Dalton &amp; Michael</a>, we’ll talk about the risks of “thinking like a VC”, how to know when you’re stuck in this mindset, and how to unlearn it (spoiler: stop reading so much about who’s raising what.) We’ll also cover a short list of things that we’ve found <em><strong>actually matter</strong> </em>when starting a company — it’s simpler than a lot of people think.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/SMi3JO-hsyY?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Why Founders Shouldn&#39;t Think Like Investors\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65fc85e32023130001bf1f97","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/03/mindset.jpeg","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-03-21T12:09:23.000-07:00","updated_at":"2024-04-11T09:46:51.000-07:00","published_at":"2024-03-21T12:11:29.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"It’s easy to analyze your way out of taking the first step. It’s something we see a lot, particularly when founders try to choose what to build based on what they think VCs will like.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71085","name":"Dalton Caldwell","slug":"dalton-caldwell","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Dalton.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Dalton is Managing Director, Architect and Group Partner at YC. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/dalton-caldwell/"}],"tags":[],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71085","name":"Dalton Caldwell","slug":"dalton-caldwell","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/Dalton.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Dalton is Managing Director, Architect and Group Partner at YC. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/dalton-caldwell/"},"primary_tag":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/build-for-customers-not-vcs/","excerpt":"It’s easy to analyze your way out of taking the first step. It’s something we see a lot, particularly when founders try to choose what to build based on what they think VCs will like.","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"67aac161d59c27000139d0df","uuid":"00d4bc44-5902-4582-bc66-f6d0716a404c","title":"Join us at AI Startup School — June 16-17","slug":"ai-startupschool","html":"<p>YC is hosting our first-ever <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus/">AI Startup School</a> in San Francisco on June 16 and 17th.</p><p>AI Startup School will gather 2,000 of the top CS undergrads, grad students and recent graduates in AI to hear from the world’s top AI experts and founders. Apply to attend <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus/">here.

This is a 100% free conference, and every attendee is hand-picked.<br><br><strong>This year’s speakers include:</strong></p><ul><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://x.com/elonmusk/">Elon Musk</a>, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://x.com/satyanadella/">Satya Nadella</a>, CEO of Microsoft</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://x.com/sama/">Sam Altman</a>, Co-founder &amp; CEO of OpenAI</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://karpathy.ai//">Andrej Karpathy</a>, Founder of Eureka</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.andrewng.org//">Andrew Ng</a>, Founder of DeepLearning.ai</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-kaplan-645843213//">Jared Kaplan</a>, Co-founder &amp; Chief Science Officer of Anthropic</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://fchollet.com//">François Chollet</a>, Co-founder of Ndea and Arc Prize</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://x.com/AravSrinivas/">Aravind Srinivas</a>, Co-founder &amp; CEO of Perplexity</li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://sriramk.com/">Sriram Krishnan</a>, Senior Policy Advisor for AI, White House</li><li>and more!</li></ul><!--kg-card-begin: html--><center>\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus/" class=\"ycdc-btn mt-2 ml-[13px] mt-[-10px] items-center justify-center\">Apply To AI Startup School</a>\n</center><!--kg-card-end: html--><p><br><strong>Who should apply?</strong> <br>This conference is just for undergrads, grad students, and recent graduates working in computer science, AI, applied math, robotics, or another highly technical and relevant field. Even if you didn’t go to school for it, you may qualify as we’ll look at your technical achievements: # of users your products serve, papers published, core contributor to open source, etc. Apply to attend <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus/">here.

Not in San Francisco?</strong> <br>We’ll cover up to $500 for airfare for your travel to SF.</p><p><strong>Space is limited,</strong> and we look forward to reading your application and hopefully seeing you in San Francisco.</p>","comment_id":"67aac161d59c27000139d0df","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2025/02/BlogTwitter-Image-Template.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2025-02-10T19:17:53.000-08:00","updated_at":"2025-04-10T10:01:28.000-07:00","published_at":"2025-02-12T12:45:26.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"We're gathering 2,000 of the top CS undergrads, masters, and PhD candidates in AI to hear from speakers including Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Andrej Karpathy, Andrew Ng, and many more — the world’s top AI experts and founders who will teach you how to build the future.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. 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Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/ai-startupschool/","excerpt":"YC is hosting our first-ever AI Startup School in San Francisco on June 16 and 17th.","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"67d344f069c1fe0001271630","uuid":"480eecc3-7955-4522-9a0a-6631d93268e9","title":"East Coast College Tour 2025","slug":"east-coast-college-tour-2025","html":"<p>YC is going on a college tour! We're visiting Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia, Cornell, and Cornell Tech. </p><p>If you're a current student at any of those schools and interested in startups, we'd love to meet you.</p><p>Here are dates and links to sign up - please note these events are only for current students at these schools:</p><p><strong>Cornell</strong> - Mar 23, 2025 <br><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/yc-cornell/">Sign up link</a></p><p><strong>Cornell Tech</strong> - Mar 25, 2025 <br><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/yc-cornell-tech/">Sign up link</a></p><p><strong>Columbia</strong> - Mar 26, 2025<br><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/yc-columbia/">Sign up link</a></p><p><strong>Yale</strong> - Mar 27, 2025 <br><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/yc-yale/">Sign up link</a></p><p><strong>Harvard</strong> - Mar 28, 2025 <br><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/yc-harvard/">Sign up link</a></p><p><strong>MIT</strong> - Apr 18, 2025 <br><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://events.ycombinator.com/yc-mit/">Sign up link</a></p>","comment_id":"67d344f069c1fe0001271630","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2025/03/BlogTwitter-Image-Template--1-.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2025-03-13T13:49:52.000-07:00","updated_at":"2025-03-13T14:26:52.000-07:00","published_at":"2025-03-13T14:26:20.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"YC is going on a college tour! 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So if you think you're \"too early\", you're probably not, and you have nothing to lose by applying.</p><p>To apply, please <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">submit an application</a> by Tuesday, 11/12 @ 8PM PT.</p>","comment_id":"672905a1d4414200016d141e","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-04-at-11.36.14-AM.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-11-04T09:34:25.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-11-05T09:00:00.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-11-05T09:00:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"To better serve founders given the rapid rate of technological change, YC recently switched from two to four batches per year.\nThe winter 2025 batch will run from January to March, and applications are due on November 12.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71097","name":"Jared Friedman","slug":"jared-friedman","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Jared.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Jared is Managing Director, Software and Group Partner at YC. 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