00:00good morning to you guys who are here
00:01live but good day to everyone who is
00:04viewing this class online
00:06welcome to Y Combinator's second annual
00:10massively open online course startup
00:15school so I'm Jeff Ralston I'm a partner
00:19here at Y Combinator and one of the
00:21organizers of this year's startup school
00:25starting today we're hoping that Y sees
00:29knowledge about entrepreneurship will
00:31help spur incredible innovation from all
00:35of you here and out there to create a
00:39normos value for for the societies in
00:43which you live for your friends your
00:45families your employees and for
00:49yourselves we're going to cover just a
00:55few things before we actually get
00:57started on the course so I hope you'll
00:58bear with us first more companies than
01:06ever before asked to take place take
01:10part in start-up school this year 27,000
01:14companies from around the world asked to
01:20yeah that's a number that kind of blows
01:22me away every time I think about it
01:2615,000 of those companies ask to
01:29actually participate in the class and
01:34that's from over a hundred countries in
01:37over eight thousand cities around the
01:40world really extraordinary numbers now
01:44some of you may have heard that we had
01:46in fact intended to actually only allow
01:51about a quarter of those 15,000 to take
01:54the class just because there are actual
01:57infrastructure limitations well I don't
02:01know if you did hear didn't hear but
02:02there was a slight glitch in our process
02:04and in the end and then we accepted all
02:0915,000 companies give or take
02:13we accepted everyone its 15,000 give or
02:16take this means that this will be by far
02:20the largest class for startups that Y
02:23Combinator or for that matter anyone
02:25else has ever taught so congratulations
02:29on being part of the biggest class I
02:31don't know if that's great or not but
02:32congratulations you're you're still part
02:34of it um so like let me just do a brief
02:41interlude about startup school my
02:47competitor began in 2005 by funding more
02:49companies simultaneously than had ever
02:51been done before even though we only
02:54started with 8 companies in our first
02:55batch today we fund over 300 companies
03:00every year and work with them in an
03:02intense three-month program but there
03:06are many many more thousands who
03:08actually apply for each one of those
03:10spots and we always knew that there was
03:12a possibility of our knowledge having
03:15greater reach so that's why we started
03:22to maximize how many companies we could
03:27reach with our knowledge to get it to as
03:28many companies around the world to
03:30maximize and this is our stated goal as
03:33a as a company the innovation in the
03:36world because we think that that is
03:38almost always a really good thing we
03:42would like to find a way for every star
03:43to succeed and yes there is
03:46self-interest here because it would be
03:48awesome if one or more of you out there
03:50today was the next huge wear.i
03:56Combinator company and why not right we
04:00first experimented with the idea of
04:06greater reach in 2014 with a course
04:10taught by Y Combinator's president Sam
04:13how to start a startup it was a
04:17conventional course taught at Stanford
04:20with the difference that there was an
04:23online component this the the lectures
04:25were videoed and then placed online
04:28last year we rethought that course as a
04:33massively open online course with the
04:37difference that the classes would be
04:45coupled with online access community
04:48software tools and of course most
04:51impotant most importantly weekly
04:53meetings with groups and check-ins so
04:57this year we're going to reprise that
05:02idea with some notable differences we're
05:05still going to have a combination of
05:07in-person and online classes but we have
05:11revamp software this year most of the
05:15curricula will be taught by YC partners
05:17and YC alumni there's as I mentioned new
05:22software for community and for
05:24management there's scale we're scaling
05:28larger than we ever have before the
05:31timing of this class is different last
05:33year was taught in this spring this year
05:35is timed to coincide with a YC batch so
05:38that hopefully as many of you all as
05:40possible who want to apply to the YC
05:42winter 2019 batch can conveniently do so
05:49there's also a $10,000 grant non-equity
05:54grant available for hundred companies
05:57who complete and graduate from the
06:00course and in a few moments my partner
06:02adora will go through the criteria for
06:05graduation also for the first time we've
06:12collected really an extraordinary
06:14library of start-up content at the URL
06:18you see there and I really encourage you
06:20guys to go look at it you can find that
06:22there's a there's a link to it online
06:24when you log in to the site it's
06:28available it's a it's an open library
06:31available to anyone and also we have
06:33some incredible deals for the 15,000
06:35companies that you can also see when you
06:41to call out the the the folks offering
