
YC Startup School 2018: a free, 10-week, online course - adora
https://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-startup-school-2018/
======
carusooneliner
My cofounder and I took this course last year. About the format of the course
and efficacy:

\- assigned mentor: we were assigned a former yc startup founder as mentor.
the mentor had 30 minute 1-1s with us once a month and gave us useful advice
on a wide range of matters.

\- weekly homework: choose a single metric you'll measure through the duration
of the course and report the metric and growth weekly. The metric could be
DAUs, number of customers you've talked to, whatever. It's for you to figure
the most important thing to focus on. We were running the startup in a bit of
an ad hoc manner until startup school; weekly metric reporting helped focus
our efforts in service of a single meaningful metric.

\- group calls: we were lucky to be in a good peer group comprising about 30
startups of all kinds -- medical device to SaaS to consumer apps. There were
weekly 1-2 hr calls chaired by the mentor. Before the meeting, the mentor sent
out a questionnaire to fill out -- what's your product's value prop, what
setbacks have you faced, etc. -- and startups would be randomly chosen to talk
about their response to the questionnaire. Lot of time for Q&A. Our peer group
is still in touch through a facebook group, where we occasionally share
progress.

\- Demo day: record a 2 minute video talking about our startup. This forced us
come up with a concise statement to describe our startup and gave us a
platform to showcase it.

If I had to summarize the benefit of startup school, it would be three things:

\- quality mentorship

\- diverse peer group

\- forcing function for startup to hit goals

I'll venture to say it's probably one of the most valuable things an early
stage startup could invest time on.

~~~
DenisM
>30 minute 1-1s with us once a month

Was that actually useful? I can't imagine them understanding (or remembering)
anything about your company in that little time.

~~~
ryanlitalien
You had to essentially come to the meeting with a specific problem to focus
on.

For us it went like:

* A quick status update on what we've accomplished since the last meeting, some back and forth.

* Discuss the main problem we're working on. (For example: "We're stuck on how to improve our inbound traffic")

* Talk about next steps or deliverables for the next meeting. (For example: Try to acquire 10% more users)

It was a great program and I'm excited to try again with my new project.

~~~
DenisM
> with a specific problem to focus on

That's unfortunate... I think that most often picking the _right_ problem is
the most important problem itself, but that requires a lot of context.

I'm glad you enjoyed it though!

~~~
rhizome
I don't think you can know what _the right problem_ is to work on, except in
hindsight.

~~~
DenisM
Hence why you need an advisor, right? To help with that?

------
aacook
Cool. This is timely for me. I launched
[https://nanagram.co](https://nanagram.co) about 8 months ago. We help people
send printed photos in the mail to their grandparents with a text message.
I've been bootstrapping it with contract work in parallel but I'd like to
focus on it full-time. Customers seem to truly love it and it's the happiest
thing I've ever created. I'm thinking about putting together a family and
friends round to focus full-time through the fall. Funding aside, I know I
need some mentorship.

Is the $10k funding awarded at the end of the cycle?

~~~
aaavl2821
This looks really cool btw, my gf and I will very likely become users!

I think it says that the $10k will be awarded to 100 companies that complete
the course so I assume at the end

~~~
aacook
Thanks so much. I'm having a blast. Feel free to email (alex@nanagram.co) or
text/call with any questions (617-356-7849).

------
antaviana
In our case, our "start-up" is a desktop product sold as a subscription that
is developed and marketed within an existing professional services company we
operate, which is serving a niche domain that the desktop product targets.

Developing the product was always a bit of a hobby but patiently over 5 years
since it transitioned from freeware to commercial, annual subscription
billings have grown to over $500K. We estimate that our current customer base
is a 3-5% of the TAM. The product business itself is already profitable
because it requires barely one FT equivalent person for development and
support (i.e. 2-3 people part-time working on it, mostly dev, a bit of
support).

Since it has a hobby, we fully relied on a low touch sales model so we never
have done ads, conferences or engaged in sales efforts. Instead we grew via
network effects among our customers.

What I'm trying to say is that in all these years we've figured out some
things along the way (most notably product-market fit and business model) and
clearly left other things on the table (sales, marketing, recruiting) to fully
develop the opportunity further.

Back in 2014 I found immensely useful the "How to start an start up?" video
lectures hosted by Sam Altman.

Given our slow motion, age (I'm over 50) and probably the fact that our
company would be an outlier in the group calls, what would make most sense for
me to apply for, Startup School or Audit Startup School? Of my team most
likely only I will have enough time/motivation to take the online course.

