Ask HN: Restarting the YC Podcast – who would be most interesting to listen to?
190 comments
The type of podcast I'd like to listen to is if you got a roundtable of people in various roles (like a roundtable of all technical founders, or a roundtable of all first employees, or a roundtable of all solo founders), and then asked them questions and let them discuss and debate topics, optimally ones submitted by listeners. And perhaps if a subset of those people were particularly good have them on semi-regularly.
There is a woodworking podcast I really like that is 3 woodworkers just chatting with each other about various topics and responding to questions. They all have different perspectives and skills and they often disagree about things, but by listening I get a good idea of the breadth of opinions and viewpoints.
IMO too many startup discussions are very narrow and don't talk about the large breadth of viewpoints that are out there in all sorts of topics. This is especially true if the people doing most of the talking are either VCs or successful founders and essentially are unchallenged by opposing viewpoints.
There is a woodworking podcast I really like that is 3 woodworkers just chatting with each other about various topics and responding to questions. They all have different perspectives and skills and they often disagree about things, but by listening I get a good idea of the breadth of opinions and viewpoints.
IMO too many startup discussions are very narrow and don't talk about the large breadth of viewpoints that are out there in all sorts of topics. This is especially true if the people doing most of the talking are either VCs or successful founders and essentially are unchallenged by opposing viewpoints.
I agree with this. Also: what woodworking podcast is that?
Wood Talk: http://www.woodtalkshow.com/
I see another commenter posted a different one so it seems the format of 3 people chatting about a topic is popular!
I see another commenter posted a different one so it seems the format of 3 people chatting about a topic is popular!
+1 about the 3 people chatting thing. The Energy Gang [1] is one of my all time favorite podcasts and it too follows this format.
[1] https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-energy-gang
[1] https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-energy-gang
I googled and it's probably this one http://www.thewoodworkingpodcast.com
I don't know how long of a debate for a given topic are you imagining. I fear this would dilute the number of topics that can be covered.
Great idea. Thanks for suggesting!
I'd love to hear "office hour"-style stuff. Somebody who's having a problem, you work on solving it together, then maybe in a month you do a retro on how it worked. Might be cool to wait enough time that the episode has a "before and after" in the same episode.
Cool. We can definitely do that. Any particular size or type of company that interests you?
I think the thing I'm looking for is relatability. There are many podcasts that idolize startups and founder life. The Dating Ring's podcast did the opposite and showed vulnerability. To me, that's why it was an interesting learning experience.
But to be specific - I think that small companies in make-or-break times would be most interesting. Also, everything looks easier in retrospect, but understanding the thought process and how they are balancing different options would be interesting to me.
But to be specific - I think that small companies in make-or-break times would be most interesting. Also, everything looks easier in retrospect, but understanding the thought process and how they are balancing different options would be interesting to me.
This. As great as it is to hear about sensational founders that have turned the world upside down, it is at times hard to relate to. It would be great to show the ground truth of what small companies have to go through, and having office-hours that help elucidate the thought processes to follow to make steps forward would be invaluable. The best podcast episodes I've heard (and I specifically say episodes because I don't think any show that I've heard has consistently achieved it) on this subject have just been really good at being down-to-Earth and relatable.
Got it. Thanks!
A company I worked for hired some expert dude who came in and shaped the company into something that could be purchased. That was very interesting.
That process that takes raw talent and startup chaos and turns it into something that will get acquired.
It'd be great to hear about that process from both sides. There must be some sort of mentor approach, of giving advice that will work for that company.
That process that takes raw talent and startup chaos and turns it into something that will get acquired.
It'd be great to hear about that process from both sides. There must be some sort of mentor approach, of giving advice that will work for that company.
What was the background of the expert? I am curious what skills and experience he had that led him to this line of work.
I'm not sure. It was a long time ago and I wasn't really involved in the process, I am a coder.
I think he had tried to sell his business and failed, but the company that wanted to buy his told him where he was going wrong. Then once his business was restructured and sold he got a job buying and chopping up businesses, restructuring them and selling them on.
He told us that we had a weird hierarchy and gave us some ballpark figures for new hires. So we needed 5 plebs to one middle manager, 4 or 5 middle managers to one senior manager and then a good board of directors. So we hired middle managers. Split the workforce between them. Hired some people to fill the board of directors, some were there in name only (people with PHDs) (cheap) and some with a lot of experience who actually advised and were more expensive to run. I seem to remember they were on the board of directors of a few local companies, so although they were expensive hires they did generate a lot of extra work. Like, good contracts with good margins.
At the end of it they had a company that ticked the right boxes for an acquisition, n coders, n/5 middle managers, etc etc, shove all that in a fancy powerpoint... what happened next was a mystery to me. But they did get purchased and made the owner multi-millionaires. The rest of us? Not so much. We had the choice to move 200 miles to our new offices or quit. :(
I think he had tried to sell his business and failed, but the company that wanted to buy his told him where he was going wrong. Then once his business was restructured and sold he got a job buying and chopping up businesses, restructuring them and selling them on.
He told us that we had a weird hierarchy and gave us some ballpark figures for new hires. So we needed 5 plebs to one middle manager, 4 or 5 middle managers to one senior manager and then a good board of directors. So we hired middle managers. Split the workforce between them. Hired some people to fill the board of directors, some were there in name only (people with PHDs) (cheap) and some with a lot of experience who actually advised and were more expensive to run. I seem to remember they were on the board of directors of a few local companies, so although they were expensive hires they did generate a lot of extra work. Like, good contracts with good margins.
At the end of it they had a company that ticked the right boxes for an acquisition, n coders, n/5 middle managers, etc etc, shove all that in a fancy powerpoint... what happened next was a mystery to me. But they did get purchased and made the owner multi-millionaires. The rest of us? Not so much. We had the choice to move 200 miles to our new offices or quit. :(
So... Car Talk?
You'ld need really good hosts, but it could be fun.
You'ld need really good hosts, but it could be fun.
Like NPR's car talk?
Haha. Yeah, sort of. Just hours and hours about setting up development environments :)
Agree, this is a fantastic idea.
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I'm interested in hearing more from serial technical founders. They're usually quite busy and don't blog or do interviews as often as the CEOs.