06:43deals were not expecting to offer those
06:45deals to 15,000 companies there's a big
06:48surprise and and a number of whom really
06:51really really stepped up Amazon Web
06:56Services is offering a thousand dollar
06:58credit to every single thousand dollars
07:02of AWS credits to everybody Thank You
07:06Amazon thank you google for offering a
07:08thousand dollars in Google cloud and
07:09firebase credits and to YC companies
07:12stripe and Clerke have also really
07:14strapped up stripe is offering an
07:16incredible deal on stripe at lists 50%
07:19off for all of the companies and $5,000
07:22of fee free payment processing and
07:25Clerke is also giving a fantastic deal
07:28$5.99 gets you formation a bank account
07:30and lots more from Clerke so briefly I'm
07:37gonna take you through the curriculum
07:39here our first week kicks off with an
07:40introduction to get startup school and
07:42your company off the ground and then for
07:46the next three weeks we dig in deeply
07:51into building something that people want
07:53and then figuring out how to get users
07:54for that something then we spend a bunch
08:00of time talking about how to effectively
08:02run a start-up with an interlude by YC
08:06partner Dalton Caldwell in week six
08:08which will I think you'll find very
08:10helpful in terms of thinking through how
08:13to apply to I see how to succeed at an
08:16interview with YC and NYC itself and
08:19then we finish up with some lectures on
08:23fundraising and with an eye towards the
08:25future another new aspect to startup
08:30school this year something I'm really
08:32excited about which is something we're
08:34calling conversations there's gonna be
08:37two kinds of conversations real ones
08:40with a notable expert in some useful
08:43domain as well as a mas ask me any
08:46things on our forums where you where the
08:50experts will respond to questions both
08:54asked in advance and live actually this
08:58week we have an AMA tomorrow and a
09:01conversation on Friday which you can
09:03learn that you'll learn more about so if
09:07it's not obvious we're doing a lot more
09:10this year a lot of new things and some
09:15of those things aren't planned weren't
09:17planned so we asked you to bear with us
09:19this is our small team we're very
09:21effective and very tight but small but
09:24we'll fix everything that goes wrong as
09:26quickly as possible and respond to you
09:28as quickly as possible understand that
09:31there's a big scale here and there are
09:33there are many companies that are taking
09:35startup school and we are going to do
09:37our best to make your all of your
09:39experiences as successful as possible so
09:43now adora the YC partner with whom I'm
09:47organizing startup school is going to go
09:51over some of the details as to how the
09:532018 class is actually going to work all
10:10right so I am going to talk about the
10:12structure of the course there are five
10:14main components to this course what you
10:16see up here weekly class lectures weekly
10:18group office hours company updates form
10:20and presentation day so I'm going to go
10:22over all of these and at the end I will
10:24demo how it actually works in the
10:26software all right start off so as you
10:31already know each Tuesday we will be
10:32recording around two hours of lectures
10:34on a variety of topics related to
10:36building and growing your startup which
10:39Jeff already did a good preview of
10:40before most lectures we will be sending
10:44out what we call a prep material which
10:46is like videos and slides to review so
10:49that the speakers can get to the good
10:51ASAP instead of spending too much time
10:53on the mundane basics please take the
10:57time to review those notes if you can if
11:01you're in the San Francisco Bay Area you
11:04will be able to attend these lectures in
11:06person unfortunately
11:09there's only a limited amount of seats
11:11so we can't fit everyone each time but
11:14we will confirm via RSVPs if you can
11:17attend the lecture so please only come
11:19if you get an invite to that particular
11:20lecture we will start at 10 a.m. each
11:23Tuesday please be in your seat by then
11:25the speaker will give the lecture and
11:28then QA will be done afterwards however
11:32most of you will actually be watching
11:34the lectures online we will be posting
11:36the lectures every Wednesday after the
11:39Tuesday lecture around 12 p.m. or at
11:42least by 12 p.m. each week we encourage
11:44you to just watch whenever you get a
11:49so weekly group office hours as you may
11:52or may not know we've already placed you
11:54in groups of 15 to 30 companies each
11:56mostly based on location this is to
11:59provide a more intimate experience
12:00consider this group your immediate
12:03support network for startup school and
12:04hopefully beyond startup school these
12:07are your go-to people when you need help
12:09or you want to discuss something related
12:11to your startup so one of the ways we
12:15make sure you leverage this group
12:16effectively is through weekly group
12:18office hours and we think this is
