00:06I'm Hodge tiger one of the group Partners at y
combinator today I'm going to talk about whether
00:14you should start a startup because YC invests
in startups so early I've spent a lot of time
00:19with people who aren't yet sure if they should
start a company or not I've helped many people
00:23including my own friends and family think about
this decision at my intended audience for this
00:27talk is anyone who doesn't feel ready to start
a startup today but thinks they may want to one
00:32day in the future I'm going to break down the
topic of whether you should start a startup into
00:36two parts first we'll talk about which types of
people seem best suited to being startup Founders
00:41and help you figure out if you might be one of
them second we'll talk about how you might best
00:45prepare yourself for becoming a startup founder
in the future let's start by helping you figure
00:50out if you're the kind of person who should become
a startup founder or not I really wish there were
00:54simple test you could take that would give you a
clear and correct answer to that question I've now
00:58worked with almost a thousand startup Founders as
a group partner at YC and I still get surprised by
01:03which people take to Startup life like a duck
to water and which ones struggle to adapt now
01:07you might find this surprising if your image of
startups is based on the way famous Founders are
01:12often depicted in books or movies these depictions
can make it seem that if you're not a ruthless
01:16brilliant programmer like Mark Zuckerberg in The
Social Network movie or a charismatic product
01:21genius like Steve Jobs in one of the many books or
movies about him you probably aren't cut out to be
01:26a startup founder now I can't deny it that being
a brilliant programmer or a charismatic product
01:32genius will certainly make it easier to be a
successful startup founder but I can say that
01:37after working with many successful Founders
there are many more different types of people
01:42who succeed as startups with different strengths
than just those stereotypes as an investor my job
01:48is to pick which people will make great startup
Founders and yet even after 15 years of starting
01:53and investing in startups I still get surprised
by who turns out to be a great startup founder
01:58that means it's going to be hard for you to know
for sure if you're suited to being one you might
02:02think you could just look at how well someone has
done in school or at work and assume success there
02:07will lead to success of startups that's definitely
what I thought when I first started working at YC
02:11in 2010 and began reading YC funding applications
for the first time after I started working with
02:16more startups though I realized that these signals
mattered much less than I'd expected they would
02:20when you're working on a startup you have to
put in Blood Sweat and Tears to convince even a
02:25single user to care about trying your product let
alone convincing the first 10 or 100 you have to
02:30push through a lot of rejection to get there and
because this is your startup all of that rejection
02:35feels very personal in a way it doesn't when
you're working at a Fan Company building a product
02:40for someone else it takes a lot of resilience
to make it through this initial struggle to get
02:45your early users and that's the quality I think
is most important for startup Founders to have
02:51resilient people are suited to startups and should
definitely become Founders but how do you know if
02:56you have enough resilience to be a startup founder
when I first started working at yce I thought I
03:01could use confidence as a proxy for resilience I'd
assume that if someone projected confidence like
03:06speaking with conviction being high energy during
our funding interviews they were likely to be a
03:11resilient founder the more Founders I worked with
though the more I realized this was also wrong
03:18it turned out that someone could appear very
confident initially but not be resilient when
03:23their startup hit roadblocks conversely some of
the quietest and least confident seeming Founders
03:28at first turned out to be the most resilient
Founders I'd go on to work with many eventually
03:33taking their companies public this is Saji the
founder of benchlink I met him when we funded
03:39benjling in 2012. benjling is now worth over
six billion dollars and Sagi has grown into
03:45a formidable founder and CEO but I remember when
we first interviewed him and his co-founder Corey
03:51they were both softly spoken engineers and we
were all concerned they wouldn't be suited to
03:56working on benchling because benchling's idea
was to sell software to biotech companies and
04:02pharmaceutical companies to make money and we
weren't sure that they would be good at that
04:08kind of Enterprise sales this concern was
shared by investors at demoday who worried
04:13that they wouldn't be able to get those biotech or
pharmaceutical companies to pay for the benchling
04:18software and benjling struggled to raise very
much seed funding at demoday sales did turn out
04:24to be a real struggle for benchlink in fact over a
year after they'd graduated from YC benchling was
04:31still not making any Revenue though they did
have some enthusiastic grad students as free
04:35users and the product continued getting better
it took them almost another year that's now two
04:41years after ycee to start doing sales and making
any Revenue now benchling is on calls to become
04:48a public company someday and has many of the
world's top biotech and pharmaceutical companies
04:52as customers looking back I always had confidence
that Sagi was a good engineer but I could not have
04:59predicted back when we funded him in 2012 that he
would have the resilience to overcome that amount
05:05of rejection and transform himself into the leader
