Founders at Work.pdf

Jessica Livingston 453
Have you gotten better at recognizing which founders are likely to
succeed?
Livingston: I really hope so. That’s the whole goal, right, for Y Combinator to
get better at picking successful startups. But let me tell you, it’s really hard
to judge at the stage we are investing at. Ground zero.
We have learned that determination matters a lot more than founders’
resumes or where they went to college. I’d say that determination is the most
important quality in a startup founder, because we’ve seen so many of the startups
hit difficult times, and some of them quit and some of them don’t. It’s hard
to keep going.
If they’ve built something really cool before, that’s usually a good sign—that
they can actually build and launch something.
You’ve watched over 100 startups now. How do you make a successful
startup? If you had to tell would-be startup founders in a few words,
what’s the secret?
Livingston: Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s one answer. It depends on so
many things. Some are under your control and some aren’t. But as I said before,
determination is most important. You have to be able to endure all of the bad
things that are going to happen to your company—times when you think you
are just dead, but you have to find the will to keep on going.
Choose a cofounder that you have a good relationship with, where there’s a
lot of trust between you. One of the biggest reasons for failures in startups
we’ve funded are blowups between founders in the first 6 months. I see that
and it’s painful to watch.
Unless you have revenues after 3 months or have a lot of personal savings,
you’ve got to be able to get more funding. So you have to have a good idea with
a large addressable market.
What are your plans for Y Combinator in the future?
Livingston: We’re always changing things, so it’s hard to say what will happen in
the future. I definitely want to keep doing it. For me it’s a dream job. We’ve
helped a lot of people start startups and I think they are happier and more fulfilled
because of it. I want to keep having an impact like that.
What started off as about 20 founders has now grown into an alumni network
of more than 250 people. It’s an amazing community. The founders all
help each other out. They have the same problems and deal with the same
investors and it’s nice to have people to ask for advice.
We’ll keep trying new things. We’re always experimenting and trying to
come up with new ways to scale. Y Combinator feels like a startup in that sense.