
- **6f** | How to plan an MVP | Michael Seibel | video | 102L | building
- **47** | Product Advice for Hardware Founders | Eric Migicovsky | essay | 470L | building
- **68** | Product and design process for remote teams | Mike Knoop | video | 967L | building, scaling
- **5z** | The real product-market fit | Michael Seibel | video | 60L | building
- **Ls** | Twitter vs. X: Product Lessons For Startup Founders | Tom Blomfield, David Lieb | video | 17L | building

### Career

- **4G** | Convincing engineers to join your team | Harj Taggar | essay | 334L | scaling
- **5b** | How do you convince someone to join your startup? | Dalton Caldwell | video | 55L | all
- **9t** | How to choose a startup to join | Harj Taggar | video | 33L | all
- **AQ** | How to pick which startup to work at | Justin Kan, Sam Altman | video | 456L | all
- **K0** | Sam Altman on how to pick which startup to work at | Sam Altman | video | 15L | all
- **5n** | Why you should or should not work at a startup | Justin Kan | video | 158L | all

### Case Study

- **K3** | Brian Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO of Coinbase | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **KM** | Emmett Shear, Co-Founder of Twitch | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **Jk** | Garry's Channel: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on cryptocurrency and the future of decentralization | Garry Tan | video | 14L | all
- **Kx** | Patrick & John Collison, Co-Founders of Stripe | The Social Radars | essay | 12L | all
- **JX** | Steve Huffman, Co-Founder & CEO of Reddit | The Social Radars | essay | 12L | all
- **Lf** | Stripe Head of Design Katie Dill Reviews Startup Websites | Aaron Epstein | video | 17L | building
- **Ja** | Tony Xu, Co-Founder & CEO of Doordash | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all

### Co Founders

- **Hj** | 10 questions to discuss with a potential co-founder | Y Combinator | essay | 134L | all
- **L0** | Adora Cheung, Co-founder of Homejoy & Instalab | The Social Radars | essay | 14L | all
- **KH** | Bill Clerico, Co-Founder & CEO of WePay | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **KC** | Dimitri Dadiomov, Co-Founder & CEO of Modern Treasury | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **KV** | Do technical founders need a business co-founder? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 22L | all
- **Cq** | Does co-founder matching work? | Catheryn Li | essay | 56L | all
- **KO** | Does your tech startup really need a technical co-founder? Yes. | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 23L | all
- **JU** | Edith Elliott, Co-Founder & CEO of Noora Health | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **JD** | Founder FAQ: How did you meet your co-founder? | Y Combinator | video | 11L | all
- **9j** | How Much Equity Should I Give My First Employees? | Tim Brady | video | 74L | all
- **Ld** | How To Find A Co-Founder | Harj Taggar | video | 14L | all
- **MI** | How To Navigate Co-Founder Disputes | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **3i** | How to Find a Technical Co-Founder | Adora Cheung | essay | 72L | all
- **8h** | How to find the right co-founder | Harj Taggar | video | 72L | all
- **Dw** | How to make your co-founder matching profile stand out | Katherine Bernstein | essay | 130L | all
- **5x** | How to split equity among co-founders | Michael Seibel | video | 69L | all
- **Im** | Keys To Successful Co-Founder Relationships | Catheryn Li, Divya Bhat | video | 136L | all
- **8u** | The equity equation | Paul Graham | essay | 105L | all
- **JY** | Tracy Young, Co-Founder & CEO of PlanGrid | The Social Radars | essay | 15L | all
- **6m** | Understanding SAFEs and priced equity rounds | Kirsty Nathoo | video | 108L | all
- **Cn** | What do people want in a co-founder? | Catheryn Li | essay | 133L | all
- **L1** | Yuri Sagalov, Co-Founder of AeroFS | The Social Radars | essay | 12L | all

### Crypto

- **Mv** | Fintech 3.0: Now Is The Best Time To Build In Crypto | Harj Taggar | video | 18L | building

### Culture

- **6r** | Building culture | Tim Brady | video | 120L | building
- **5p** | Creating good company culture (and sticking to it) | Kathryn Minshew | video | 221L | all
- **Iw** | Critiquing startup websites with Webflow CEO Vlad Magdalin | Aaron Epstein | video | 108L | all
- **Jo** | Garry's Channel: Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen on scaling a startup from zero to $8B | Garry Tan | video | 15L | all
- **Jq** | Garry's Channel: Should you be the CEO? | Garry Tan | video | 15L | all
- **JN** | How to Start a Startup: Building company culture, Part I | Brian Chesky, Alfred Lin | video | 12L | building
- **JO** | How to Start a Startup: Building company culture, Part II | Ben Silberman, John Collison, Patrick Collison | video | 12L | building
- **Mu** | The Future of Software Creation with Replit CEO Amjad Masad | Y Combinator | video | 16L | all
- **3k** | The second job of a startup CEO | Ali Rowghani | essay | 233L | all
- **N9** | What Founders Have To Unlearn To Become Great CEOs | Y Combinator | video | 18L | all

