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Michael Houck

12 Curated Guides From Y Combinator's Startup Library

I read through hundreds of posts to send you these 12

Founded in 2005, Y Combinator has become the most celebrated and well known startup accelerator in the world.

Countless incredible startups like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Doordash, Reddit, and many more have gone through YC. In total, YC's top companies are worth over $300 billion.

Over the years, YC has developed curriculum that they share with founders who join their batches. Some of these talks get recorded and shared as guides in their startup library.

From the hundreds of blog posts and videos in the library, I've curated 12 here that will be particularly helpful for early stage founders.

12 Curated Guides from YC's Startup Library

Concise and actionable, this guide from YC President Geoff Ralston covers everything from what not to do when talking with investors, to when to actually raise in the first place.

Biggest Mistakes First Time Founders Make | link

Former YC CEO Michael Seibel reminds you why things like actually launching, talking to users, and caring about the problem you're solving actually do matter.

In 20 minutes, Sam Altman shares a comprehensive list of 25 things successful startups do (and why they matter).

How to Design a Better Pitch Deck | link

A very in-the-weeds guide on how to get your pitch deck ready for investors and the limited time they have to read through it.

How to Build the Future (with Elon Musk) | link

Sam Altman and Elon discuss the 5 biggest problems to focus on in society and more in a wide ranging conversation.

YC Partner Kat Manalac sets the record straight on launching: No one probably cares about your early launches, so ship new products and features continuously.

Talking to users is how you learn what people want from your startup, which lets you build something that will actually work as a business. Here's a framework to do that most efficiently.

Building a startup from nothing with someone else can be stressful, but maintaining a healthy relationship with open communication is essential. YC Partner Kevin Hale talks about how to make sure that happens.

No, this isn't a guide on how to grow faster or be more impervious to competition. It's about the other side, your health and mentality as a founder, and why that plays a bit role in startup success.

You're going to work on your startup for years and think about it constantly during that time. It makes sense to have a framework for evaluating which idea you actually choose to work on.

How to Split Equity Among Co-founders | link

Michael Seibel makes the arguably controversial case that equity between cofounders should always be split equally.

This list wouldn't be complete without a video on how to get into YC itself.

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