For instance, I just started using LogDNA and was really impressed by the product, looked up the team and discovered it's Lee Liu's third(?) company. Alex Maccaw has had an influence on my career from his JS work and Stripe product, then Sourcing.io and now Clearbit. Max Krohn: SparkNotes, OkCupid, now Keybase, I still think Max's async solutions are some of the best in the business.
Writing code while growing a team and communicating with the other founders to build a product requires a smart balance. The technical choices made by these founders tend to be very efficient and easy to communicate to others. I would love to hear more from any of these founders (Thanks all for your work!), and I'm sure YC knows of more such founders I haven't yet discovered.
For instance, I just started using LogDNA and was really impressed by the product, looked up the team and discovered it's Lee Liu's third(?) company. Alex Maccaw has had an influence on my career from his JS work and Stripe product, then Sourcing.io and now Clearbit. Max Krohn: SparkNotes, OkCupid, now Keybase, I still think Max's async solutions are some of the best in the business.
Writing code while growing a team and communicating with the other founders to build a product requires a smart balance. The technical choices made by these founders tend to be very efficient and easy to communicate to others. I would love to hear more from any of these founders (Thanks all for your work!), and I'm sure YC knows of more such founders I haven't yet discovered.
Totally agreed. Will do!
* Elon Musk
* Paul Graham, haven't heard from him lately
* Pieter Thiel (ideally a long interview about Trump, Palantir, seastanding, Libertarianism)
* Sam Altman (sneak peek into the upcoming MOOC, things he's working on, OpenAI)
* OpenAI team
* Failed startups: Homejoy to begin with
Please ask HN for questions, before going to interview people. Ask deep and difficult questions, and avoid boring, generic questions.
* Paul Graham, haven't heard from him lately
* Pieter Thiel (ideally a long interview about Trump, Palantir, seastanding, Libertarianism)
* Sam Altman (sneak peek into the upcoming MOOC, things he's working on, OpenAI)
* OpenAI team
* Failed startups: Homejoy to begin with
Please ask HN for questions, before going to interview people. Ask deep and difficult questions, and avoid boring, generic questions.
That's an awesome list!
I'd add any atypical startup founder -> energy, agriculture, low tech etc.
Tactical steps YC startups have taken to jump through any one of the de-risking steps: https://codingvc.com/how-to-de-risk-a-startup/ would be fantastic. Especially stories of creative jumps. You could do a poll of the YC network internally and have people share stories that then get mentioned per-problem or per-industry over time. A discussion underneath could allow others to share stories as well - beyond the YC network (that may allow you guys to spot interesting potential applicants and keep people engaged).
Generic advice is abundant and far less helpful. Individual founders could do episodes as well, but it's hard to be genuine and talk about the hard stuff when your startup's identity is affected - especially in front of customers and investors.
By focusing on a problem - the contributing founders can chose to get credit or stay anonymous with their answers. You could also do an episode on just cool "Tell us about a time when you've hacked a non-computer system." answers and it would be a great listen.
Generic advice is abundant and far less helpful. Individual founders could do episodes as well, but it's hard to be genuine and talk about the hard stuff when your startup's identity is affected - especially in front of customers and investors.
By focusing on a problem - the contributing founders can chose to get credit or stay anonymous with their answers. You could also do an episode on just cool "Tell us about a time when you've hacked a non-computer system." answers and it would be a great listen.
As the author of the linked post I'm a little biased, but I love this idea. I think anonymous stories about concrete things founders do to de-risk their ideas would be a really interesting subject, and potentially very useful.
I would also really like to hear stories like this. Was so enthralled by Leo's post I ended up making a template for derisking: https://blog.codecorps.org/lower-your-startup-risk-with-this...
These are learnings that doesn't just flit by me. They're not filler. They profoundly change the way I work precisely because of the depth and detail, along with their actionability. Applied learning is by far what I want to hear.
These are learnings that doesn't just flit by me. They're not filler. They profoundly change the way I work precisely because of the depth and detail, along with their actionability. Applied learning is by far what I want to hear.
Some ideas:
Antonio García Martínez, author of Chaos Monkeys.
Bobby Goodlatte on Facebook's news feed algorithm and the election.
Peter Thiel on Trump and what's next, etc.
Justin Edmond on early Pinterest and diversity in Silicon Valley.
Dann Petty on Epicurrence and design culture in Silicon Valley.
Kim-Mai Culter on Initialized Capital and housing in the Bay Area.
Antonio García Martínez, author of Chaos Monkeys.
Bobby Goodlatte on Facebook's news feed algorithm and the election.
Peter Thiel on Trump and what's next, etc.
Justin Edmond on early Pinterest and diversity in Silicon Valley.
Dann Petty on Epicurrence and design culture in Silicon Valley.
Kim-Mai Culter on Initialized Capital and housing in the Bay Area.
I would be very interested in Thiel's take on:
* Trump presidency, what the tech/startup should expect from the new Gov.
* His views on privacy and ethics (I know, Palantir and everything, but that's why it makes so interesting to hear from him)
* His take on the top-10 technologies of the futureAgreed. I'm still scratching my head on why he would back Trump. Reading Zero to One right now and it's great.
But, I guess there's just stuff I don't know about Trump that would make Thiel support him. I'm not trying to say this in a negative way - I just am trying to figure out the connection(s).
So if you could get him on a podcast talking about this, it would be awesome!
But, I guess there's just stuff I don't know about Trump that would make Thiel support him. I'm not trying to say this in a negative way - I just am trying to figure out the connection(s).
So if you could get him on a podcast talking about this, it would be awesome!
There are plenty of discussions on HN about this, including references to talks and writings by Peter Thiel, if you're interested. You could probably get a pretty good idea into why he did. Two references off the top of my head that would be particularly on topic would be his keynote at the RNC and the National Press Club interview.
RNC keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTJB8AkT1dk
National Press Club interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4
RNC keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTJB8AkT1dk
National Press Club interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-LJqPQEJ4
Cool. Thanks for the specific suggestions!
Can tell you what I don't want to hear, which is easier for me.
Not another tech podcast with hosts who sound bored.
Not another tech podcast that can't be arsed to put in the work to get good sound quality.
Not another tech podcast where each episode interviews yet another person about 'what they're working on' with no larger story.