### Customers

- **MH** | Customer Obsession Made Gusto A $9.6 Billion Company | Harj Taggar | video | 14L | all
- **Ia** | Dalton & Michael: How to earn customers for life | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 70L | all
- **IP** | Dalton & Michael: Secrets You Can Learn From Your Customers | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 78L | all
- **JE** | Founder FAQ: How did you get your first customer? | Y Combinator | video | 12L | launched
- **N5** | How To Recruit The Best Engineers And Sales Reps | Y Combinator | video | 15L | launched
- **7u** | How pitching investors is different than pitching customers | Michael Seibel | video | 36L | all
- **JQ** | How to Start a Startup: Talking to users | Emmett Shear | video | 13L | launched
- **KD** | How to convert more visitors into customers | Aaron Epstein | video | 20L | all
- **Ip** | How to get your first customers | Gustaf Alströmer | video | 101L | launched
- **9h** | How to get your first ten customers? | Michael Seibel | video | 60L | all
- **Iq** | How to talk to users | Gustaf Alströmer | video | 82L | launched
- **J5** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: The ideal customer | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 81L | idea
- **Mo** | The Sales Playbook for Founders | Tom Blomfield | video | 15L | launched
- **67** | User you don't want | Michael Seibel | video | 76L | launched

### Deep Tech

- **Kq** | Inside The Hard Tech Startups Turning Sci-Fi Into Reality [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 5] | Y Combinator | video | 20L | all

### Design

- **Mk** | Brand Design Tips From Linear Founder Karri Saarinen | Aaron Epstein | video | 20L | building
- **N8** | Cursor Head of Design Reviews Startup Websites | Aaron Epstein | video | 16L | building
- **7G** | Design for startups (part 1) | Garry Tan | video | 267L | building
- **7H** | Design for startups (part 2) | Garry Tan | video | 89L | building
- **Jr** | Garry's Channel: How To DESIGN EVERYTHING if you don't know ANYTHING | Garry Tan | video | 17L | building
- **4T** | How to design a better pitch deck | Kevin Hale | essay | 269L | building
- **MG** | The Future Of Design With Figma's Dylan Field | Garry Tan | video | 12L | building
- **MK** | Why Every Founder Should Care About Design | Aaron Epstein | video | 13L | building

### Engineering

- **7N** | Building an engineering team | Harj Taggar, Ammon Bartram | video | 285L | building, scaling
- **KF** | How To NOT Get Screwed Over As A Software Engineer | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 20L | all
- **4H** | How to hire your first engineer | Harj Taggar | essay | 247L | scaling
- **Ms** | Michael Truell: Building Cursor at 23, Taking on GitHub Copilot, and Advice to Engineering Students | Y Combinator | video | 18L | building, pre-idea

### Finance

- **3Z** | Advice for companies with less than 1 year of runway | Dalton Caldwell | essay | 103L | all
- **Je** | Garry's Channel: Stop chasing money -- Chase wealth | Garry Tan | video | 11L | all
- **9k** | How to calculate burn rate, runway, and growth rate | Tim Brady | video | 73L | launched
- **J4** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: Top ways startups waste money | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 121L | all
- **M9** | The Right (And Wrong) Way To Spend Money At Your Startup | Y Combinator | video | 15L | all

### Founder Interview

- **IW** | Dalton & Michael: Elon Musk and the Midwit meme | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 80L | all
- **6W** | Elon Musk on how to build the future | Elon Musk | video | 138L | building
- **MX** | Elon Musk: Digital Superintelligence, Multiplanetary Life, How to Be Useful | Y Combinator | video | 18L | all
- **KQ** | Garry Tan speaks at Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL) lecture series | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **Lp** | How To Build The Future: Sam Altman | Garry Tan | video | 17L | building
- **8D** | Live office hours with Sam Altman and Yuri Sagalov | Yuri Sagalov, Sam Altman | video | 791L | all
- **5s** | Mark Zuckerberg on building a startup | Mark Zuckerberg | video | 116L | building