~~~
jasonford1
I'm in a similar position. For whatever it's worth I applied for Startup
School. My partners are in their 60's and have grown the business purely
analog. 3-5% of TAM is about where we are as well. Cash flow positive for 9
years. Time to step on the gas.

------
adora
Hi, I'm Adora, a YC partner, and will be helping out with the course. Very
excited to meet and work with everyone. Happy to answer any questions.

~~~
throwawayschool
Hi Adora, I am quitting my fulltime job to found my own startup in the fall,
and I am working almost a fulltime per week on my own time to prepare the
product for the future startup.

1\. Can I still apply if I have a fulltime job in addition to working on my
startup?

2\. Must the company be established before the program starts, or can it be
established a few weeks later?

3\. Do you expect the product to be launched during the program, or can it be
launched later this year?

Thanks

~~~
jacquesm
If I can give you one hot tip it is not to quit your fulltime job until you
have _something_ in terms of traction to ensure you're not killing your runway
waiting through the 'valley of despair'.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Some employment contracts have IP clauses that make the claim that anything
you create before, during or after hours while employed is theirs, so maybe it
makes sense in that regards.

~~~
jacquesm
Read the parent comment again, GP is long past that stage. If it worked so far
it will work a little bit longer.

------
tuyguntn
Anyone who tried this course last year, can you please share your thoughts on
this course and

* why should we take this course?

* what have you achieved after taking this course?

* did it help you build/finish your startup?

~~~
lettergram
If you're starting there is a huge advantage to holding yourself and others
accountable. It helped push me to launch my startup and provided insights.

Perhaps more importantly you make connections. Just yesterday I was speaking
to someone from my startup school group, and I did startup school over a year
ago. They provided feedback and I provide them feedback, we also found
synergies and can introduce one another to other teams, sales, etc.

I'd argue startup school isn't going to help you "finish" your startup. Only
you can do that... You're motivation is the real premise behind the whole
thing. However, they can give you the tools and connections to make it easier.
It's always a cost benefit analysis - "is this worth doing?" Is something
startup school helps answer, and also tips the balance (slightly) towards
being a bit easier.

For reference, I'm still working on my project a year out (with some revenue):

[https://metacortex.me](https://metacortex.me)

Startup school helped me get free AWS credits (which helped significantly),
helped make connections, and perhaps more importantly - helped with
introspection. I should note, I didn't even launch a prototype until the last
few days of startup school... It would have been more helpful had I had
something at least half way through.

~~~
niceperson
This doesn't look good........

>Organize Your Companies Knowledge

Company's

Can I be your grammar Czar?

~~~
lettergram
Thanks for the heads up, haven't really completed this website (you may see
broken links too). Our prior site was
[https://projectpiglet.com](https://projectpiglet.com) \- which was our POC.
Related to introspection, we realized we had a better target market and are
shifting.

Thanks for the input.

~~~
psyklic
Also a search such as 'asdf' or '-50a' seems to crash it, e.g.
[https://hnprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=...](https://hnprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=asdf)

~~~
lettergram
Thanks for taking the time to respond, that was my bad.

I wasn't ready for releasing it, and was breaking some stuff last night.
Thanks for pointing it out :)

------
westoncb
What I wonder is if this would be very useful to someone trying to start a
software business that they don't want to turn into a 'startup' in the sense
it's generally used here (not trying to become a billion dollar company or
even seeking investment at all).

It seems like best advice and strategies for those routes have some overlap,
but also a lot of points where good advice for one is bad advice for the
other.

------
waldrews
UI suggestion: Just Say No to multi-page forms that require you to submit the
first page of (personal) information before being allowed to see questions on
subsequent pages.

~~~
TACIXAT
Why?

~~~
whollacsek
because it's a dark pattern

------
krrishd
I didn't take it as a true 'course' last year but incidentally watched a lot
of the lectures -- heard some really genuinely novel perspectives that aren't
as self-evident as a lot of startup education ~seems~ nowadays, so i'm excited
to see how the course has evolved!