12:20actually the most important thing to
12:22participate in even more so than
12:24potentially the lectures so you can
12:27think of weekly group office hours as
12:28two things one it's a weekly chicken to
12:31keep everyone accountable and two it's
12:34like a group therapy session where you
12:37can air out your week ask for help and
12:40get feedback from your peers so the way
12:43that group office hours work is pretty
12:45each session is led by a moderator the
12:48moderator calls the meeting to order and
12:50then if he or she facilitates a
12:52discussion in which in which one founder
12:54from each company says three things one
12:57their company one-liner to remind
12:58everyone what they're actually working
13:00on which actually is quite a tough thing
13:02to say what you're working on one line
13:05so you should help each other work on
13:07that too is goals for your last week and
13:10why they did why you did or did not meet
13:13that goal and three your biggest problem
13:15or obstacle that the crew can help you
13:18with and then this is followed by
13:20discussion in which each
13:22company spends about five to ten minutes
13:24depending on the number of people
13:26actually show up to group office hours
13:28that week and the moderator goes last so
13:31like I said each group has only one
13:32moderator some groups have been already
13:34assigned a moderator these are
13:36volunteers from the YC founder community
13:38many groups do not have one yet these
13:41groups will need to select one amongst
13:43themselves so if you are in a group
13:45without a mired moderator currently and
13:47you will know this via the software
13:49which I'll show you shortly
13:50your homework is to do this ASAP by
13:52Thursday so how to select a moderator
13:55for your group first ask yourself if you
14:00are that person do you want to do this
14:02this involves extra time energy and
14:05thought and so just be cognizant of the
14:07extra work before volunteering you will
14:10need to set the weekly schedule for your
14:11group encourage and drive discussions
14:14and constantly ask the group for input
14:16and guide the conversations should you
14:19choose to accept this mission we will be
14:21running a moderator training session
14:23this Friday it's going to be a live
14:25stream at 9:00 a.m. Pacific and we will
14:27be posting the live stream the recording
14:29of it afterwards if you can't attend so
14:32you should immediately get together with
14:34the group via the two channels we
14:35provide which is video chat and group
14:38form or some other way that's best for
14:40you and figure this out one easy way to
14:43figure this out is whoever volunteers
14:44first gets the role so there's no
14:47arguing there so please submit your
14:50choice by Friday so that the right
14:53person knows to attend the training
14:54session here is the link to submit we
14:57will send this out to you afterwards so
15:00you don't really need to write this down
15:01now so the obvious question might be
15:04what if no one in your group volunteers
15:06to be a moderator well the answer is if
15:10no one volunteers then no one in the
15:12group can participate in start-up school
15:13your entire group will be auditing the
15:15class instead whoops I don't know what I
15:18did there but there we go
15:21this seems hard but for this to work we
15:23think having a moderated group office
15:24hours just based on experience is very
15:27important maybe the most important thing
15:29for this entire class so we've made this
15:32a requirement to stay in the course
15:35alright I'm a little bit okay weekly
15:39company updates so sometimes this week
15:42you should actually sit down and think
15:43with your other co-founders about a goal
15:47for startup school that is at least one
15:50key metric that defines what success is
15:53to you by the end of the ten weeks
15:56this might just be launching your
15:57product but hopefully it's some kind of
16:00key metric like monthly recurring
16:01revenue number of active users and so
16:03forth and each week you will be asked to
16:06submit an update of your company in
16:08particular whether you achieved your
16:10weekly goal for this key metric we find
16:13that submitting this adds an extra layer
16:16of useful accountability and will help
16:18you to drive to accomplish more than you
16:20would have otherwise so please submit
16:23this by Tuesday end of day Pacific
16:25excluding this week so the first day I
16:27believe is September 3rd alright so one
16:32of the things we're doing new this time
16:33and in which I'm personally excited
16:35about is the community and forum which
16:38some of you may have logged in and
16:39already started posting this is the
16:42place where you can talk to Phil a
16:43founder as you like yourself you can
16:45pull for opinions on a variety of
16:46matters related to your startups and ask
16:49for help for things like what's the best
16:50way to do X Y & Z and so forth we've
16:53also created a private channel for your
16:55group and we think that most of the
16:57conversations will have will actually be
16:59in these private channels talking to