### Fundraising

- **4P** | A standard and clean Series A term sheet | Jason Kwon, Aaron Harris | essay | 117L | scaling
- **DX** | Dalton & Michael: Understanding investor terms and incentives | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 53L | all
- **IT** | Dalton & Michael: Why investors can’t fix your company | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 107L | all
- **4b** | How to Pitch Your Company | Michael Seibel | essay | 152L | all
- **6q** | How to Pitch Your Startup | Kevin Hale | video | 317L | all
- **8d** | How to build a great Series A pitch and deck | Janelle Tam | essay | 400L | building, scaling
- **2u** | How to build your seed round pitch deck | Aaron Harris | essay | 89L | building
- **98** | How to convince investors | Paul Graham | essay | 287L | all
- **3h** | Series A diligence checklist | Aaron Harris, Jason Kwon | essay | 130L | scaling
- **Kk** | Why Founders Shouldn't Think Like Investors | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 23L | all

### General

- **Lx** | 2024’s Biggest Startup Trends | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **4I** | Advice for Gaming Startups | Holly Liu | essay | 544L | all
- **4l** | Advice for job seekers on resumes and reaching out | Ryan Choi | essay | 75L | all
- **2s** | Advice for new managers | Aaron Epstein | essay | 150L | all
- **CU** | Amplitude (W12) is going public | Geoff Ralston | essay | 57L | all
- **Lw** | Anthropic’s Claude Computer Use Is A Game Changer | Garry Tan | video | 13L | all
- **Kd** | Apple Vision Pro: Startup Platform Of The Future? [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 2] | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **K2** | Backstory: Surbhi Sarna | Y Combinator | video | 19L | all
- **KY** | Backstory: Tom Blomfield | Y Combinator | video | 19L | all
- **4p** | Before growing your startup | Sam Altman | essay | 46L | all
- **M1** | Building A $2 Billion SaaS Company: Lessons From A Two Time Founder | Dalton Caldwell | video | 20L | building
- **MA** | Building A Supersonic Plane Company From The Ground Up | Jared Friedman | video | 18L | building
- **Lb** | Building The World's Best Image Diffusion Model | Y Combinator | video | 14L | building
- **Jv** | Building a better mobile app | Aaron Epstein | video | 33L | building
- **5O** | Building a startup is about solving a problem | Avni Patel Thompson | video | 281L | building
- **Mj** | Chelsea Finn: Building Robots That Can Do Anything | Y Combinator | video | 24L | building
- **5a** | Consume information that encourages you to do more | Dalton Caldwell | video | 62L | all
- **L2** | Consumer is back, What’s getting funded now, The vibes immaculate [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 6] | Y Combinator | video | 15L | all
- **IN** | Dalton & Michael: Does Your Startup Need To Be In San Francisco? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 74L | all
- **IO** | Dalton & Michael: How generosity built tech giants | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 60L | all
- **Ii** | Dalton & Michael: Most important lifestyle habits of successful founders | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 137L | all
- **Ed** | Dalton & Michael: Save your startup during an economic downturn | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 151L | all
- **DW** | Dalton & Michael: Should you follow your passion? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 90L | all
- **IR** | Dalton & Michael: Silicon Valley's cargo culting problem | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 81L | all
- **IY** | Dalton & Michael: The cult of conformity in Silicon Valley | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 88L | all
- **IQ** | Dalton & Michael: The hard conversations founders don't want to have | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 101L | all
- **Ib** | Dalton & Michael: What basic game theory teaches us about startups | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 87L | all
- **Jw** | Dalton & Michael: Why You Shouldn't Copy Your Tech Idols | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 20L | all
- **Ih** | Dalton & Michael: Why you should leave your FAANG job | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 91L | all
- **Jb** | David Lieb, Creator of Google Photos | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **95** | Default alive or default dead | Paul Graham | essay | 135L | all