And please if you have ads, dear god don't fall down the hole of writing or reading ad copy that makes it sound like you're making a personal endorsement out of the goodness of your own heart.
Not another tech podcast with hosts who sound bored.
Not another tech podcast that can't be arsed to put in the work to get good sound quality.
Not another tech podcast where each episode interviews yet another person about 'what they're working on' with no larger story.
And please if you have ads, dear god don't fall down the hole of writing or reading ad copy that makes it sound like you're making a personal endorsement out of the goodness of your own heart.
The "no, really, this is a personal endorsement, I use the product all the time" podcast ads really put me off too, but I'm not sure there's a better alternative. One of the great things about podcasts, for me, is the immersion. I think the "personal" ads are there more to sustain immersion rather than to fool the audience about the nature of the ad.
That was how I thought, who could really believe these ads are actually personal endorsements, until I read a thread about people being angry about a podcast with ads from 99 designs.
Some people really haven't developed the means to distingish host from ad. I can't really blame them, take the casper ads and the ads for one of those stupidly expensive boxed dinner companies. How many podcasts actually say 'hey we got this stuff we're talking up for free'
Meh, just pisses me off. I don't want podcast umbrellas to die due to what i find to be naive and shady ad practices.
Some people really haven't developed the means to distingish host from ad. I can't really blame them, take the casper ads and the ads for one of those stupidly expensive boxed dinner companies. How many podcasts actually say 'hey we got this stuff we're talking up for free'
Meh, just pisses me off. I don't want podcast umbrellas to die due to what i find to be naive and shady ad practices.
It's content marketing. The podcast is the heartfelt advertisement.
We should be able to deliver on that :)
I listened to all of the previous episodes and enjoyed the podcast. I'm glad you're getting it started back up. My only negative feedback would be that by the end it felt similar to what investors say about demo day. All of the companies stores were packaged up with a bow on them to the point that basically every story was the same by the end of the episode.
I get it, this is VC content marketing after all, you need people to believe that applying to YC, taking funding and going the VC route is the smart move for their company. However, if you can't find a way to break the monotony I can't imagine lots of people sticking with it.
General ideas: - If you want to tell stories, I like the idea that someone else mentioned, going multi-episode deep with a single company.
- If you want to be useful, things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzvmyMJEK4 are super valuable. YC would be nice, but I was going to start a company regardless. Learning what YC could or would do for me if I got in isn't valuable. Learning stuff that I can and probably should do with or without YC is super useful (which engenders me to like your brand).
- Have founders talk about tactics which helped them or consider a tactical episode once every N weeks? Amongst startup podcasts there's a lot of theory (platitudes?), "build something people want", "work harder", "software is eating the world" which is good and has it's place but there's a glut of it in the podcast/startup world. While chatting with YC partners after Startup School this year, the tactical advice was the stuff that stuck with me. I heard multiple tactical ideas repeated several times, things like "Get a phone number if possible, it's much better than email. Early founders under estimate phone calls." or "If you do cold email, you need to be sending 100 emails a day." and each time it was said, the group of people listening was surprised.
- 1:1, Qasar gives some of the most brutal but realistic responses to business ideas and whether or not they can be scaled quickly. I think he'd be a fun guest.
I get it, this is VC content marketing after all, you need people to believe that applying to YC, taking funding and going the VC route is the smart move for their company. However, if you can't find a way to break the monotony I can't imagine lots of people sticking with it.
General ideas: - If you want to tell stories, I like the idea that someone else mentioned, going multi-episode deep with a single company.
- If you want to be useful, things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzvmyMJEK4 are super valuable. YC would be nice, but I was going to start a company regardless. Learning what YC could or would do for me if I got in isn't valuable. Learning stuff that I can and probably should do with or without YC is super useful (which engenders me to like your brand).
- Have founders talk about tactics which helped them or consider a tactical episode once every N weeks? Amongst startup podcasts there's a lot of theory (platitudes?), "build something people want", "work harder", "software is eating the world" which is good and has it's place but there's a glut of it in the podcast/startup world. While chatting with YC partners after Startup School this year, the tactical advice was the stuff that stuck with me. I heard multiple tactical ideas repeated several times, things like "Get a phone number if possible, it's much better than email. Early founders under estimate phone calls." or "If you do cold email, you need to be sending 100 emails a day." and each time it was said, the group of people listening was surprised.
- 1:1, Qasar gives some of the most brutal but realistic responses to business ideas and whether or not they can be scaled quickly. I think he'd be a fun guest.
I like this idea with a combination of philip1209's idea above. Office hours but in depth planning and strategy, so the founders are getting the tactical advice and then we hear how it worked it. Might be hard to do but I would enjoy it a lot.
That's a good note. I'm now thinking of the podcast as more of a channel than a show. I.e. a place where we can try out multiple episode types.
Re: tactics. Maybe we just choose one particular topic per tactics episode and drill down on relevant strategies?
I guess we can include Qasar ;)
Re: tactics. Maybe we just choose one particular topic per tactics episode and drill down on relevant strategies?
I guess we can include Qasar ;)
Just don't let Justin join him. They'd clown too hard :p
I'd love to hear more detail - the past podcasts were interesting but largely fluff.
Maybe post a thread on HN asking for volunteers who post a description of their startup and you do live office hours with the highest voted startup each week.
On the question of who it would be cool to hear from, I'd love to hear from YC alums talking about their YC experience, not just a sentence about it but going into detail about mistakes they made and things that helped.
Maybe post a thread on HN asking for volunteers who post a description of their startup and you do live office hours with the highest voted startup each week.
On the question of who it would be cool to hear from, I'd love to hear from YC alums talking about their YC experience, not just a sentence about it but going into detail about mistakes they made and things that helped.
K. What about the YC experience do you want to know more about?
Assuming you were in YC:
1. Give examples of things you were advised to do differently that added value
2. What did you notice in other startups from your batch that made them succeed?
3. What did you notice in other startups from your batch that made them fail?
4. Any funny stories?
5. What would you have done differently over the course of the YC program if you could do it over again?
I'd love to have a team you accepted on the podcast right after they got accepted and at various stages of the process (at the very least sometime before demo day and shortly after). Basically get a view into the expectations and what helped them most etc.