------
volkk
A comment here mentions that over 2000 companies joined last year. How do
mentors spread their time over this impressive amount of companies? Or does
that number include the ones that are simply auditing? And if you're NOT
auditing, does that mean that it's an application process where you must be
accepted?

~~~
adora
That figure does not include audit.

Advisors use most of their time on this doing group office hours sessions.
Last year each advisor had around 25-30 companies each, so we only needed 100
or so. They're all YC alum who love to pay it forward.

Anyone can audit the course. If you'd like to participate fully, it is an
application process.

------
LeonM
I just subscribed, there are some bugs in the process though:

\- The photo image uploader does not seem to work (FF61).

\- The email validation link threw a 500 error on first try, second try
succeeded.

\- The company name field in the second form cannot be empty, even though the
field description says 'if you have one'.

~~~
rrecuero
They should be fixed now. Email us at software@ycombinator.com if you run into
any issues.

------
jcolella
This is great. This empowering and in general knowledge sharing on building
startups is why many companies are successful here in the US. Very cool

------
akuji1993
> 1,587 (56%) of the companies completed the course, and, since then, 38 of
> them have been accepted to the core Y Combinator program

In other words, your chance of getting into YC by these means, is about 2%.
Still might be worth, just for the information alone though.

~~~
bobwaycott
You’re mistakenly assuming everyone applies to join YC when calculating that
percentage.

------
notananthem
I'd love to apply but I'm finishing an evening MBA and want to do it or just
apply to YC after school. Got a year left, I'm going to just audit it. Can't
believe how accessible YC is to the startup market, thanks YC :)

------
legionof7
Is it just me or does the Add Picture button not work? I tried both Firefox
and Chrome.

~~~
sandslash
Looking into it!

~~~
legionof7
Great, thanks! Also, the word limit seems to be really small, especially for
"How far along are you".

------
f0rgot
Reminder that you can also just audit the course, if you all you really want
is the info.

------
ericdykstra
Just signed up, and looking forward to seeing the content, even though I'm
just auditing this year.

I have a question, though. In the "What industry do you plan to launch your
product in?" question, one of the responses was "Diversity." What exactly do
you mean by "Diversity Industry" and can you give some examples of companies
in this space?

------
bob_theslob646
I wonder what the logic is behind this? Is it getting too costly to educate
people in person? Is this as effective as in person?

>Those companies will also receive a video interview with a YC partner later
in the year for advice or aid in applying to a future YC batch.

I laughed at that comment due to how it shows how competitive it is to get
into YC.

~~~
sandslash
We wanted to create a program with content that would be helpful for any new
founder/startup, regardless of where they are. It's not meant to replace the
in-person YC program (that's still our core offering).

Think of it as a crash course in starting a company. Just because you can't
make it to the Bay Area doesn't mean you shouldn't have access to advice and
community! We just want to help startups be better startups.

------
kaycebasques
The course seems rather no-strings-attached. For example, it mentions that the
most promising companies will get $10K of "equity-free funding" as well as
other goodies.

Appeals to altruism aside, what's Y Combinator's incentive here? Is the hope
that companies will feel loyalty to YC, and join the core program?

~~~
Liron
YC already invests $1M worth of human capital to put on Startup School.
Whatever their original motivation is to do it, it's worth another $1M to do
it better.

------
conquistadog
Very interested. How much about one's idea must be disclosed? Is there any
protection for secret sauce?

~~~
1996
Why do you care? ideas are worth little. Implementation matters most!

Last week I talked with a competitor. I detailed my plans for the next 6
months. It commits me to follow them, and may incite discussion.

There is almost 0 risk they can match the features or my timeline. I am quite
productive, and there is no secret sauce. Just complexity, and
interdependance. Can't have a baby in 1 month with 9 mothers. And should they
do, I will be happy to copy the unique features they add.

The disclosure opened some talks however. I am ready to sell consulting or
some specific parts they need to do their product, and that have not much of
an impact in mine.

~~~
conquistadog
You make a fair point, but that advice is a very hard ask for some. Just
looking for some reassurance.

------
frissonlabs
I saved a very rough draft of my application but now, when I return to
startupschool.org, it shows me the "Thank you for applying to Startup School!"
message. Should I be worried? Or can I still edit my application via
"Settings"?

~~~
adora
You should be able to edit your profile and company details when you log in.

------
asaxena76
I am a solo founder with kids and mortgage. Wifey helps out a bit. Have a
rough proto ( and software) of a kids educational robotics product. I put the
product on cold storage realizing I can't do this part time and I don't have
enough money in the bank to take time off . I really want to share and get
some feedback but I am afraid I won't be able to spend a lot of time in
building right now. I can spend 3-4 hours a week but thats about it . Do you
think this will be a good fit for me. I would certainly like to be able to
qualify for cloud credits so I can keep building this when I have time.

