5 ms·

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments. I'll be around to answer questions as best I can.

by geoff 7y ago

zild3d 7y ago
Congrats Geoff, YC Startup School has been an incredible program I'm a bit confused if Michael Seibel is still CEO?
- mwseibel 7y ago
  Yes I am continuing my role as CEO of the accelerator. We've got a great batch coming up this summer.
  - rococode 7y ago
    I'm curious because this seems to vary greatly between companies - what is the difference at YC between the roles of CEO and President?
    - notatoad 7y ago
      From the intitial announcement of Michael becoming CEO: * Michael Seibel will be the new CEO of YC Core, which we are now just going to call “YC”. * I’m going to be the President of YC Group, which includes YC, YC Continuity, YC Research, and our new online class. We’ll add more organizational units over time. https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-changes/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-changes/
  - throwaway13000 7y ago
    For the uninitiated, what is the difference between President, Partner and CEO?
    - snowmaker 7y ago
      Good question - it is not obvious. Y Combinator has one president, Geoff Ralston, who is the president of YC Group, the parent organization. It has two CEO's: Michael Seibel, who is the CEO of YC Core, the twice-a-year program YC started with, and Ali Rowghani, who is the CEO of YC Continuity, the fund that makes large investments in YC companies when they are at a growth stage. There are 18 full-time partners, who primarily select and then work with the companies we fund.
AtHeartEngineer 7y ago
Congrats! I was recently frustrated with the whole being accepted into YC, and then not really, but I really appreciate YCs efforts and influence. Staffing good advisors is hard, especially for the # of applicants, so I definitely understand. It would be really awesome to see YC be able to scale to more participates though. I wasn't looking for money, more advice about gauging viability and scaling, and doing A/B testing. I've started a business before, one where I could pay my bills, but it was one on one with clients doing web development...it wasn't a business that could scale effectively. The idea I've been toying with for a year or two would need to scale, and mostly be automated in order to succeed, and the scaling part is what you all are good at and I have a lot of questions about. So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them for 30 min and then get out of y'all's hair. I'm AtHeartEngineer pretty much everywhere on the internet. Thanks, appreciate all your work and good luck to you!
- MegaButts 7y ago
  > So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them I would not expect a YC partner to reach out to you just to chat, unless you are one of a handful of startups likely to blow up and they want to invest early. I think you should reach out to them directly instead of hoping they will find you.
- taytus 7y ago
  >> So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them Never expect anyone to reach out to you. You have to reach out to them over and over if you are interested. If they see the value in what you are doing, they will reply or reach out to you, but never expect them to do so. This applies to everyone, mentors, investors, customers. You have to be proactive all the time.
  - taneq 7y ago
    It reads to me like "ball's in your court, I'm happy to talk but I'm done chasing". Being proactive and contacting people over and over is fine for a while if you're "hustling" but eventually it just becomes spam, you sound desperate, and you'll be hurting rather than helping your chances. Also, if you feel your proposition is good enough and you don't get the response you were after, then move on and focus on getting your pitch to the right people.
SandersAK 7y ago
Does this mean you'll now have zero time for tennis?
- geoff 7y ago
  No! I love tennis too much and it is such an amazing workout and stress relief. I will keep on playing!
  - brian_herman__ 7y ago
    Do you play mario tennis when you are feeling sick? http://mariotennis.nintendo.com/aces/ http://mariotennis.nintendo.com/aces/
rdiddly 7y ago
Hi Geoff.
JohnHammersley 7y ago
Congratulations Geoff, it's fantastic to see how YC has grown and evolved over the years. I'm now six years into the Founder/CEO role, and am amazed about how much there is to learn in each stage of a company's growth. We also learnt a lot from our YC interview (which went horrendously badly on the day, but helped us out in the long run!). Any advice for a founder six years in with a company of ~40 people is always appreciated :) https://errantscience.com/blog/2017/07/31/reflecting-on-the-founding-growth-and-maturing-of-overleaf/ https://errantscience.com/blog/2017/07/31/reflecting-on-the-...
ukulele 7y ago
What is your top priority coming in, and how will you evaluate whether you're succeeding?
- geoff 7y ago
  My first immediate priority is to make sure the summer 2019 batch operates smoothly. We kick off in just a couple of weeks. Similarly, we are just working on launching YC China and I'll work hard to make sure Qi Lu has everything he needs to make that go well.
EGreg 7y ago
Geoff, I an hearing some great things already! Are you reachable by email? If we have a private question.