- **6Q** | Diane Greene's advice for founders | Diane Greene | video | 123L | all
- **K1** | Different startup stages and what they mean for you | Ryan Choi | video | 15L | all
- **Co** | Embark Trucks' (W16) road to IPO | Geoff Ralston | video | 52L | all
- **KP** | Five DevTool Startups Get Their Websites Reviewed | Aaron Epstein | video | 16L | all
- **4y** | Founder Stories: Detroit Water Project's Tiffani Ashley Bell | Tiffani Ashley | essay | 207L | all
- **Md** | François Chollet: The ARC Prize & How We Get to AGI | Y Combinator | video | 22L | all
- **KG** | From Underdog to Undefeated: The Edrizio De La Cruz founder story | Garry Tan | video | 15L | all
- **MT** | Fusion Energy Is Tech's Next Big Unlock | Gustaf Alströmer | video | 18L | all
- **Jn** | Garry's Channel: Billion dollar startups are better, faster, or cheaper | Garry Tan | video | 15L | all
- **Jp** | Garry's Channel: Figma's $20B, 10 year overnight success | Garry Tan | video | 17L | all
- **Jf** | Garry's Channel: How I turned $300k into $2 billion | Garry Tan | video | 13L | all
- **Jm** | Garry's Channel: How REAL movements start, then change the world | Garry Tan | video | 12L | all
- **Jg** | Garry's Channel: LEARN, EARN or QUIT | My job/career advice | Garry Tan | video | 12L | all
- **Jj** | Garry's Channel: YOU can beat Google the way Amazon does. Here’s how. | Garry Tan | video | 13L | all
- **CV** | Ginkgo Bioworks (S14) is going public today | Jared Friedman | essay | 122L | all
- **K6** | How Athelas is revolutionizing healthcare | Garry Tan | video | 18L | all
- **Li** | How Do Billion Dollar Startups Start? | Y Combinator | video | 14L | all
- **L7** | How New Technology Creates New Businesses | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 23L | all
- **LO** | How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years | Garry Tan | video | 16L | all
- **6R** | How Pachama uses tech to tackle climate change | Diego Saez Gil | video | 193L | all
- **M6** | How To Build The AGI Future: Bob McGrew | Garry Tan | video | 15L | building
- **MC** | How To Build The Future: Aravind Srinivas | David Lieb | video | 15L | building
- **M2** | How To Build The Future: Parker Conrad | Garry Tan | video | 15L | building
- **MJ** | How To Build The Future: Tony Xu | Garry Tan | video | 17L | building
- **LQ** | How To Influence Decision Makers | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 13L | all
- **LU** | How To Live In The Social Media Matrix | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 14L | all
- **LI** | How To Price For B2B | Tom Blomfield | video | 13L | all
- **3t** | How WeChat grew to be the #1 app in the world | Anu Hariharan | essay | 319L | all
- **ML** | How Zepto Became India’s Fastest Growing Startup | Garry Tan | video | 16L | all
- **7e** | How and why to start a startup | Sam Altman, Dustin Moskowitz | video | 817L | all
- **7L** | How do you create luck? | Dalton Caldwell | video | 62L | all
- **6G** | How to Build the Future | Sam Altman | video | 88L | building
- **JS** | How to Start a Startup: Diversity and inclusion at early stage startups | Kat Mañalac | video | 13L | all
- **77** | How to invent the future (part 1) | Alan Kay | video | 830L | all
- **76** | How to invent the future (part 2) | Alan Kay | video | 768L | all
- **8p** | How to prioritize features | Emmett Shear | essay | 128L | all
- **8f** | How to spin your scientific research out of a university and into a startup | Jared Friedman | essay | 289L | all
- **89** | How to succeed with a startup | Sam Altman | video | 54L | all
- **J6** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: Advantages of a first-time founder | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 100L | all
- **Iz** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: How to compete with Amazon and Google | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 76L | all
- **JB** | Jessica Livingston on how to build the future | Jessica Livingston | video | 12L | building
- **Mh** | John Jumper: AlphaFold and the Future of Science | Y Combinator | video | 19L | all
- **8I** | Managing startup finances | Kirsty Nathoo | video | 123L | all
- **8F** | Modern startup funding | Carolynn Levy | video | 121L | all
- **7M** | Most startups are undercharging | Dalton Caldwell | video | 39L | all
