Infinity AI</strong></a><strong>:</strong> </strong>Working on a “script-to-movie” model: you tell it what the on-screen characters say and do and it’ll generate a video accordingly. Their first product creates “talking-head” style clips from a provided script. </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://kscale.dev//">K-Scale: Building the infrastructure for enabling robotics foundation models and ultimately solving the problem of real-world embodied intelligence.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.linum.ai//">Linum: </strong>Building models and tools that allow you to make animated videos from prompts. </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.metalware.io//">Metalware: AI tools to help firmware engineers build faster, like a specialized copilot for low-level programming or a PDF Reader that can crunch through a pile of data sheets and answer questions way faster than manual searching. The co-founders helped build the firmware for Starlink’s antennas.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.navier.ai//">Navier AI</strong></a>: A physics-ML solver that can simulate computational fluid dynamics in real time, an essential need for aerospace and automotive engineering.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://osium.ai//">Osium AI</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Helps R&D engineers design new materials faster, using AI to predict the physical properties of a material and speed up otherwise arduous microscopic image analysis.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.phind.com//">Phind: </strong>A conversational search engine built for developers, with a VS Code extension to tie it into your existing codebase. Ask it a question and it can generate an answer using your code as context. Stuck on an error/warning? It can offer up code to fix it. </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://piramidal.ai//">Piramidal: </strong>A foundation model for understanding brain activity, trained on a “colossal and diverse corpus” of brainwave data. Their first product is a copilot for neurologists evaluating potential epilepsy diagnoses. They’ve been able to train a large model with lower computational costs by reducing the memory footprint by dividing sequential EEG data into chunks.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://playground.com//">Playground: </strong>A powerful AI-based image editor. Create new images from prompts, merge real/synthetic images into new pieces, or modify existing images with just a few words (like “make it winter”, or “give the boy a cape.”) </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://play.ht//">PlayHT: </strong>Highly expressive, AI-generated voices for media and content creators. Can be trained on a new voice with about 10 minutes of sample recordings. You can <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL_hmxTLHiM\%22>hear some samples here</a>.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://sevn.ai//">SevnAI: </strong>Building foundation models for graphic design. Current diffusion models output images that are hard to edit. They are able to generate SVGs that users can easily edit with a model that has a custom architecture for spatial reasoning.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://sonauto.ai//">Sonauto: </strong>AI music creation. Give it lyrics, describe your song (e.g. “pop track that features vibrant synthesizers and an upbeat tempo”), and hit “Generate” — out pops a brand new tune. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/snowmaker/status/1770686247146500177/">Here’s a power metal track</a> about YC that Jared Friedman generated with Sonauto.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://synclabs.so//">Sync Labs</strong></a><strong>: </strong>They’ve built a model that lets you re-sync the lips of someone in a video to match up with new audio — allowing you to change the spoken language of a video in a way that looks natural, for example. They’re working towards doing this in real time for uses like live lip-synced translation in video calls. </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.tavus.io//">Tavus: </strong>Record one video, have it automatically personalized for each and every one of your viewers — swapping in the viewer’s name, company, etc where appropriate. The company recently released a <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/heytavus/status/1767536432682594349/">public beta of a tool</a> that lets you create a “human-like replica” of yourself with 2 minutes of footage.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.yonedalabs.com//">Yoneda Labs</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Helps chemists figure out the best temperature, concentration, and catalysts to optimize their chemical reactions. </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.yonduai.com//">Yondu: </strong>Building foundation models for robots to autonomously navigate the world.<br></p>","comment_id":"66058a6beba13d0001fb3036","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/03/AI.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-03-28T08:19:07.000-07:00","updated_at":"2024-03-28T10:07:00.000-07:00","published_at":"2024-03-28T10:06:52.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"These 25 YC companies have built AI models that do things that just a couple of years ago would have been impossible.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"66058c2beba13d0001fb303b","name":"Diana Hu","slug":"diana","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/03/diana.jpeg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Diana Hu is a Group Partner at YC. She was co-founder/CTO of Escher Reality (YC S17), an AR Backend company acquired by Niantic (makers of Pokémon Go). At Niantic, she was the head of the AR platform.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/diana/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7118c","name":"AI","slug":"ai","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/ai/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"66058c2beba13d0001fb303b","name":"Diana Hu","slug":"diana","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2024/03/diana.jpeg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Diana Hu is a Group Partner at YC. She was co-founder/CTO of Escher Reality (YC S17), an AR Backend company acquired by Niantic (makers of Pokémon Go). 