of a company that took many years to become great
05:10at Enterprise sales but what I haven't shared
with you are the stories of many other Founders
05:15who seemed equally talented at first when we
first funded their companies but turned out
05:20not to have the same amount of resilience as these
Founders did I've thought a lot about how to tell
05:24the difference between people who have this kind
of startup resilience and those who don't I've
05:29wondered if maybe having the right motivations or
reasons to start a company mean you're more likely
05:34to have this special resilience over time though
I've decided that this also doesn't matter as much
05:40as I had thought I think there are many perfectly
legitimate motivations to start a company for
05:46example it's become popular to say that you
shouldn't start a company just to make money
05:51that's considered a somewhat flimsy motivation but
I actually think it's fine to start a startup to
05:55become rich startups are one of the few ways
to make life-changing amounts of money in a
06:00relatively short period of time if the desire to
make money gets you started then great go for it
06:05I also think that simply being curious about
what it's like to found a startup is a fine
06:11initial motivation to start one actually doing
a startup is the only way to know for sure if
06:17you'll enjoy it the reason I have conviction
that your initial motivations don't matter so
06:21much is that I've seen motivation to change over
time I've seen Founders who started out a company
06:26with a plan to sell it within a year change
their mind as they kept working the company
06:32and they're still working on that same startup
a decade later and it's now a public company
06:37this means that your initial motivations to
start a startup aren't as important as what
06:43those motivations might change into over time in
order to keep working on a startup and keep going
06:50through those dark periods that every startup
experience is you need enduring motivations
06:55and I think the best ones are to be genuinely
interested in the problem you're working on and
07:00love the people you're working with we'll talk
more about finding those later so instead of
07:05introspecting too much on if you'll make a good
startup founder I'll offer some practical advice
07:11if you are curious about what it'd be like to
start a company start by asking yourself what
07:16do I have to lose now I mean this question not
as a rhetorical one but as a very practical one
07:22figure out what the worst case scenario looks
like if you started a startup and decide if
07:27you can live with that it's probably going to
take at least a year for you to have enough
07:31data to tell if the startup you're working
on is promising enough to keep working on
07:36in the worst case you'll shut down the company
without having earned much or any salary for
07:42that year can you live without worst case
the calculus here is different for everyone
07:48if you're about to graduate college taking a year
after graduating to work on a startup is not a big
07:54deal those job offers will still be waiting for
you in a year but if you've been a Fang employee
08:00for the past nine years and you're in line for a
big promotion this year then maybe you stand to
08:05lose a lot by spending the next year working on a
startup instead asking yourself if you can handle
08:10the worst case is the best way to know if you
should start a startup be honest with yourself if
08:15you can't actually handle the worst case then your
own constant anxiety will probably self-sabotage
08:21your startup efforts when you're thinking about
the worst case scenario of working on a startup
08:25you should Factor something else into the equation
you will learn a lot from starting a company I
08:31don't think enough people factor in how valuable
this learning is when they're doing their worst
08:34case scenario analysis as a startup founder you're
responsible for making everything happen and that
08:40means you get to do lots of different types
of work you'll have to do some amount of sales
08:44product and customer support all at once this can
be very clarifying in helping you figure out what
08:50type of work you enjoy and where you might want to
focus your career even if the startup doesn't work
08:55out some people start a company that doesn't work
and then they jump straight back into starting
08:59another one because they want to learn from their
mistakes others decide they actually really enjoy
09:04specializing in doing one thing really well and
they join a company where they can do just that
09:09the startup experience can really improve your
career opportunities even if the startup doesn't
09:14succeed my second startup triple bite use software
to help companies identify and hire great people
09:21I work with hundreds of employers as they search
for the best talent and I found that many of them
09:26were explicitly looking to hire people who
had previous startup experience they believe
09:30they showed evidence of being a self-starter and
being able to take initiative and Lead projects
09:35some of the most successful YC companies have
actually built their hiring processes around this
09:40knowledge Rippling a 10 billion dollar company
founded by Parker Conrad also a YC company hires
09:46former Founders and puts them in charge of entire
product divisions usually we love hiring former
09:51Founders to run specific product lines and and
build them and and really run them as general
09:56managers we've been you know really successful at
recruiting I think we have Lao now probably around
10:0250 former Founders that work at rip Lane at YC
we often see startup Founders leave this thought
10:08up if it doesn't work out and go on to join a
more successful YC company this is Nick Grandy
10:14YC funded his first startup wonderbar in 2008.
