95: What Makes or Breaks a Startup with Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator

08/06/2016 43 min
95: What Makes or Breaks a Startup with Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator

Listen "95: What Makes or Breaks a Startup with Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator"

Episode Synopsis

Dubbed "the world's most powerful startup incubator" by Fast Company, Y Combinator (YC) has been plucking startups from garages, dorm rooms, coffee shops, and assorted founder hangouts for over a decade.
With a combined valuation of more than $65 billion among its alumni, a list that reads like a who’s who of startup fame—think AirBNB, Reddit, Dropbox, Instacart, Scribd, Weebly—YC has become a Silicon Valley institution. It is described as an elite founders boot camp, a place where ideas are incubated, annihilated, refined, and polished for a period of three months, ready to be served up to a bevy of hungry investors.
As co-founder of this entrepreneurial playground, Jessica Livingston has seen it all: the tears, the tantrums, and the triumphs, while getting a bird’s eye view of some of the startup world’s biggest success stories.
In this interview you will learn:

How to close the gap between a failed startup and a wildly successful one

What Y Combinator is looking for when they take on new startups

The exact process that Y Combinator puts startups through in order to ensure success

The key traits and qualities shared by every successful founder

What signs to look out for that your startup may be doomed

& much more!

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