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It would be natural to assume that if you don’t have a billion dollars or the resources of a large company, you can’t build AI models of your own.","reading_time":4,"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":"65e0b97fb27489000102ece4","uuid":"c3ace2c1-8f67-42c2-b95a-7c4c6c92be2a","title":"Building Confidence In Yourself and Your Ideas","slug":"when-to-pivot-and-when-to-stick-with-it","html":"<p>One trait that many of the best founders share is conviction. You can be great at programming, sales, and raising funds — but if you don’t truly believe in what you’re building, you’re probably not going to make it.</p><p>Too often we see founders who get blown off course the second they get negative feedback, or who want to pivot after a few cold emails don’t get them the response they were hoping for. If you keep changing directions at every step, you’re just going to get lost.</p><p>At the other extreme are founders who spend years trying to build the perfect product without making sure anyone actually wants it. How do you find the happy medium?</p><p>In this episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Dalton & Michael/">Dalton & Michael</a>, we’ll talk about finding the right speed, the dangers of inaccurate assumptions, and a question founders need to ask themselves before they start trying to sell to anyone else.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/al-15mMAS18?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Building Confidence In Yourself and Your Ideas\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65e0b97fb27489000102ece4","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/03/maxresdefault.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-02-29T09:06:07.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-03-01T09:01:19.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-02-29T15:00:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"People are going to have feedback about your startup idea — how do you make sense of it all? ","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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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. 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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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/stop-innovating-on-the-wrong-things/","excerpt":"Founders by definition have no limit to their job responsibilities, so they often get pulled in a millions directions at once.","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":"Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel in front of the text \"Stop Innovating (on the wrong things)\"","feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"65c11e69377b9c0001ddf0b5","uuid":"3035740d-3335-45e5-949c-b050cbc54522","title":"Bootstrap or VC?","slug":"bootstrap-or-vc","html":"<p>Founders making a decision to start a company often find themselves torn between “bootstrapping” (i.e. not raising money from venture capitalists) or trying to fundraise from VCs. </p><p>The fact is, the vast majority of businesses don't raise VC and that is often an excellent decision. Many do, and that can be great too!</p><p> In this episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Dalton & Michael/">Dalton & Michael</a>, we’ll explain why this particular debate is a much simpler one than many make it out to be.</p>","comment_id":"65c11e69377b9c0001ddf0b5","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/02/bootstrap.jpeg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-02-05T09:44:09.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-02-05T09:47:45.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-02-05T09:47:08.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll explain why the \"Bootstrap or raise Venture Capital?\" debate is a much simpler one than many make it out to be.","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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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. 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","reading_time":0,"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":"65b9523965f4090001462638","uuid":"88ba6273-58a7-49ce-ac25-eded6105a50b","title":"Backstory: How Tom Blomfield founded two billion-dollar companies","slug":"tom-blomfield-backstory","html":"<p>There aren’t a ton of people in the world who can say they founded a billion dollar company. There are far fewer that can say they did it<em> twice</em>.</p><p>YC Group Partner <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/tom-blomfield-of-gocardless-and-monzo-is-our-newest-group-partner/">Tom Blomfield</a> is one of them.</p><p>Rarer yet is just how<em> real</em> Tom is about all of it. Listening to his stories from the early days of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gocardless/">GoCardless and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/monzo-bank/">Monzo feels like riding a roller coaster — because that’s what building a company is. The highs are high, the lows are low, and the transitions between the two can be so sudden they leave you spinning.</p><p>Each episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/surbhi-sarna-backstory/">our series Backstory</a> will introduce you to one of YC’s Group Partners and the path they took to get here. This is Tom’s story.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/QKPgBAnbc10?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Tom Blomfield: How I Created Two Billion-Dollar Fintech Startups\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65b9523965f4090001462638","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/01/SR09E02_Thumbnail.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-01-30T11:47:05.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-01-30T14:32:07.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-01-30T14:04:45.