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments. I'll be around to answer questions as best I can.

by geoff 7y ago

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments. I'll be around to answer questions as best I can.

zild3d 7y ago

Congrats Geoff, YC Startup School has been an incredible program I'm a bit confused if Michael Seibel is still CEO?

mwseibel 7y ago
Yes I am continuing my role as CEO of the accelerator. We've got a great batch coming up this summer.
- rococode 7y ago
  I'm curious because this seems to vary greatly between companies - what is the difference at YC between the roles of CEO and President?
  - notatoad 7y ago
    From the intitial announcement of Michael becoming CEO: * Michael Seibel will be the new CEO of YC Core, which we are now just going to call “YC”. * I’m going to be the President of YC Group, which includes YC, YC Continuity, YC Research, and our new online class. We’ll add more organizational units over time. https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-changes/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-changes/
- throwaway13000 7y ago
  For the uninitiated, what is the difference between President, Partner and CEO?
  - snowmaker 7y ago
    Good question - it is not obvious. Y Combinator has one president, Geoff Ralston, who is the president of YC Group, the parent organization. It has two CEO's: Michael Seibel, who is the CEO of YC Core, the twice-a-year program YC started with, and Ali Rowghani, who is the CEO of YC Continuity, the fund that makes large investments in YC companies when they are at a growth stage. There are 18 full-time partners, who primarily select and then work with the companies we fund.

AtHeartEngineer 7y ago

Congrats! I was recently frustrated with the whole being accepted into YC, and then not really, but I really appreciate YCs efforts and influence. Staffing good advisors is hard, especially for the # of applicants, so I definitely understand. It would be really awesome to see YC be able to scale to more participates though. I wasn't looking for money, more advice about gauging viability and scaling, and doing A/B testing. I've started a business before, one where I could pay my bills, but it was one on one with clients doing web development...it wasn't a business that could scale effectively. The idea I've been toying with for a year or two would need to scale, and mostly be automated in order to succeed, and the scaling part is what you all are good at and I have a lot of questions about. So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them for 30 min and then get out of y'all's hair. I'm AtHeartEngineer pretty much everywhere on the internet. Thanks, appreciate all your work and good luck to you!

MegaButts 7y ago
> So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them I would not expect a YC partner to reach out to you just to chat, unless you are one of a handful of startups likely to blow up and they want to invest early. I think you should reach out to them directly instead of hoping they will find you.
taytus 7y ago
>> So, if an opportunity ever comes up when one of your advisors wants to reach out to me, I'd enjoy talking with them Never expect anyone to reach out to you. You have to reach out to them over and over if you are interested. If they see the value in what you are doing, they will reply or reach out to you, but never expect them to do so. This applies to everyone, mentors, investors, customers. You have to be proactive all the time.
- taneq 7y ago
  It reads to me like "ball's in your court, I'm happy to talk but I'm done chasing". Being proactive and contacting people over and over is fine for a while if you're "hustling" but eventually it just becomes spam, you sound desperate, and you'll be hurting rather than helping your chances. Also, if you feel your proposition is good enough and you don't get the response you were after, then move on and focus on getting your pitch to the right people.

SandersAK 7y ago

Does this mean you'll now have zero time for tennis?

geoff 7y ago
No! I love tennis too much and it is such an amazing workout and stress relief. I will keep on playing!
- brian_herman__ 7y ago
  Do you play mario tennis when you are feeling sick? http://mariotennis.nintendo.com/aces/ http://mariotennis.nintendo.com/aces/

rdiddly 7y ago

Hi Geoff.

JohnHammersley 7y ago

Congratulations Geoff, it's fantastic to see how YC has grown and evolved over the years. I'm now six years into the Founder/CEO role, and am amazed about how much there is to learn in each stage of a company's growth. We also learnt a lot from our YC interview (which went horrendously badly on the day, but helped us out in the long run!). Any advice for a founder six years in with a company of ~40 people is always appreciated :) https://errantscience.com/blog/2017/07/31/reflecting-on-the-founding-growth-and-maturing-of-overleaf/ https://errantscience.com/blog/2017/07/31/reflecting-on-the-...

ukulele 7y ago

What is your top priority coming in, and how will you evaluate whether you're succeeding?

geoff 7y ago
My first immediate priority is to make sure the summer 2019 batch operates smoothly. We kick off in just a couple of weeks. Similarly, we are just working on launching YC China and I'll work hard to make sure Qi Lu has everything he needs to make that go well.

EGreg 7y ago

Geoff, I an hearing some great things already! Are you reachable by email? If we have a private question.