that startup shut down but he went on to join
10:21another YC company you may have heard of Airbnb
as his first employee that of course worked out
10:27great and after many years at Airbnb he left
to start another YC company out school which
10:32is now valued at over 3 billion I share these
stories to show how career progressions are
10:38not always perfectly linear introducing some
Serendipity and meeting smart ambitious people
10:44can completely transform your career and being
a startup founder is a great way to do exactly
10:49that okay so let's say you do decide you can
live with the worst case of doing a startup but
10:55you're not ready to do one right now how can you
best prepare yourself to start one in the future
11:00to actually start a company you'll want two things
an idea and a co-founder now sometimes an idea and
11:06co-founder both come to you quickly and you're Off
to the Races there's lots of great startup content
11:11out there about how to start a company once you're
ready but let's talk about what to do if it will
11:16take you some time to get to that point I'd start
by encouraging you to not think of finding ideas
11:22and co-founders as two separate tasks it's hard
to think up good ideas yourself also your ideas
11:29will start out being vague and fuzzy more like
a hunch or an Impulse than a clearly formed idea
11:34and you'll go through seven iterations of fleshing
it out into something more tangible and concrete
11:40having someone to talk through that initial
idea or impulse with and debate and discuss
11:45is important and the best person to do that with
is your co-founder I find my best ideas come to
11:51me during conversations with smart people so I'd
start by thinking about who do you know that you
11:56enjoy talking about ideas with in college these
are often the people you'll go to when you're
12:01stuck on a hard problem or they are the people
you most enjoy working on group assignments with
12:05at work these are the colleagues who you find
make you the most productive and help you do
12:10your best work I'd see these people out and start
having conversations with them about ideas or
12:15technologies that you find interesting talk about
products you use every day that you admire or are
12:20frustrated by talk about Technologies
you think are underrated today and why
12:24flesh your thoughts out and debate them spend
the time between these conversations doing your
12:29own reading and research to learn more about the
topics you find interesting if you're a curious
12:34person this will seem natural to you anyway all
of this primes your mind to more easily notice
12:38and think of potential startup ideas and it helps
you get to know your friends or colleagues better
12:43as potential co-founders if you're struggling to
think of people you enjoy talking about ideas with
12:48then you probably need to change your environment
and meet some new people if you really want to
12:53start a company one day it's best to choose an
environment where you will be around many people
12:58who might someday be your co-founder I think the
best environment for this is working at a startup
13:03you both get to see how a startup works from
the inside and your colleagues will be less
13:08risk-averse than the average Fang employee so
if you're in college I'd recommend finding a
13:13startup to work at after graduation or if you had
a fan company now think about leaving to join a
13:18startup as an intermediate step to starting your
own someday once you're around smart people who
13:23you enjoy talking about ideas with I'd recommend
you start experimenting with turning these ideas
13:28into side projects at some point during these
conversations you'll eventually say something
13:33like huh like it'd be cool if someone built X and
that's the moment to stop and think about how you
13:39could be the one to build X is there a simple
first version you could build over a weekend or
13:44can you find other people who might be users and
Pitch them on the idea to see how they react keep
13:49pulling on this thread until you've come up with a
plan to turn this idea into something real however
13:54small it is right now you're not trying to launch
the next unicorn you're just getting used to the
13:59experience of turning ideas into reality and
experiencing the thrill of launching something
14:05turn your idea into something real you'll
need the skills to actually build them
14:09if you're not a programmer then either you need
to learn how to program or find a co-founder who
14:15is a programmer my advice speaking from experience
is someone who started his first startup without
14:21being able to code you start learning to code you
only need to learn enough to build a version one
14:27of your ideas once you're around smart people
and you're working on some side projects
14:31how do you know when it's time to take the leap
and quit your job to start a company while it'd
14:35be great if one of your side projects started
getting explosive traction and made the decision
14:39easy for you you can't rely on that happening if
you're serious about starting a company someday
14:45even if you launch your side projects and get some
early users the feedback you get will be mixed
14:50it's not uncommon for the early use of any product
to span the spectrum of being delighted appalled
14:56and indifferent towards a product to judge how
promising your side project is as a startup idea
15:01I'd use some advice from my y combinator partner
Paul bukhai he says that it is better to make a
15:08product that a few people really love than one a
lot of people are indifferent Awards if your side
15:13project elicits a deep reaction from someone the
kind where they can legitimately say that doing
15:19something very differently as a result of your
product existing then you may be onto something a
15:24single passionate user of a crude prototype that
was hacked together in a weekend means so much
15:30more than a million sign-ups on a waitlist for
something that doesn't exist yet my main advice to
15:34you would be to think less about how well your
side projects are going and think more about
15:39how much you enjoying the process of thinking up
ideas and turning them into something real are you
15:44learning new things and finding yourself energized
contrast this feeling with your day job if you
15:50find your job is draining but you have energy
to work on your side projects on evenings and
15:53weekends that's a sign it may be time to quit and
work on your own ideas pay particular attention to
15:59how much you enjoy working with your side project
collaborators if you enjoy working with them and
16:04you both want to be startup Founders recognize how
rare that is having a great co-founder who wants
16:10to do a startup is a fantastic reason to quit and
start one to finish my advice is one don't worry
16:18too much about your initial motivations or reasons
to start a company those can change over time
16:25simply being curious about the experience
of starting a startup is enough to get going
16:31think about the worst case scenario if you did
start a company and be sure you can live with that
16:36if you don't yet have an idea or co-founder start
looking around for smart people to talk about
16:41ideas with and launch some side projects
with actually launch those side projects
16:47however small to get the experience of turning
ideas into reality and if you find someone you
16:53really enjoy working with side projects with and
you both want to start a company make the jump
16:59I really hope you do and I hope we get to work
together at YC Community someday thanks so much
![How To Succeed As A NEW & YOUNG Realtor [Deals Every Month + Luxury Listings]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FrtrRghgTayc%2Fhqdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