I'd like to hear more failure stories, which could mean startups that imploded spectacularly, but could also mean successes that weren't as big as expected (aquihires, shut downs after an aquisition, etc.) As mentioned elsewhere in the comments, most startup stories have heavy survivorship bias involved, and as a result end up with the same lessons.
It'd also be cool to see some more technology focused interviews, specifically focusing on how technical founders or CTOs built their original prototypes or MVPs and the technical decisions made on the path to get the startup where it is today, although I understand that being completely out of scope for a business focused podcast.
As a black man I'd like to hear from black founders, and other founders that might encounter bias (women, international founders, etc.) about unique challenges they've dealt with, especially when it comes to raising money.
The interviews on the podcast have been interesting and inspiring, but they tend to lack useful actionable information beyond the same generic advice you can get anywhere (talk to users, focus on growth, etc.) I'd like to see more actionable problem solving advice and less about how great a particular startup is or how lucky a particular group of founders was.
It'd also be cool to see some more technology focused interviews, specifically focusing on how technical founders or CTOs built their original prototypes or MVPs and the technical decisions made on the path to get the startup where it is today, although I understand that being completely out of scope for a business focused podcast.
As a black man I'd like to hear from black founders, and other founders that might encounter bias (women, international founders, etc.) about unique challenges they've dealt with, especially when it comes to raising money.
The interviews on the podcast have been interesting and inspiring, but they tend to lack useful actionable information beyond the same generic advice you can get anywhere (talk to users, focus on growth, etc.) I'd like to see more actionable problem solving advice and less about how great a particular startup is or how lucky a particular group of founders was.
Cool. Thanks for the feedback.
In line with Female Founder Stories & the Employee #1 series, it'd be fascinating to hear (un)successful founders' perspectives on previous failures (potential program title: "Start Overs"?), what they would have done differently, if there's still a market for their idea, and what they learned from it for their future successes.
Ideal speakers:
Travis Kalanick -- Scour
Drew Houston -- Accolade
Justin Kan & Emmett Shear -- Kiko
Jack Dorsey -- Uber Imitator in the early 2000s
Sean Parker -- Napster
Parker Conrad -- SigFig
Ben Silbermann -- Audiobeta
Ideal speakers:
Travis Kalanick -- Scour
Drew Houston -- Accolade
Justin Kan & Emmett Shear -- Kiko
Jack Dorsey -- Uber Imitator in the early 2000s
Sean Parker -- Napster
Parker Conrad -- SigFig
Ben Silbermann -- Audiobeta
Similar to this, I'd love to know how YC feels about it's founders who have an exit big enough to be a personal success but aren't successful from a VC perspective. I know, for example, that most investors are probably not happy about a $5-15MM sell on $1-2MM of raised money.
We also don't hear much about the financial mechanics of those types of acquisitions. I'd like to understand the considerations that go into smaller acquisitions/acquihires like: Sam A.(Loopt) & Kevin H.(Wufoo) or Justin K.(Exec).
We also don't hear much about the financial mechanics of those types of acquisitions. I'd like to understand the considerations that go into smaller acquisitions/acquihires like: Sam A.(Loopt) & Kevin H.(Wufoo) or Justin K.(Exec).
Ha! That's funny. I briefly explored doing a series of interviews along these lines (too early, failures, etc) already. Good to know there's interest.
Some ideas that I think are outside of the wheelhouse of typical Silicon Valley thought leaders:
1) Mike Bloomberg: Talk about founding and tech development of Bloomberg Professional Service (don't talk about politics at all)
2) Judy Faulkner: Founder and CEO of EPIC systems, a large privately held Hospital EHR vendor (Epic is one of the largest and most insular tech companies in the world)
3) Jack Ma: Founder of Alibaba
4) Pierre Omidyar: Founder Ebay
5) Bill Gates and/or Steve Ballmer
6) Mark Cuban
More traditional Silicon Valley:
1) Larry Ellison: CEO of Oracle
2) Marc Benioff: CEO/Founder Salesforce
3) Paul Buccheit: Talk about gmail and early Google R&D product only
4) Matt Cutts: Get him to tell us how SEO really works
5) Scott Cook: Founder Intuit
6) Jeff Bezos: Founder/CEO Amazon
7) Tony Fadell: iPod Designer & CEO of Nest
1) Mike Bloomberg: Talk about founding and tech development of Bloomberg Professional Service (don't talk about politics at all)
2) Judy Faulkner: Founder and CEO of EPIC systems, a large privately held Hospital EHR vendor (Epic is one of the largest and most insular tech companies in the world)
3) Jack Ma: Founder of Alibaba
4) Pierre Omidyar: Founder Ebay
5) Bill Gates and/or Steve Ballmer
6) Mark Cuban
More traditional Silicon Valley:
1) Larry Ellison: CEO of Oracle
2) Marc Benioff: CEO/Founder Salesforce
3) Paul Buccheit: Talk about gmail and early Google R&D product only
4) Matt Cutts: Get him to tell us how SEO really works
5) Scott Cook: Founder Intuit
6) Jeff Bezos: Founder/CEO Amazon
7) Tony Fadell: iPod Designer & CEO of Nest
YES regarding Mike Bloomberg. Epitome of relentlessly resourceful in the early days of Bloomberg LP
Ex-CEO of Nest.
Right on. Thanks for the suggestions!
In addition to founder analysis and commentary, I think it would be useful to hear from industry veterans about ongoing challenges/opportunities in their industry and how new companies can/should attack them. In a similar vein, how does socio-economic and political change affect these opportunities (e.g. new legislation in certain markets allowing for new technologies and processes to gain traction).
I like that a lot.
Another thought I had is something debate-like; if you've ever listened to the Intelligence Squared podcasts they basically take an issue and have two "teams" of two people debate the issue. From a start-up perspective it would be interesting to hear founders or veterans debate topics like "BitCoin is going to revolutionize micropayments". I'm not sure if this is a good idea or a terrible idea but I thought I'd put it out there for discussion.
Totally. I love when people make public bets. One of the episode ideas I drafted was along those lines re: AI.
What topics would you want to hear discussed?
What topics would you want to hear discussed?
I really enjoyed the depth that Startup Podcast/Gimlet Media went with Dating Ring. In my opinion, there's a lot of great content you can cover in an hour but it's hard to cover new content given how many other podcasts there are.