17:01tens of thousands of people will be
17:04almost usually ineffective and tough for
17:06many topics so one of the first things
17:09you do if you haven't already done is
17:10log into the software which is live now
17:12and introduce yourself to your own group
17:17basic form rules apply be nice don't
17:22spam I've already had to delete some
17:24posts so try not to do that only post
17:27things that will be helpful to you and
17:28everyone else if you break these rules
17:30we unfortunately will have to remove you
17:34finally at the end of the course we will
17:37have a virtual presentation day where
17:40you'll pitch your company via video and
17:41slides this is we're telling the story
17:43of your startup is important and Jeff
17:45will go over how to do this and how to
17:48in a few minutes so while presentation
17:51day is actually optional it's a good way
17:53to use this day to set an ambitious goal
17:54of what you would like to show off to
17:57others in ten weeks from now there will
17:59be many of you who if you take this
18:01seriously will be amazed in ten weeks by
18:04what you can accomplish and what you'll
18:05be able to present by just setting a
18:07goal holding yourself accountable each
18:10week by one submitting updates and
18:12talking about your progress with your
18:15group during group office hours all
18:19right so to help us keep the community
18:23tight and on track together we will be
18:25removing inactive companies
18:27unfortunately so if you don't submit
18:28updates and skip group office hours in
18:30the first two weeks you will be auditing
18:32instead we want to work with you if
18:34you're serious about your startup than
18:36making progress now some of you may
18:38decide this is not the right time to do
18:40your startup and that's obviously
18:42totally fine to officially complete the
18:46course aka to graduate you just need to
18:50do two things one is to submit nine out
18:52of the ten weekly updates and two is to
18:55participate in nine out of the ten group
18:57office hour sessions and that's it and
19:00as you know as Jeff already mentioned we
19:04are giving out 110k equity free grants
19:06for the most promising startups course
19:08completion is the minimum requirement to
19:11be eligible for these grants but
19:13regardless if you're aiming for this or
19:14not we believe the success of your
19:16startup will increase if you actually
19:17complete the course so regardless please
19:20you know we encourage you to just
19:22complete the course finally jeffra kind
19:27of already mentioned this but while
19:29startup school is completely independent
19:31from the YC core program we would love
19:33for as many of you to apply to it as
19:37possible in this vein as Jeff has
19:39pointed out we have a lecture dedicated
19:40to how to create the best application
19:43possible and the best practices for the
19:44in-person interview should you get one
19:47the course just happens to finish just
19:49in time for you to apply on time and so
19:52we hope to see many of you do so yeah I
19:57spend a couple of minutes talking about
20:02something that I think is absolutely
20:05vital to startup success but although
20:09it's fundamental is often somewhat
20:12overlooked and that is really the
20:14invention the creation of the story of
20:17your startup this might sound obvious or
20:20basic but it turns out that getting this
20:24right is actually non intuitively
20:25important and the reason that it is so
20:27important is because startups are so
20:31hard they're so very very hard it is
20:34almost certainly going to be the hardest
20:38most difficult thing you will do in your
20:40professional career and if you don't
20:43create a story the right story that you
20:47can tell yourself to keep going when
20:50things go wrong you'll quit and your
20:54startup will die so it's worthwhile my
20:58YC partner Aaron Harris who's going to
21:01be giving a lecture later on in start-up
21:04school thinks and talks a lot about
21:06stories and I'm indebted to him for a
21:09number of the ideas and what I'm about
21:10to say so there are stories and there
21:14are stories and the famous author Ian
21:17Forrester maybe said it best many many
21:19decades ago when he gave this example so
21:24the King died and then the Queen died is
21:26certainly a story but it's not a very
21:30interesting story is it it's not a story
21:32that grabs you it's not a story you
21:34necessarily care about but the King died
21:37and then the Queen died of grief well
21:41there's something there there's
21:43something that grab you there's
21:44something human there there's something
21:46in that story that seems to matter and
21:48it turns out founders spend a lot of
21:53time telling stories they tell stories
21:57about what they're doing they tell
21:59stories about the future that they're
22:03trying to create they tell stories
22:05originally maybe to their parents to
22:08their friends to their family
22:11eventually two co-founders potential
22:14customers partners in the company
22:17investors but most of all they need to
22:22tell a story that resonates with