- **4s** | Navigating success for your startup | Sam Altman | essay | 72L | all
- **5R** | On Starting and Scaling Hubspot | Brian Halligan | video | 1007L | all
- **6P** | On Starting and Scaling Intercom | Des Traynor | video | 1204L | all
- **4x** | On starting a company from a hackathon project | Tanay Tandon | essay | 129L | all
- **5N** | On starting and scaling Bloom Institute of Technology | Austen Allred | video | 769L | all
- **6M** | On starting and scaling Indian shopping site Meesho | Vidit Aatrey | video | 702L | all
- **5Q** | On starting and scaling aerospace company Boom | Blake Scholl | essay | 217L | all
- **6L** | On starting and scaling construction startup PlanGrid | Tracy Young | video | 803L | all
- **5I** | On starting and scaling healthcare startup 23andMe | Anne Wojcicki | video | 462L | all
- **69** | On starting and scaling meal kit company Gobble | Ooshma Garg | video | 280L | all
- **5f** | On starting and scaling one of the biggest iOS apps | David Lieb | video | 787L | all
- **6I** | On starting and scaling recruiting software startup Lever | Sarah Nahm | video | 701L | all
- **CP** | One order of operations for starting a startup | Michael Seibel | video | 72L | all
- **61** | Order of operations for starting a startup | Michael Seibel | video | 102L | all
- **Ky** | Parker Conrad, Founder of Zenefits & Rippling | The Social Radars | essay | 13L | all
- **80** | Patrick Collison on effectively running a startup | Patrick Collison, Adora Cheung | video | 233L | all
- **2z** | Pinduoduo and the rise of social e-commerce | Anu Hariharan, Nic Dardenne | essay | 265L | all
- **7S** | Quantum computing with Chad Rigetti | Chad Rigetti | video | 106L | all
- **60** | Should I start a startup? | Michael Seibel | video | 81L | pre-idea
- **7v** | Should I use a dev shop? | Michael Seibel | video | 36L | all
- **GV** | Should you start a startup? | Harj Taggar | video | 69L | all
- **La** | Signs Your Company Is Recovering From ZIRP | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 16L | all
- **Lk** | Starting A Company? The Key Terms You Should Know | Dalton Caldwell | video | 13L | all
- **4j** | Startup HR: What's Important? | Renee Mars | essay | 145L | all
- **Kc** | Stop Innovating (On The Wrong Things) | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 22L | all
- **KJ** | The 10-Year “Overnight” Success Story of Casetext | Garry Tan | video | 22L | all
- **JF** | The Immigrant Journey Behind A Silicon Valley Success Story | Garry Tan | video | 12L | all
- **M0** | The Lightcone 2025 Forecast | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **LM** | The Problem With Startup "Experts" | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 13L | all
- **4g** | The Scientific Method for Startups | Michael Seibel | essay | 58L | all
- **Mz** | The World's First Commercial Mobile Carbon Capture Device | Y Combinator | video | 18L | all
- **8w** | The hardest lessons for startups to learn | Paul Graham | essay | 388L | all
- **3x** | The hidden forces behind China's content king Toutiao | Anu Hariharan | essay | 356L | all
- **82** | The path to $100B | Paul Buchheit, Geoff Ralston | video | 219L | all
- **3e** | Thoughts on Insurance | Aaron Harris | essay | 272L | all
- **Is** | Tips for technical startup founders | Diana Hu | video | 124L | all
- **CH** | Venture Debt 101: Basics and Approach | Jon Levy | essay | 107L | all
- **6N** | Vinod Khosla on How to Build the Future | Vinod Khosla | video | 395L | building
- **Cp** | Weave (W14) is Going Public | Geoff Ralston | essay | 111L | all
- **LC** | What Is ZIRP And How Did It Poison Startups? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 28L | all
- **NB** | What Surprised Us Most In 2025 | Y Combinator | video | 13L | all
- **64** | What makes great founders stand out? | Michael Seibel | video | 67L | all
- **Kw** | When Should You Trust Your Gut? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 23L | all
- **3S** | When to Shut Down a Startup | Aaron Harris | video | 168L | all
- **Kj** | Where Is The REAL Cerebral Valley? [Lightcone Podcast Ep. 3] | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **3O** | Why Big Deals Are Bad for Startups | Aaron Harris | essay | 94L | all
- **L5** | Why This Is The Perfect Time To Start A Startup [Lightcone Podcast LIVE] | Y Combinator | video | 12L | all
- **8x** | Why to not not start a startup | Paul Graham | essay | 481L | all