So was it tracking a company that made it interesting or the fact that there was more than an hour of conversations with them?
Not the op but: Gimlet is very good at creating well put together and edited stories. That seasons is very human and dives headlong into the painful (and beautiful) parts of slowly grinding and iterating toward failure. Failure from an investor perspective at least, it ends up being a non-scalable, labor intensive lifestyle business that loads of people would be proud to have built.
It was the opposite of the YC podcast: I'm a human that grew up, I went to college X, Applied to YC, Tried X, Y but Z is the one that worked. Company is great we raised money.
It was the opposite of the YC podcast: I'm a human that grew up, I went to college X, Applied to YC, Tried X, Y but Z is the one that worked. Company is great we raised money.
Yup. We definitely will cover more than YC companies and success stories.
Fwiw, I do like the success stories but prefer a longer interview (90 min+) because you get a real sense of the person vs the PR version of them/their company.
Fwiw, I do like the success stories but prefer a longer interview (90 min+) because you get a real sense of the person vs the PR version of them/their company.
It would be great if you got graycat to spill the beans about his website.
Yes, wwalser articulated this much better than me.
I think it was a combination of both. By giving them more time, they were able to revisit topics and giving new perspectives. Also, more time meant more time to get comfortable and share more intimate topics.
It could be useful to have "horizontal" episodes around a problem, e.g. three companies that survived a founder leaving.
Good idea!
I'd suggest a "Car Talk" or "Ask This Old House" style call-in, submit-a-question format. Short, diverse segments that are listener guided (though sometimes the shows will have other prepped segments). These often border on the how-to side of things - but are deeply educational (and very successful) formats.
Cool. Seems like a lot of people want an office hours-style episode type.
There are so many start up podcasts that focus on the origin of the founders/company and how awesome they are and they all blur into one. Rocketship, Tim Ferris etc. Please don't do a podcast like that.
You guys have the clout to do something a bit more special and unique than just cool interviews with successful founders. And you probably don't have time to do all of the narrative shaping that Gimlet and other media companies do to find all the "quirky" stories that fill time. That's why something based around office hours makes so much sense. Y Combinator's office hours on youtube are amazing. You've even expanded office hours to non YC companies because you see how valuable they are to the start up community. This is another way of realizing that value.
You guys have the clout to do something a bit more special and unique than just cool interviews with successful founders. And you probably don't have time to do all of the narrative shaping that Gimlet and other media companies do to find all the "quirky" stories that fill time. That's why something based around office hours makes so much sense. Y Combinator's office hours on youtube are amazing. You've even expanded office hours to non YC companies because you see how valuable they are to the start up community. This is another way of realizing that value.
I listened to the podcast and they did often mention that they were broadcasting and gave a call in number, but I don't recall them ever taking a call. I'm not sure if no one ever called in or if they just never took a call?
Challenges we need to solve for Deep Space Travel, like pressure in the eyes which makes astronauts lose vision. More on the Space Race and astroid & water mining.
I just did a podcast with Kira Blackwell from NASA's CTO's office to announce their iTech competition and they are down to their top 10 finalists. Top 3 are announced in December. I have had a demo one of the products and it is a game changer on earth as well. Bob Lindberg would be a good one, he was president of NIA for 10 years now involved with Moon Express first company to get FAA approval to leave earths orbit.
Peter Thiel was hinted to be a guest on the YC podcast so can't wait to hear from him. I hope they focus the time to extract his vision of the future vs. his past. His book is already great for those theories so I am interested to hear what he is working on for his next chapter. Can someone ask if he is going to run for president?
I always get a kick out of founders stories of extreme examples of being relentlessly resourceful.
Gina Tomorrow's Tech Podcast https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294
I just did a podcast with Kira Blackwell from NASA's CTO's office to announce their iTech competition and they are down to their top 10 finalists. Top 3 are announced in December. I have had a demo one of the products and it is a game changer on earth as well. Bob Lindberg would be a good one, he was president of NIA for 10 years now involved with Moon Express first company to get FAA approval to leave earths orbit.
Peter Thiel was hinted to be a guest on the YC podcast so can't wait to hear from him. I hope they focus the time to extract his vision of the future vs. his past. His book is already great for those theories so I am interested to hear what he is working on for his next chapter. Can someone ask if he is going to run for president?
I always get a kick out of founders stories of extreme examples of being relentlessly resourceful.
Gina Tomorrow's Tech Podcast https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294
Craig, I really enjoyed the podcast, I am actually working my way through all of the old episodes during my commute.
I would really like to hear from founders that are still running the business and are still profitable.
Something like how posts on indiehackers.com but with more detail would be interesting.
I would really like to hear from founders that are still running the business and are still profitable.
Something like how posts on indiehackers.com but with more detail would be interesting.
Yeah, I like those stories as well.
In case it wasn't clear in the post, we aren't going to only interview people affiliated with YC. So feel free to suggest people/projects that come to mind.
In case it wasn't clear in the post, we aren't going to only interview people affiliated with YC. So feel free to suggest people/projects that come to mind.
- Hard tech founders
- Kyle Vogt from Cruise Automation (specifically interested in how he became such a good engineer), he hardly has any interviews that talk about this
- Nothing really public from Helion Energy, could be interesting
- What did founders do in the early days to develop technical chops while remaining frugal? This seems to be more than just learning syntax and really worth discussing.
- If great companies start as projects, have an entire discussion about that and what shape those take (if it's just a side project, do you do user interviews? Etc.)
- How to pick growth metrics in hard tech startups
- President of University of Waterloo or Eric from Pebble and what about the school creates such great engineers/founders and how Americans can emulate that
- FarmLogs Founders: Jesse Vollmar and Brad Koch
- A discussion on blending strategy with acting quickly and developing really great, original ideas (and how they evolve from small projects)
- Anything with Qasar again, that guy is the real deal
- "The best founders may be working on things that seem small but get them done extraordinarily quickly" - discussion on this
- Mike Duncan from BankJoy
- Adam D'Angelo from Quora
- Rob Rhinehart from Soylent
- FLEX Fits
- Kyle Vogt from Cruise Automation (specifically interested in how he became such a good engineer), he hardly has any interviews that talk about this
- Nothing really public from Helion Energy, could be interesting
- What did founders do in the early days to develop technical chops while remaining frugal? This seems to be more than just learning syntax and really worth discussing.