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"There aren’t a ton of people in the world who can say they founded a billion dollar company. 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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/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. 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":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tom-blomfield-backstory/","excerpt":"There aren’t a ton of people in the world who can say they founded a billion dollar company. There are far fewer that can say they did it twice.","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":"YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield under the text \"BUILDING A BANK: Tom Blomfield's Backstory\"","feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"65a03520f55b5d0001807992","uuid":"577dc3de-cc43-45df-8672-067d1623b9eb","title":"Why do investors say you need a business co-founder?","slug":"why-do-investors-say-you-need-a-business-co-founder","html":"<p>Whether or not you need a co-founder is always a hotly debated topic — but going one level deeper, founders often wonder what <em>kind</em> of co-founder they need.</p><p>In a prior video Michael and I explained <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/KO-does-your-tech-startup-really-need-a-technical-co-founder-yes/">why <strong>every</strong> software company should have a technical co-founder</a>. But it’s also common for technical founders to be told by investors and advisors that they would benefit from a co-founder with non-technical expertise in things like business or marketing. </p><p>Are they correct? In this episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Dalton & Michael/">Dalton & Michael</a> we dive into exactly that question.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/43RhhwpiSk0?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Do Technical Founders Need Business Co-Founders?\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65a03520f55b5d0001807992","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/01/business-co-founder.jpeg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-01-11T10:36:16.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-01-11T11:44:29.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-01-11T11:35:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"Every software company needs a technical co-founder. But what kind of co-founder does the technical founder need?","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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/why-do-investors-say-you-need-a-business-co-founder/","excerpt":"Whether or not you need a co-founder is always a hotly debated topic — but going one level deeper, founders often wonder what kind of co-founder they need.","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":"Y Combinator Group Partners Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel in front of the text \"Business Co-founders?\"","feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"65847f23a621cc000159bd1e","uuid":"f0d93fdc-f76c-42af-aa52-536304ffdf6d","title":"The asymmetric upside of being positive","slug":"the-asymmetric-upside-of-being-positive","html":"<p>Many of us that are regular users of social media know that the snarkiest and most negative takes get the most engagement. This can train us to optimize for pointing out all of the problems with things in the world in hopes of being rewarded for it. </p><p>But this type of worldview doesn’t help founders building startups. The problems with any new startup are usually obvious and numerous, but you have to balance that with seeing the upside of making it work.</p><p>In this episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Dalton & Michael/">Dalton and Michael</a>, we’ll discuss the best ways for founders and aspiring founders to think about weighing optimism and pessimism in their day-to-day lives.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/vhXdUXmmhb4?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Should You Be Optimistic About The Future of Technology?\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65847f23a621cc000159bd1e","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/12/dm-optimism-thumb.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-12-21T10:08:35.000-08:00","updated_at":"2023-12-21T10:31:16.000-08:00","published_at":"2023-12-21T10:31:16.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"Dalton & Michael on the best ways for founders to think about weighing optimism and pessimism in their day-to-day lives.","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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/the-asymmetric-upside-of-being-positive/","excerpt":"Many of us that are regular users of social media know that the snarkiest and most negative takes get the most engagement. This can train us to optimize for pointing out all of the problems with things in the world in hopes of being rewarded for it. ","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":"6568cdc90b1f20000122517c","uuid":"9bc8662f-2620-436e-9455-e9b806e391f4","title":"Why you really DO need a technical co-founder","slug":"why-you-really-do-need-a-technical-co-founder","html":"<p>As YC Group Partners, we’re consistently surprised that anyone looking to start a VC-funded tech company would need to be <strong>convinced</strong> they need a technical co-founder. The usual arguments are that no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops can allow anyone with a business idea to start a tech startup and raise money. <br><br><em>“New tools make starting a venture-funded tech company easy for anyone to do!”</em> is an inspiring story that gets clicks on LinkedIn... but based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, companies lacking a technical co-founder underperform. <br><br>In this episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Dalton & Michael/">Dalton + Michael</a>, we’ll discuss exactly why that is and why recruiting a technical co-founder is the single biggest way to create value as someone trying to start the next big thing.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZpKu2wvquWg?