22:23themselves it's the story of your
22:28startup that will nourish you that will
22:31keep you going through hard times and
22:34setbacks it's a story that will persuade
22:40you to actually do this crazy thing and
22:43it's the story that will maybe just for
22:47those others per Sade them to join you
22:49on your journey how crazy it is to
22:55convince someone else to follow you on
22:58such an uncertain path it's not easy so
23:03we actually spend a lot of time at YC
23:05helping people craft and sometimes even
23:08reimagine their stories so I'd strongly
23:12recommend that you do these things
23:14during these 10 weeks so start with your
23:19idea and then as a dora mentioned create
23:21a 1 preferably one sentence or maybe two
23:24sentence explanation that is so easy to
23:27understand you can stop anyone in the
23:29street and they wouldn't just look at
23:31you blankly when you're telling them
23:32what you do create your what we call
23:36your vertebrae the framework of your
23:39story that captures really what it's all
23:43about and that if you were to tell your
23:45story you would expect hope that people
23:48might just remember because they will
23:50not remember your entire story and
23:53create a 2 minute demo day like pitch
23:56doesn't have to be exactly 2 minutes but
23:58create a pitch that captures the essence
24:01of your story and communicates those
24:04vertebrae in a memorable way and last
24:07but not least work with your co-founders
24:09so that you're on the same page so that
24:14you all share the same story and can all
24:17relate that story tell that story in a
24:20way that's compelling and believable
24:22because when you have it right
24:24we'll be believable and equally
24:29importantly it will be 'rememorable and
24:34I hope sustain you as you go through
24:38your path and your journey
24:39good luck to everyone I hope that
24:43startup school helps everyone realize
24:46the dream and the company you're
24:49creating has a ton of success so adore
24:54come on up we are going to do a quick
24:58Q&A I just want to say one thing about
25:06one part of what Sam talked about which
25:08is we'll figure it out don't minimize
25:10the importance of getting that as part
25:14of the fundamental culture of your team
25:17and in fact as an example Y Combinator
25:21might not feel to you guys like a
25:22startup but it always feels to us like
25:24it's a startup even though we're 15
25:26years old now and a week ago everything
25:31went to hell and we had a pretty big
25:36problem with start-up school and we
25:38weren't quite sure how to deal with it
25:40and our small team sat down together and
25:44everyone said well we'll figure it out
25:45we're going to let everyone in and we'll
25:47figure out how to make it work now you
25:50guys will be the judge of how good a job
25:51we do figuring it out we're going to do
25:53our very best but that sort of attitude
25:56this default towards positive action
26:00makes for great startups any questions
26:05you have we're going to take whatever
26:07questions you have if any then we're
26:09going to take a short break and then
26:13we'll continue with the second half the
26:17second lecture today on startup
26:18mechanics led by our incredible legal
26:24team from Y Combinator who's hiding in
26:26the corner over there so any questions
26:30for adoro myself yes when should we
26:33submit the weekly updates should we do
26:35it nice and early or should we try
26:37get as much done as possible and can
26:38wait as late as possible and submits
26:40them close to the deadline well look the
26:48right so the updates are to derive
26:50progress in your company and it's
26:53usually better to have an update that is
26:56better than worse so you know if you
27:00think you're gonna get five sales
27:01between now and the deadline we'll get
27:03the five sales and have a better update
27:06I would actually in general recommend
27:08doing them on a on a pretty consistent
27:11temporal basis just because that gives
27:13you some clues to your progress like
27:15every week we're going this much but
27:18look they're a week apart so the
27:19importance of a few days is not going to
27:22make or break your startup the important
27:24thing for the updates is to have a
27:28measure that you hold yourself to that
27:32really tells you whether you're making
27:33progress or not because a startup that
27:36doesn't make progress is going nowhere
27:37that's redundant but true
27:41you know that when when the when when
27:46Chesky and Nate and the folks at Airbnb
27:49were at YC they used to wake up every
27:51morning and see their revenue graph and
27:53their bathroom mirror and that drove
27:57them and you know it helped and it
28:00worked out for them so why not you
28:11the question is about AWS credits and
28:14you probably missed the beginning but if
28:16you log in to the site you can see all
28:18of the deals that the companies who are
28:22following why accommodator
28:23following startup school yet there are
28:26aw there was a thousand dollars of AWS
28:29credits for all of the participants ya