- If great companies start as projects, have an entire discussion about that and what shape those take (if it's just a side project, do you do user interviews? Etc.)
- How to pick growth metrics in hard tech startups
- President of University of Waterloo or Eric from Pebble and what about the school creates such great engineers/founders and how Americans can emulate that
- FarmLogs Founders: Jesse Vollmar and Brad Koch
- A discussion on blending strategy with acting quickly and developing really great, original ideas (and how they evolve from small projects)
- Anything with Qasar again, that guy is the real deal
- "The best founders may be working on things that seem small but get them done extraordinarily quickly" - discussion on this
- Mike Duncan from BankJoy
- Adam D'Angelo from Quora
- Rob Rhinehart from Soylent
- FLEX Fits
thanks!
I'd love to hear interviews about practical topics that early stage technical founders face. Specifically, for a company that has 1 or 3 or 6 engineers, what do people do for QA? How are on-call duties handled? How are sudden catastrophes handled? How do teams decide how much time to allocate toward feature-building vs. improving infrastructure? And so on.
I care less about who the specific guests are and more about specific topics. Origin stories are really fun to hear, but I don't get a lot of practical value out of listening to them.
I care less about who the specific guests are and more about specific topics. Origin stories are really fun to hear, but I don't get a lot of practical value out of listening to them.
Got it. Thanks!
Hearing about failures (whether micro or macro) is almost always more interesting than hearing about successes.
I would love it if you interviewed founders that you turned down but who went on to have some level of success. (For me meaning some level of profitability or improving people's lives rather than calling raising a round a success.)
I imagine a lot of the podcast audience is those that have been or would be rejected from YC at this point in their journey so there might be more lessons there for us than from the outliers that were accepted to YC.
I imagine a lot of the podcast audience is those that have been or would be rejected from YC at this point in their journey so there might be more lessons there for us than from the outliers that were accepted to YC.
That'd be a good one. May have to put out a call to hn for that!
Since you said you're open to All suggestions I'd like to listen to people who are there on indiehackers.com, i.e. the little guys and solopreneurs who make it big specifically focusing on what they did right like growth hacks, etc and what mistakes they made that they see only in hindsight.
This is niche i know but it would be good because many people here like me will find it more relatable than hearing people who have celebrity like status.
This is niche i know but it would be good because many people here like me will find it more relatable than hearing people who have celebrity like status.
Hi Craig, hi folks. I'd like to hear you talk with Buster Benson, currently at Slack, and Jonathan Harris, http://number27.org/
Thank you for rethinking the series! Al
Thank you for rethinking the series! Al
It seems like many people would like some sort of user-submitted Q&A format. In my experience, the Q&A segments of podcast episodes tend to be maybe 1/4 as interesting as the rest of the episode. People being interviewed are more likely to say broadly interesting things when given open space to ideate with the occasional gentle nudge from the interviewer. It's true that some user-submitted questions will be great, but natural conversation with interesting and intelligent people is by far my favorite kind of podcast to listen to.
A couple examples of excellent podcasts of this variety are the Ezra Klein Show [1] and Sam Harris's Waking Up [2].
[1] http://www.vox.com/ezra-klein-show-podcast [2] https://www.samharris.org/podcast
A couple examples of excellent podcasts of this variety are the Ezra Klein Show [1] and Sam Harris's Waking Up [2].
[1] http://www.vox.com/ezra-klein-show-podcast [2] https://www.samharris.org/podcast
Yeah, I think it'd probably be best in two parts: longform conversation then Q&A. Maybe even broken into two episodes.
Have you considered hosting these on Facebook Live? Could get Live feedback from the audience to source questions according to what gets brought up.
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I would love to hear people from companies that are featured on the Monday macro ..their problems, their solutions, their perspectives, their past failures, their hopes, their practices, their needs, their mentors, their ideas, their backgrounds, their evolving strategies, their milestones,their inspiration, and of course, their successes
I'd like to hear from founders who are part of the HN community but not necessarily venture backed or have gone through an accelerators, ie. hackers with profitable and successful sideprojects
I really liked hearing the information that was hard to find elsewhere: mostly the story of the company's founding and early days, and their analysis of their markets. Was very useful when interviewing within YC's portfolio!
I agree - I think a podcast of company origins would be great. I think that teaches entrepreneurs more than hearing about their thoughts on the future or other unrelated markets.
Hey Craig,
I love podcasts, and as a matter of fact host one myself called Veni Vidi VC. Despite the shameless plug, I would love to hear from successful YC founders who have had exits.
The entire process is fascinating to me, including: - building a company - raising funds, and - making it ready to be absorbed as part of a corporation or better yet, becoming a public company
Infact, all founders from every startup in this list is interesting to me - https://mattermark.com/mattermark-startup-index-top-10-y-com....
I love podcasts, and as a matter of fact host one myself called Veni Vidi VC. Despite the shameless plug, I would love to hear from successful YC founders who have had exits.
The entire process is fascinating to me, including: - building a company - raising funds, and - making it ready to be absorbed as part of a corporation or better yet, becoming a public company
Infact, all founders from every startup in this list is interesting to me - https://mattermark.com/mattermark-startup-index-top-10-y-com....
K. Can you be more specific? Is it the post-exit stuff that's most interesting? Personally, I want to avoid telling stories that have already been widely documented.
Okay, if you want to focus on completely untold stories I believe every stories from every startup from Seed to Series A is interesting. For example - the process of figuring out a mission, testing out a product market fit, and pivoting to a product that is actually usable by customers would be uber cool to hear about.
Also would love to hear about YC projects that are not that famous - OpenAI, Smart Cities project, etc.
Also would love to hear about YC projects that are not that famous - OpenAI, Smart Cities project, etc.
Big fan of the old Podcast and looking forward to the new ones! As for a suggestion:
I wouldn't want this to be every episode, but a themed episode on a specific 'hot' industry could be neat, i.e. interviewing founders of three companies in related fields. e.g. drones, crypto-currencies, bio, etc...
Often there's so many promising directions in a new industry that existing founders don't have time to explore all the opportunities.
YC should encourage them to share these avenues of potential in a discussion format... because who knows, maybe someone listening could grab an idea and run with it (and be in the next batch.)