------
taytus
Application sent! Best of luck everyone!!

------
Kagerjay
I submitted this anyhow I do not think business skills is something I really
need, mentorship is nice but I have great mentors locally, but the issue I
face right now is mostly lack of technical knowledge, so this startup school
might be irrelevant to me in all honesty

I have an idea I wish to persue because it solves an actual problem I face
everyday and by building it it would make a lot of other goals I have much
easier to obtain.

I am mostly just interested in the case studies of how other startups do
things. Mostly curiosity about how YC

------
syntaxing
Is this course suitable for hardware products? There's some ideas and
prototypes I have done that I always wanted to bring to market but not sure
how to go about it.

~~~
adora
Yes, very much so.

------
hyperpallium
> For the first time ever we are going to give $10,000 in equity-free funding
> to 100 of the most promising companies that join and complete the course.

------
noobhacker
What are the recommended background readings to best prepare founders for this
program? IMO it helps a lot when participants already use the same framework
and speak the same language, so that more time can be devoted to specific
problems.

Obviously for people that hang out on HN, we already had some shared
understanding. But a list of recommended readings to make sure all gaps are
filled would be very useful as well.

~~~
adora
One place to start:
[https://www.startupschool.org/library](https://www.startupschool.org/library)

------
amino
I took part in the innaugural startup school and really loved it. I would like
to join this one too. Can I still apply with the same idea?

~~~
sandslash
Absolutely!

------
sreyaNotfilc
Sounds sweet! I'm actually releasing a website/business September 1st. So,
this is perfect timing. Might as well give it a go.

------
hsikka
I'm working on building Early Warning Systems that use ML and space data for
Public Health problems and can see a commercial application for governments
and communities. But I just started work, and this is a longer problem than
most SAAS offerings, do you think Startup School is worth it in this case?

~~~
adora
Yep. We've tailored the content to fit all sorts of sales models. There'll
also be plenty of other founders with similarly long sales cycles to chat to /
learn from within the Startup School community.

~~~
hsikka
Awesome thanks Adora! You probably don't remember but you interviewed me YC
summer 2018 for a project called ModelDepot haha!

------
Finbarr
Really happy to see this running again. The design looks to have been hugely
improved. Great job YC software team!

~~~
rrecuero
Thank you, Finbarr. It was really easy to take over. You did a great job

~~~
Finbarr
Thanks Ramon! It's in great hands :-)

------
nathcd
It looks like the "What is your most impressive accomplishment?" question on
the application has a max length of 60 characters. I can understand it needing
to be short, but that seems _really_ short. I'm having a tough time trying to
slice and dice a sentence to fit.

~~~
adora
Oops, good point. We'll change that soon. Will update here once done. Edit:
good to go now.

~~~
dimitry12
Some fields on the "COMPANY DETAILS"-form are obviously too short. For example
"How far along are you?" is 60 characters.

~~~
intous
It is a bug

~~~
Tunecrew
add a photo not working for me either

------
thehodge
Just applied, I think as a part time husband and wife team with a child (and
based in the UK) this is a more realistic opportunity than the physical YC
(even though I think that would be an awesome adventure)

------
adverbly
Is the 10k available for startups in the US only, or is it international?

~~~
adora
You can be from anywhere.

------
adityapurwa
I just applied and I am working full time, I wonder if I’d still be able to
join the course considering I only have after office hours on it. I’m glad the
course is during my college breaks.

------
code_devil
Hi Adora, This is awesome. I just applied for it. How many hours of lectures
will we have in a week? As it’s an online course - do you recommend being in
one physical location/geography?

~~~
sandslash
You should expect a minimum 3-hour commitment a week: roughly 2 hours of
lectures and 1 hour of group office hours. Lectures you can watch at your own
leisure.

As for location/geography, as long as you have a device with internet access
you can be wherever works best for you. We'll do our best to align timezones
so scheduling is easier for you and your group during the course.

~~~
code_devil
Thanks sandslash!

------
Wouter33
Heads-up: There is no overview/confirmation page at the end of the signup
process, so no reviewing your answers before submitting. Just found this out
the hard way!

~~~
bing_dai
Hello, I believe you can still go back and edit your answers under the
"Setting" tab.

~~~
Wouter33
Good catch! Thanks!