### Getting Started

- **4d** | A letter to college students | Michael Seibel | essay | 71L | pre-idea
- **93** | A student's guide to startups | Paul Graham | essay | 449L | pre-idea
- **8y** | Before the startup | Paul Graham | essay | 348L | pre-idea
- **Kg** | Building Confidence In Yourself and Your Ideas | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 25L | building, idea
- **IZ** | Dalton & Michael: The student's guide to becoming a successful startup founder | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 113L | pre-idea
- **DU** | Dalton & Michael: Where do great startup ideas come from? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 93L | idea
- **Ji** | Garry's Channel: Billion dollar startup ideas | Garry Tan | video | 16L | idea
- **Jt** | Garry's Channel: Why now? The key to million dollar startup ideas | Garry Tan | video | 12L | idea
- **8z** | How to Get Startup Ideas | Paul Graham | essay | 543L | idea
- **JI** | How to Start a Startup: Before the startup | Paul Graham | video | 12L | pre-idea
- **8B** | How to Start a Startup: How to get ideas and find what's working | Stewart Butterfield, Adam D'Angelo | video | 855L | idea
- **7x** | How to get and test ideas | Michael Seibel | video | 36L | idea
- **8g** | How to get startup ideas | Jared Friedman | video | 73L | idea
- **D0** | Startups for students | Tamanna Khemani and Kat Mañalac | essay | 539L | pre-idea
- **LH** | Tarpit Ideas: The Sequel | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 13L | idea
- **N0** | Unpopular Ideas That Became Billion-Dollar Businesses | Y Combinator | video | 14L | idea
- **91** | Why smart people have bad ideas | Paul Graham | essay | 261L | idea

### Governance

- **3w** | How to create and manage a board | Anu Hariharan | essay | 333L | all

### Growth

- **KT** | Consumer Startup Metrics | Tom Blomfield | video | 19L | all
- **Ig** | Dalton & Michael: Things that don't scale, the software edition | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 113L | scaling
- **If** | Dalton & Michael: What does it really mean to do things that don't scale? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 87L | scaling
- **96** | Do things that don't scale | Paul Graham | essay | 338L | scaling
- **6k** | Growth for startups | Gustaf Alströmer | video | 192L | launched
- **LV** | How To Improve Cohort Retention | David Lieb | video | 15L | all
- **JL** | How to Start a Startup: Getting started, getting press, and doing things that don't scale | Stanley Tang, Walker Williams, Justin Kan | video | 15L | scaling
- **9i** | How to choose a metric and set your KPI | Michael Seibel | video | 12L | all
- **6l** | How to improve conversion rates | Kevin Hale | video | 56L | all
- **59** | How to set up, hire, and scale a growth strategy and team | Anu Hariharan | essay | 809L | launched, scaling
- **J0** | Inside the Group Partner Lounge: When to launch your startup | Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora | video | 67L | launched
- **5j** | Jeff Dean on building intelligent systems with large scale deep learning | Jeff Dean | video | 280L | building, scaling
- **KR** | Key Startup Metrics | Tom Blomfield | video | 13L | all
- **8s** | Startup = growth | Paul Graham | essay | 405L | launched
- **KS** | The asymmetric upside of being positive | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 22L | all
- **Ir** | The best way to launch your startup | Kat Mañalac | video | 96L | launched
- **LG** | Why Startup Founders Should Launch Companies Sooner Than They Think | Y Combinator | video | 14L | launched

### Hiring

- **4v** | Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team | Sid Sijbrandij | essay | 195L | scaling
- **7g** | How to build and manage teams | Vinod Khosla, Anu Hariharan | video | 845L | building, scaling
- **4h** | Three paths in the tech industry: founder, executive, or employee | Michael Seibel | essay | 136L | all

### Launching

- **L3** | Does Your Startup Website Pass The First Impression Test? | Aaron Epstein | video | 14L | all
- **4c** | Getting press for your startup | Michael Seibel | essay | 134L | all

### Leadership

- **3j** | How to measure leadership | Ali Rowghani | essay | 255L | all

### Metrics

- **8H** | Analytics for startups | Ilya Volodarsky | video | 93L | all
- **Iu** | Setting KPIs and goals | Divya Bhat | video | 119L | all

### Mindset

- **94** | Be relentlessly resourceful | Paul Graham | essay | 100L | all
- **IX** | Dalton & Michael: How to deal with setbacks | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 99L | all
- **Id** | Dalton & Michael: Setting smarter goals | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 126L | all
- **DV** | Dalton & Michael: Successful founders are OK with rejection | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 91L | all

### Pivoting

- **6p** | All about pivoting | Dalton Caldwell | video | 142L | all
- **NA** | From Pivot Hell To $1.4 Billion Unicorn | Y Combinator | video | 17L | scaling

### Pricing

- **6h** | Startup pricing 101 | Kevin Hale | video | 58L | all

### Scaling

- **KA** | Is it time to quit your job at a unicorn? | Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel | video | 22L | scaling
- **4q** | Later stage advice for startups | Sam Altman | essay | 214L | scaling
- **8L** | What's different about unicorns? | Jessica Livingston | video | 69L | scaling