I wouldn't want this to be every episode, but a themed episode on a specific 'hot' industry could be neat, i.e. interviewing founders of three companies in related fields. e.g. drones, crypto-currencies, bio, etc...
Often there's so many promising directions in a new industry that existing founders don't have time to explore all the opportunities.
YC should encourage them to share these avenues of potential in a discussion format... because who knows, maybe someone listening could grab an idea and run with it (and be in the next batch.)
Good note. Thanks!
I love hearing Russ Roberts of econ talk (http://www.econtalk.org/), but he's almost always interviewing someone. It would be cool to hear him because (1) he interviews a lot of people who either write about or are involved in building the future (automation, driverless cars, sharing economy, etc.), and (2) he has a different perspective on how to approach problems making him interesting to listen to.
Right on. Thanks!
Sam Altman
Elon Musk
Founders of Airbnb
Ali Diab Collective Health CEO
Second time founders
First time founders in the midst of working on their startup
Angel Investors
Chris Sacca
Host live office hours with companies in YC
Any additional insight in to YC
I'd love if the podcast were more about teaching other founders how to build billion-dollar companies, and less about their stories. Most interviews are founding anecdotes, while the greatest benefit would come from learning from interviewees' mistakes.
Micheal Seibel, Jared Friedman, Justin Kan, Qasar Younis, Emmett Shear, Sean Byrnes(Flurry, OutlierAI), Javier Soltero (MS Outlook mobile app fame), Brian Chesky, Chad Rigetti
k. thanks!
Slightly off topic, but something like the "Office Hours" that Kevin & Qasar did, more of a vlog, would be amazing. Favorite part of the event.
>Who is just really interesting and you’d love to hear more from?
I'd actually like you to tell me who is interesting. I'd like to hear fun/interesting stories from YC companies. Perhaps there are great stories of companies that flamed out or failed to build a product and therefore we have never heard of them. I want to hear about those people just as much as I want to hear about Dropbox/Airbnb/Stripe et al.
I'd actually like you to tell me who is interesting. I'd like to hear fun/interesting stories from YC companies. Perhaps there are great stories of companies that flamed out or failed to build a product and therefore we have never heard of them. I want to hear about those people just as much as I want to hear about Dropbox/Airbnb/Stripe et al.
Audio or video ?
Snapchat/Periscope/Facebook Live would be a much better medium.
IMHO Justin Kan already demonstrated what works - office hours !
Office hours are YC's killer feature ..and also the reason why Startup School's format also follows office hours. I don't think YC should do a Techcrunchy podcast.
If anything - do a weekly Q&A with someone famous where users are able to submit questions.
TL;DR - bring the YC format to the podcast.
IMHO Justin Kan already demonstrated what works - office hours !
Office hours are YC's killer feature ..and also the reason why Startup School's format also follows office hours. I don't think YC should do a Techcrunchy podcast.
If anything - do a weekly Q&A with someone famous where users are able to submit questions.
TL;DR - bring the YC format to the podcast.
audio for now. we kicked around a few ideas re vlogging but decided to start here.
we'll definitely include office hours/q&a tho!
we'll definitely include office hours/q&a tho!
I've got no real input other than it would be awesome to get Larry Page. I'm likely in the 1% of the 1% in terms of how many founder stories I've listened to or watched, and I'm not tired of it yet. A good story can come from the most random places. Though I appreciate good intro music so there's a suggestion.
When would you expect to start airing?
When would you expect to start airing?
Hopefully before the end of the year.
Interviews with VCs and Entrepreneurs are dime a dozen nowadays. What I see missing is resources which help technical people think about business aspects. How does one understand/analyze competition, market size, customers etc.
I really liked AMA from YC partners here on hacker news. They answered a few questions about how one should things about early stage starting up. I would like to see more of such things.
I really liked AMA from YC partners here on hacker news. They answered a few questions about how one should things about early stage starting up. I would like to see more of such things.
cool. thanks for the feedback
I don't have suggestions for specific people but my favorite episodes so far were ones where the founders went more in-depth into their industries; eg Docker, Plaid, Flexport.
Also enjoyed the ones where they talk about how they got their first users. In many episodes the conversation I felt skipped this or spent too little time on it.
Also enjoyed the ones where they talk about how they got their first users. In many episodes the conversation I felt skipped this or spent too little time on it.
More early stuff is definitely a trend in this thread.
- Paul Graham
- Pieter Thiel
- Sam Altman & Elon Musk (on OpenAI)
- Albert Wenger (on Universal Capital and how we'll deal with AI without a total economic collapse)
Maciej Ceglowski
Lorenz Meier, the author of Pixhawk (an autopilot for drones):
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/lomeier/
https://pixhawk.org/credits
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/lomeier/
https://pixhawk.org/credits
-Elon Musk
-Jason Cohen CEO of WPEngine
-Gail Goodman, former CEO of Constant Contact
-Jason Lemkin of Saastr
-Peter Thiel
-Author of TensorFlow (apparently [email protected])
-David Skok of Matrix Partners
-Jason Cohen CEO of WPEngine
-Gail Goodman, former CEO of Constant Contact
-Jason Lemkin of Saastr
-Peter Thiel
-Author of TensorFlow (apparently [email protected])
-David Skok of Matrix Partners
Market & tech trend analysis would be nice. I think that YC already covers interviews with industry leaders pretty well.
I would love to hear from the right hand support teams for growing tech companies (Tesla, Amazon, Google, etc.). What makes them great support staff for founders, and how do you either look for such people, and/or if you are one, kick butt in your role. Thanks!
yeah, I like stories from behind the scenes people as well
I'd like to hear from Founders who have very interesting stories and journeys to share. I do not care if their products got traction,flopped or big hit. All I want to get is how can we as listeners can learn from their success or failures. Thanks for doing this.
Yup! Lmk if anyone is of particular interest to you.
So Airbnb founders for their grit and determination -- maxing out all their credit cards and even started selling political branded cereal boxes to keep the lights on.
Dollar Shave Club on their growth strategies -- how they posted a product video which went viral and got started their business.
I know, these are the success ones but would also love to hear from founders whose apps/startups did not work out.
Again, it is great to see someone from HN getting this involved in getting suggestions and feedback. Thanks.