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"How To Build A Tech Startup With No Technical Skills\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"6568cdc90b1f20000122517c","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/11/technical.jpeg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-11-30T10:00:41.000-08:00","updated_at":"2023-11-30T10:29:46.000-08:00","published_at":"2023-11-30T10:23:13.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"Based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, companies lacking a technical co-founder underperform. In this episode of Dalton + Michael, we’ll discuss exactly why that is.","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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/why-you-really-do-need-a-technical-co-founder/","excerpt":"As YC Group Partners, we’re consistently surprised that anyone looking to start a VC-funded tech company would need to be convinced they need a technical co-founder. The usual arguments are that no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops can allow anyone with a business idea to start a tech startup and raise money. “New tools make starting a venture-funded tech company easy for anyone to do!” is an inspiring story that gets clicks on LinkedIn... but based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, companies lacking a technical co-founder underperform. In this episode of Dalton + Michael, we’ll discuss exactly why that is and why recruiting a technical co-founder is the single biggest way to create value as someone trying to start the next big thing.","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":"65427540c404610001e13585","uuid":"ef17ff37-9a2c-4029-a2d0-96c28fb8ce9e","title":"Dalton and Michael's tips for technical founders","slug":"tips-for-technical-founders","html":"<p>The stories are true: technical founders (and early technical employees!) often end up with the short end of the stick when starting a company. </p><p>In this episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/carousel/Dalton & Michael/">Dalton & Michael</a>, we’ll discuss the questions and best practices that an aspiring founder (who happens to be technical) should think about — whom to start a company with, and how to think about things like equity split and division of responsibilities. </p><p>Technical folks: know what you are worth and act accordingly!</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/fcfVjd_oV1I?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"How To NOT Get Screwed As A Software Engineer\"></iframe></figure>","comment_id":"65427540c404610001e13585","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/11/DM-thumb.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-11-01T08:56:48.000-07:00","updated_at":"2023-11-01T10:11:36.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-11-01T10:11:36.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"The stories are true: technical founders (and early technical employees!) often end up with the short end of the stick when starting a company. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we'll discuss how to keep that from happening to you.","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":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"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":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tips-for-technical-founders/","excerpt":"The stories are true: technical founders (and early technical employees!) often end up with the short end of the stick when starting a company. ","reading_time":0,"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}],"filter":"(Video)","featured":null,"pagination":{"page":1,"limit":10,"pages":26,"total":257,"next":2,"prev":null}},"url":"/blog/tag/video","version":"aa5cc48c512ec693ec60765a0397dfe59cf5da82","encryptHistory":false,"clearHistory":false,"rails_context":{"railsEnv":"production","inMailer":false,"i18nLocale":"en","i18nDefaultLocale":"en","href":"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/tag/video","location":"/blog/tag/video","scheme":"https","host":"www.ycombinator.com","port":null,"pathname":"/blog/tag/video","search":null,"httpAcceptLanguage":"en, *","applyBatchLong":"Summer 2025","applyBatchShort":"S2025","applyDeadlineShort":"May 13","ycdcRetroMode":true,"currentUser":null,"serverSide":true},"id":"ycdc_new/pages/BlogList-react-component-85573069-1758-44c8-a8dd-7d5bd891274f","server_side":true}" data-reactroot=""> Stop innovating on the wrong things by Dalton Caldwell2/15/2024 In this episode of Dalton & Michael we’ll discuss the downsides of trying to “innovate” on certain things and why that can make it LESS likely a company succeeds. Bootstrap or VC? by Dalton Caldwell2/5/2024 In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll explain why the "Bootstrap or raise Venture Capital?" debate is a much simpler one than many make it out to be. Backstory: How Tom Blomfield founded two billion-dollar companies by Garry Tan1/30/2024 There aren’t a ton of people in the world who can say they founded a billion dollar company. There are far fewer that can say they did it twice.
YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield is one of those few — this is his backstory. Why do investors say you need a business co-founder? by Dalton Caldwell1/11/2024 Every software company needs a technical co-founder. But what kind of co-founder does the technical founder need? The asymmetric upside of being positive by Dalton Caldwell12/21/2023 Dalton & Michael on the best ways for founders to think about weighing optimism and pessimism in their day-to-day lives. Why you really DO need a technical co-founder by Dalton Caldwell11/30/2023 Based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, companies lacking a technical co-founder underperform. In this episode of Dalton + Michael, we’ll discuss exactly why that is. Dalton and Michael's tips for technical founders by Dalton Caldwell11/1/2023 The stories are true: technical founders (and early technical employees!) often end up with the short end of the stick when starting a company. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we'll discuss how to keep that from happening to you.Recent Posts (Video)
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