If you want to start a company, you are not alone. The aspiring entrepreneurs presented themselves 5.5 million new business applications in the US last year – a record high.
Although only 55% of small businesses pass it five years mark, 1.5% to 2% of startups Received at Y Combinator may have a different perspective.
YC is a three-month program that helps startups get off the ground. it give select startups a total investment of $500,000 in exchange for a share in the company.
Since its establishment in 2005YC has invested in more than 5,000 companies with a combined value of $600 billion. Thirty-nine percent of companies that go through YC have set up one Series A or at least a significant round of external financing.
Reddit, Airbnb AND Instacart they all started at YC.
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YC has a free online Elementary school available to help educate future founders. Although the course is available in to YouTubetaking it through the company's site allows viewers to access a Co-Founder Match platform, which can help them find a co-founder.
YC's Startup School answered five key questions for me—and the answers may also be useful for first-time entrepreneurs. The course covered everything from finding the right idea to building a product.
Here are the questions asked and the answers I learned from the course.
Should I start a startup with no experience?
The first question potential founders might ask themselves is: Am I cut out to run a startup?
During the course, YC Group partner Harj Taggar explains that the most important character trait of a successful founder is not where they went to school or how safe they seem to be. Instead, Taggar says the most important quality for success in startup founders is ENDURANCE.
Building a company can be very personal and founders will likely have to persevere refusal from potential users or investors. Resistance can exist regardless of a founder's motivations or reasons for launching a startup.
Taggar says something that might put first-time founders at ease: It's okay to start a company for the money.
“I actually think it's good to start a startup get rich“Startups are one of the few ways to make life-changing amounts of money in a relatively short period of time,” says Taggar. If the desire to make money gets you started, then good. Go for it.”
It is also good to start a company without any prior experience to try to understand what it will be like. “Actually, doing a startup is the only way to know for sure if you're going to enjoy yourself,” says Taggar.
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How do I find a winning startup idea?
In answering this question, YC Group partner Jared Friedman studied where the founders of HEAD 100 YC companies, including Dropbox, DoorDash and Stripe, received their ideas.
He says the best way to get startup ideas “is to just notice them organically.”
At least 70% of the top 100 YC companies found their ideas this way instead of sitting down and trying to force a startup idea. “The problem is that when people sit down and try to think of startup ideas, they tend to think of the bad,” Friedman says.
To create a good organic idea, Friedman recommends becoming an expert in a valuable topic, working at a startup, and building interesting things with programming.
Is having a co-founder important?
Building a startup without a co-founder can make the journey “twice as hard,” says former YC visiting partner and CURRENT Memora Health Chief Product Officer Divya Bhat.
Both Bhat and YC head of product Catheryn Li recommend having a co-founder or someone there to help build a company from the start. Teams of co-founders have a productivity advantage – startups need to move quickly and help can be a bonus.
According to Bhat and Li, co-founders also benefit from moral support, which can be helpful if times get tough.
The co-founder advantage is more than just theoretical—Li says empirical evidence backs it up, too. “Most successful companies are founded by more than one founder,” says Li.
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How do I build a product?
MVP, or minimum viable productit's often “ridiculously simple,” according to YC Group partner Michael Seibel.
“That's the first thing you can give to the first group of users you want to target to see if you can provide them with any value,” says Seibel.
The question of how to find your first users shouldn't be a problem if you're trying to solve a problem with your company that affects even one person – that person would be the user.
The MVP doesn't have to be perfect or have the full functionality you envision. The goal is to launch quickly, get your first set of customers and get feedback from them.
Seibel points out that Airbnb MVP, its first landing page, did not process payments or provide a map view. The person who built the website and wrote all the code worked part-time.
“Everyone tells these kinds of magical stories about how everything was perfect from the beginning,” says Seibel. “Airbnb. Not perfect from the start.”
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How does fundraising work?
YC Group partner Brad Flora debunks common startup fundraising myths — the first being that fundraising is glamorous and high-pressure, as follows Shark tank.
The reality, according to Flora, is that fundraising feels less like a TV show and more like a coffee shop conversation.
“Current fundraising is just a bunch of one-on-one meetings on Zoom, over and over, while you try to collect checks and convince investors,” says Flora.
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You also don't need to raise money before starting a company. Fundraising may come after a minimum viable product.
Flora recommended building a first version of the product first, getting a few users, and then raising money. Founders can build a websitecreate software and find early adopters more widely and cheaply than ever, according to Flora – that's how it should be.
“Investors want to jump on the bandwagon,” he says.