------
bambax
I took this course last year and enjoyed it a lot. My company exists and is
growing. Can I take it again? -- Is it possible, and does it make sense to
take it twice?

~~~
sandslash
You can definitely take it again. Content this year, for the most part, will
be different than last year's.

~~~
bambax
Thanks!

I forgot my password, and have trouble setting a new password for the previous
account via the reset link; the website says "Please review the problems
below:" but doesn't show anything else...

Should I create a new account...?

~~~
rrecuero
Hi, can you email us at software@ycombinator.com and include your email
address?

Thanks

~~~
bambax
Thanks, done.

------
fefehern
I've submitted an application but I do have a question:

If I were to change gears (Say, go from one business idea to another), should
I re-apply with the different idea?

~~~
adora
You can update your application up until Aug 13.

------
nad7vx
sorry if this a dumb question: my cofounder and I are working on a app that we
plan to release in South East Asia (i.e. India) because of what we believe is
a better market fit as well as product positioning - does applying to this
program make sense if our goal isn't (in the near term) to release this app in
the US? Would we still be eligible for the equity funding?

~~~
adora
Still makes sense, and you'll be eligible as long as you complete the course.
One of our goals for Startup School is to help founders beyond the Silicon
Valley and US. Great entrepreneurs are everywhere.

------
allanmacgregor
Just submitted my application, regardless if I make it in or not I'm really
excited to follow along with the videos

------
elvirs
this is awesome. lines up with our stage of development too. filled out the
form, hoping to become part of YC community

------
k__
It's nice that the offer the material to people who don't have an idea for a
product in the near future.

------
vardhankoshal
Hi Adora,

Can you please provide some idea of selection criteria and if possible,
selection percentage?

------
ericzawo
I've been working on my own media platform with friends and think this will
provide a lot of value. I've worked for various media companies in the past as
both an employee and freelance journalist and want to really make an impact
with our brand. Hoping we get in!

------
mamaquin
Hi Adora,

Do you need to have a co-founder to get into the online startup school?

~~~
ankitsoni
Not Adora here, you don't need a co-founder to join startup school.

------
mkirklions
I am developing a finance tech, full stack app, solo. This would probably be
fantastic, but the time/money commitment is

>Not working my 9-5 job that pays 2k/week

>Not obsessively working on my app after work 4hr/night _5 + 12hr_ 2= 44
hours/week of not programming

Im sure its a great opportunity, but I am unsure if its the better decision. I
already have a community that visits Efficiency Is Everything, I already can
program, and I have a significant savings.

Business skills may be a real thing to learn, but its a risky 10 week
proposal.

Anyone care to share thoughts on this decision? I would rather find out I'm
wrong, than be wrong and make a bad decision.

~~~
sandslash
We totally understand that founders may have other commitments that are more
important than their nascent company. That's one of the main reasons we
started Startup School, and kept it completely remote.

The program itself only has two requirements: that you are working on a
startup (PT or FT) and that you're able to commit ~3 hours a week of to watch
the lectures and attend office hours.

~~~
mkirklions
That isnt bad at all. I will re-read the article and consider it. Thanks for
taking the time to respond!

------
madeuptempacct
This sounds like an asshole question, but it's one I have always had. If
someone has a truly great idea, how do they know it won't be stolen by mentors
with more resources and lawyers?

~~~
patio11
Your mentors (broadly defined) will happily tell you that your idea rounds to
valueless and that all of the value created happens over years of patient
execution, much like the years of execution that they spent working on their
most recent adventure, and that entrepreneurs who are likely to be successful
don’t sit around idle in a room lounging on stacks of money, chit chatting
with lawyers, and waiting to stab a passing startup in the back.

------
matte_black
What does the information in the course have to offer that is different from
all the other books, courses and content out there on building a startup?
Seems like everything out there basically presents the same concepts just in
different words.

~~~
snowmaker
If you just want the content, you can audit it.

The reason to do the course is that it's actually a program. You'll work
directly with a mentor who is a current YC founder and get to know other
companies in your group.

------
anonymous645
Would u accept a me-too company ?

This company just raised $10M A round. Fantastic backers, industry-experienced
CEO. A very technical enterprise product. We saw their demo. The website is
very detailed. Never signed any NDA.

We have managed to code a similar MVP product. We also have a different
technical and feature road map. This is not a $1BN target - maybe eventual
acquisition at low 9 figures.

Do u think this is a valid candidate for YC Online ?

Would u strongly steer us away from such an approach ?