28:33have what about the group office hours
28:35there's a lot of people in the room who
28:37are all from here so is there like a way
28:39for us to physically do that and then
28:41further like we're in San Francisco so
28:43coming down here is harder so I get more
28:47out of being in a room with other people
28:49and I do like on the internet so if you
28:53look just look at who's in your group
28:55and see where they are can you repeat
28:57the question because on this theorem so
28:58the question is should we be doing group
29:00office hours in person and if so like
29:02how do we go about doing that so we
29:05encourage because most people are
29:07distributed is to do them through the
29:09video chat online and that assures you
29:13know we just click it in you're in if
29:15you do want to do in person that's up to
29:16you but that's something you should work
29:19with your group on yes
29:27so you should if you're having issues
29:30with your account who should you contact
29:34if you're having issues either accounts
29:36you should email startup school at Y
29:38Combinator comm yes so the question is
29:49how will we choose the hundred companies
29:53who get the $10,000 as adora pointed out
29:58the first criterion that we'll look at
30:02is did you actually complete the
30:04requirements of the course if you do
30:05that then we're going to take a number
30:08of measures to see who's the most
30:11promising it's kind of what we do at Y
30:14Combinator we're always trying to judge
30:16who's the most promising so we're going
30:18to look at everyone who graduated and
30:19everyone's status updates and we'll talk
30:21to moderators and we'll look at the the
30:25information we have about the company
30:27and then make judgments as to who we
30:29think is most likely to to be able to
30:32take that ten thousand dollars and do
30:33something useful with it yes in the back
30:44I mean I work on both digital and
30:50can you stand up and speak more loudly
30:52please so I think the question was if
31:07you're working part time on your company
31:09because you have to work full time how
31:11do you stack up well well I think I
31:14think the hard answer there is there's
31:16few startups that are successful working
31:19part time so eventually if you're not
31:25full-time the likelihood that you're
31:26gonna create an epic company by working
31:28a few hours a week even if you know even
31:32if you're amazing and you're working 40
31:34hours a week in one job in 40 hours a
31:36week in another your probability of
31:38success is pretty low can you guys think
31:41of any company any amazing company where
31:44part-time founders actually made it
31:46amazing so I think the question isn't
31:49really to us it's to you how successful
31:52can you make your startup working part
31:54time I think you can get it going but at
31:57some point at some point in your
31:58startups in the in the evolution of your
32:01startup you're going to have to commit
32:03to it if you want to make that startup
32:04real yes there is really no such thing
32:14the question was about like the advisor
32:16Trac program there's really no such
32:18thing there's one program with all
32:1915,000 companies and we're going to try
32:22to make the program as identical for
32:24everyone as possible some grew
32:25everyone's going to have a group some
32:27groups have a built-in moderator some
32:30don't and have to have to add their
32:32moderator look we think we think that's
32:35going to work out very well we'll find
32:37out it's going to depend on you all -
32:40for the folks who choose to be
32:42moderators to take it seriously and to
32:46create a community and a useful group
32:49that actually helps folks as they have
32:52their encounter sessions as they talk
32:55about progress as they talk about
32:56problems and we think that one of the
32:59most important thing
33:00for start-up success is actually to have
33:03a community of folks to whom you can
33:04talk just having that community can be
33:07one of those things that does with your
33:09story sustain you as you as you build
33:12your startup yes so the question is if
33:28you haven't launched yet what should be
33:30a good weekly metric so the obvious
33:33number one thing you could go after is
33:35number of days till public launch and so
33:37that way the way you make progress over
33:39the weeks is the technical milestones
33:42that you need to hit like one two three
33:44and four to get to that so hopefully by
33:46the end of ten weeks you're able to
33:47launch it to either a set of private
33:49beta users or to the world and beyond
33:53that if you're also someone asked us in
33:55the forum to if you're in private beta
33:57right now like you know what's a good
34:00metric also number of days to public
34:01launch but also for example a number of
34:06active users using you or something some
34:08engagement metric that shows that people
34:09are loving what you're building one one
34:12just a fellow on one good rule is to
34:15launch earlier than you think you should
34:18now there are there are exceptions to
34:20that if you're you know if you're