Looking forward to the podcast.
Dollar Shave Club on their growth strategies -- how they posted a product video which went viral and got started their business.
I know, these are the success ones but would also love to hear from founders whose apps/startups did not work out.
Again, it is great to see someone from HN getting this involved in getting suggestions and feedback. Thanks.
Looking forward to the podcast.
Peter Diamandis (okay, he's done a lot of interviews and blogs a lot, but has a great perspective on the impact of tech on humanity)
YC harc folks (e.g. Bret Victor, Yoshiko ohshima ) -theyve shaped technology but afaik they don't do many interviews
Vinay Gupta - hexayurt dude / blockchain evangelizer now trying to start an accelerator
Mariana mazzucato - economist, author of rethinking capitalism
Vinay Gupta - hexayurt dude / blockchain evangelizer now trying to start an accelerator
Mariana mazzucato - economist, author of rethinking capitalism
Bret's definitely on the list! Hope we can make that happen.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks for the suggestions!
Craig, I thought about it more. Hearing about customer development and the nitty gritty details of how the startup reached product market fit would be some details I would like to hear an in depth discussion on.
Can do!
I think it is interesting that when interviewing someone they do not just focus on his job but also on the person himself. The developeronfire podcast is one that comes to mind that has this, which I really do enjoy listening to.
completely agreed!
Not sure if this is within the podcast's scope or not:
Editas Medicine (http://www.editasmedicine.com/).
Or people from similar companies. Gene editing startups, essentially.
Editas Medicine (http://www.editasmedicine.com/).
Or people from similar companies. Gene editing startups, essentially.
Definitely within the scope. Thanks for the specific suggestion.
Would love to hear from Ben Silbermann - his quiet personality makes him someone who isn't interviewed as frequently.
"Talk to users" and the surrounding processes/changes/workflows. There's no such thing as "too deep" on this. I'd pay for a podcast where it's JUST that, with a new test every week.
k
Hey I am an expert on talking to users! That's how we built Stack Overflow, and now Discourse! Pick me. Me me me.
Deepgram because their interview would be very meta, they just raised $1.9M, and they're a YC company: http://deepgram.com
Don't have a single theme. Startup School Radio is great. However, you listen to essentially same stuff again and again. Try mixing things up and give a fresh piece of advice/experience each time.
I don't do podcasts, I vastly prefer the written word:
* I can scan quickly.
* I can search for things.
* It's easier for me to read things than listen. I don't drive much, so don't have dead time when I can only listen.
* I can scan quickly.
* I can search for things.
* It's easier for me to read things than listen. I don't drive much, so don't have dead time when I can only listen.
I'm with you there. However, it's important to remember how fluid and dynamic verbal discussion can be. It's a great format for creation, even if it's lacking in consumption.
Luckily- my startup; Spreza, transcribes podcasts. We've talked to Kat about providing transcripts for this upcoming series.
Luckily- my startup; Spreza, transcribes podcasts. We've talked to Kat about providing transcripts for this upcoming series.
A good conversation is different from an essay, it would be great if there were transcripts of the podcasts, isn't any YC company working on speech-to-text?
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You can try the 1.5 or 2x speeds. It was odd for me in the begining but after listening for a while at 2x speed hearing adapted pretty well. One caveat, it may make one speak a bit faster.
There are definitely transcription options we can check out.
There's a lot more out there than just technology. I'd love to hear from the creators of Meow Wolf, for instance.
Totally. Definitely want to explore digital art as well.
I'd love to hear YC Partners (and some founders) have discussions about areas where they have great expertise and passion.
I'd like more non webapp/CRUD people. Biotech, hardware, energy...whatever you can muster really :)
can do
Failed startups! Everyone gets barraged with success stories. It could be anonymous anecdotes: we did X and failed.
Patrick Kennedy of TalkPythonToMe - he's a cool guy and has awesome insights, I think he'd make a great guest.
Maciej and Yegge
Theil on Trump. Or a roundtable of others discussing how this political shift will/could change the direction of the Valley.
My answer is going to be boring. Stick to business as usual.
I enjoyed 90% of the guests and learned a ton. I never felt a retooling was needed.
Maybe @aaron needed more hosts, but he did a fine job.
Would love to complain about something, but all I can say from a listener viewpoint is that taking time away to retool wasn't needed imho.
The way you sourced your guests was pretty good, just keep doing that.
I enjoyed 90% of the guests and learned a ton. I never felt a retooling was needed.
Maybe @aaron needed more hosts, but he did a fine job.
Would love to complain about something, but all I can say from a listener viewpoint is that taking time away to retool wasn't needed imho.
The way you sourced your guests was pretty good, just keep doing that.
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It does have to be VC focused, doesn't it?
Ah well. We may not all be VCs, but it is your business.
Ah well. We may not all be VCs, but it is your business.
How about interviewing technologist-teachers who are teaching youth how to program?
Good idea!
A shout out for some great Michigan entrepreneurs:
Dug Song, Duo Security
Bill Hamilton, TechSmith
Jeff Epstein, Ambassador
Nathan Hughes, Detroit Labs
Dug Song, Duo Security
Bill Hamilton, TechSmith
Jeff Epstein, Ambassador
Nathan Hughes, Detroit Labs
i think it'd be a good one to interview donald trump before his presidency. about his entrepreneurship past, his future actions on startup visas/programs, supporting startups, etc.
Justin Kan, Jeff Bezos, Evan Spiegel
Definitely Peter Thiel.
Travis Kalanick.
Balaji Srinivasan.
Travis Kalanick.
Balaji Srinivasan.
Michael Moritz Sequoia Capital
a radio shrink kind of format would be interesting, people outside the YC can call in with their startup problems and YC partners answer it.
Alain Meier and Chris Morton from BlockScore
folks from the 90's .com (or earlier), who've largely retired and are in the woodwork now.
pg - can't get enough of his advice
Larry Page
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I’m Craig. I work at YC. We’re starting the podcast up again and want your input.
Who do you think we should interview?
We’re open to all suggestions but maybe these prompts will help:
- Who has shaped technology and hasn’t done many interviews?
- Who has an interesting take on the future and is building it?
- Who is just really interesting and you’d love to hear more from?
Thanks for your input. Can’t wait to see who this post surfaces :)