34:23thorough notes and your thing doesn't
34:25work not a good idea so there are
34:27exceptions but in general you should
34:29launch sooner than you think you should
34:34like value and micros I guess like value
34:38is just like a number right it's very
34:39arbitrary so the question was on the
34:41weekly updates and what we mean by value
34:44I don't think it's arbitrary at all like
34:47if it's revenue it should be a real
34:50number if it's users it's a real number
34:54the reason we're not prescriptive about
34:57what that should be is because it
34:59depends so much on the stage of your
35:01startup the sort of startup you have
35:03what we encourage you to do is to try to
35:06figure out what metric is most likely to
35:11be representative of success what
35:14actually tells you that things are going
35:17well it's not a fake one if it's the
35:19number that happens to be the biggest
35:20every week but actually doesn't really
35:22represent whether things are going well
35:24you're getting a ton of registrations
35:26people are signing up for your product
35:28but nobody's using it so you use
35:30registrations as your metric you might
35:33think that that's impressing us but in
35:36the end you're just waving your hands
35:39around something that's not working so
35:41in that case for example maybe active
35:43users was a better metric to use yes
35:47sorry to ask another question we're a
35:49hardware company so the nature of what
35:51we're doing is that we're making
35:52something physical so what is a useful
35:55Hardware metric that you've seen over
35:57time that might be different than what
35:58you've already talked about so the
36:02question was what metrics make sense for
36:05hardware companies look we fund lots of
36:10hardware companies one of our partners
36:11at Eric makovski founded pebble he
36:16probably be much better than than I
36:17would be at answering that question but
36:19every company hardware software hard
36:23Tech if you're building like YC company
36:27boom a supersonic airplane still makes
36:29progress if you're not making progress
36:32what exactly are you doing it might be
36:34that you're trying to find a factory in
36:38China to manufacture your product so
36:43maybe you've made progress on that deal
36:44maybe it's in the design of the product
36:48we've completed the design of the wing
36:50or the engine again I will default to
36:57what I said before there is some way
37:00that you believe that your prior project
37:02your your company your product is
37:05proceeding on a path towards success and
37:07along that path there will be important
37:10milestones those should be your metrics
37:13we have a lot more questions so I'm just
37:16gonna take it I apologize a couple more
37:18questions because I want to give
37:20everyone a bio break and and I want to
37:23move to the next session so just a
37:26couple more yes yes so the question is
37:40how can you connect with YC alumni our
37:42partners to get feedback so we're a lot
37:45of alumni or at least over 100 or
37:47actually in the forum and they'll be
37:49answering your questions Jeff and I will
37:52also be in the forum we were YC partners
37:54so hopefully that covers that and we'll
37:56also have AMAs with other YC partners
37:58for example Eric from pebble will be
38:00doing something for the hardware
38:02startups and so we'll have those
38:04interactions as well so look it's a
38:08great question you know we're there's a
38:11lot of you out there there's 15,000
38:13companies and so we can only give so
38:16much feedback but the whole point of
38:18startup school is to try to give you
38:22know YC knowledge to everyone who can
38:26make use of it so we'll do our very best
38:27to do exactly that all right one more
38:36so the question is can I repeat what I
38:38meant by they've heard of the the
38:40vertebra of your story the way I usually
38:46think about that is if you tell let's
38:49say you meet an investor and tell them
38:51I'll give them a little two-minute pitch
38:53for your story you have to remember that
38:56they're gonna hear lots and lots and
38:57lots of pitches they're not going to
38:58remember your entire two-minute pitch
38:59they're probably gonna remember three or
39:01four things from that pitch the
39:05vertebrae the three or four things you
39:06want them to remember so if you if you
39:10build a story and the focus is on
39:12something like you know they walk away
39:13saying oh he's from San Mateo like who
39:17cares we really want them to remember is
39:20we're growing at 30% every week and this
39:22market is a gigantic market and our
39:25product solves an incredibly important
39:27problem for somebody so the vertebrae
39:30are the key elements around which you
39:33build a story the vertebrae are the
39:36elements that are the memorable ones of
39:37what you're building and that comprise
39:42really the essence of your story
39:44hope that helps look we're going to take
39:45a 12 minute break and start again at
39:5111:20 there's coffee and snacks in there
39:54and the bathrooms are over there thank
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