Not sure why every restaurant has decided to replace a veggie burger with an impossible burger.
A vegetarian has no interest in tasting a meat alternative!
Indian startups are accelerating! The quality of the teams and products have improved significantly and the business models are working
The world is going to see lots of $10B+ companies from India in this next decade
The average length of a marriage in the US is 8 years
The average tenure of a board member is 9 years
Yet may founders decide on a board member after meeting them for 2 hours
Framework to think about India's opportunity in the next decade
Credit to my friend Shantanu Rastogi - (head of GA India)
Rather than thinking about average GDP look at how many households in India will make >$50k to $75k/ year by 2030.
Our asset is developers. India will have
Reading YC applications - I am so excited for the future of Indian startup ecosystem - so many awesome teams. I am quite bullish on India and I think in the future Indian startups will win the local market (it will become harder for the US companies to expand to India).
Proud of
@bscholl
and the entire
@boomaero
(YC W16) team for this great milestone. The world's first independently developed supersonic jet is here - built with less than $150M and 150 people in five years. That is a remarkable achievement. Thrilled for the future of aviation.
As a
@Penn
alum, I am disappointed but not surprised. The administration has pretty consistently been incompetent and often sided with donors above all.
I can't speak for the other two schools but I led two organizations and conferences at Penn between 2007 and 2009 and had to
The presidents of
@Harvard
,
@MIT
, and
@Penn
were all asked the following question under oath at today’s congressional hearing on antisemitism:
Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?
The
22 hour flight to India. Getting ready for YC interviews in Bangalore. No kids (since this is a work trip) = max productivity on a long flight! I can't think of the last time I had 22 hours straight to myself. Been a while :)
School project
Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
4 y.o. Nothing
Me: Really?
4 y.o. Ok I want to be a founder
Me (kinda excited): What do you want to build?
4 y.o. I want to be a Y Combinator founder
Me (happy): Why?
4 y.o. Because mamma spends her entire day there!
1/ This week is my 5 year anniversary at YC!
5 years ago I had no idea if I wanted to even stay in investing.
I had made up my mind to stay in the Bay Area but I was exploring roles at portfolio companies
Startup in India becomes Delaware Inc to raise money from US investors
Scales the business in India successfully
Has to flip back to Indian entity to list in India
Pay >20% in taxes to the US govt during the flip which is usually a hefty amount in the hundreds of millions of
In today's market capital is no longer a moat. You can raise a billion and your competitor will also raise hundreds of millions.
Don't assume for a second capital is going to give you an edge! There are WAY MORE investors than there are companies to be funded
YC has funded over 100 India-based startups who have raised more than $700M -- and we're looking forward to meeting more Indian founders (and future founders). Join us on our IIT Tour
Excited to partner with
@ZeptoNow
for the third time, and thrilled to announce that this marks
@avracap
's first significant investment.
Why does 10-minute delivery work in India?
India is a retail anomaly with over 90% of trade being unorganized retail. Consumers often
TikTok ban or not - Yiming (the founder of ByteDance) is one of the most inspiring founders I have met.
His ambition was always to to build a global company & he has now inspired a new generation of founders (especially those outside the valley) to dream big!
Scaling test:
Are you too busy - working all the time playing catch up and feeling dissatisfied?
If the answer to that is "yes" then you are probably not scaling!
Don't confuse that with hard work. Hard work is important but productivity is equally important
“Bull markets go to people’s heads. If you’re a duck on a pond, and it’s rising due to a downpour, you start going up in the world. But you think it’s you, not the pond.”- Charlie Munger
I come back after a week long work trip
9 y.o: Mamma, please don't mind but grandma cooks way better !
Me: oh that's ok. I am not offended. What do I do better (should have never asked in hindsight)
9 y.o. You are really good at yelling 😭
There is a ton of checks we can do in growth stage diligence but one question that really tests my own conviction level is this one - "If I had the opportunity, will I work at this company & for these founders?" The answer to that is probably the most revealing of all questions.
Raising at $1B+ valuation as an AI company is easy these days (pre-PMF, < $1m ARR companies can command that).
For all the founders of other companies who see the press every day but know there is no growth capital yet for a non-AI company :)
Keep in mind public markets will
Today we celebrate two
@ycombinator
IPOs
Huge congrats to YC alums
@getweave
(W14) and
@embarktrucks
(W16)
It took us 13 years to see the first IPO and there are several more to come!
Just listened to Google and Amazon's Q4 earnings calls from last week (perks of being married to a portfolio manager who wakes up the entire home at 6 AM PT)
Amazon is *much better* at delivering the message - the clarity of thought comes through in the communication. Maybe
12/ Needless to say - I learned a lot from the experience
(1) NEVER bet against a great team
(2) Most businesses are not zero-sum
(3) Copy Tony's generosity
Deadline to apply for one of the schools is at 5 PM PT today and
@_ram_
is writing the application at 4:15 PM and asking which grade the kid is applying for 😂😂.. Somethings never change!
1/ The most inspiring part of the
@canva
story is how two young founders from Australia have built a $15B++ company and they are just getting started -
Before every demo day: "All the good YC companies are already funded"
Reality years later: "Many" of the successful YC companies were never that popular on demo day
Pay attention tomorrow and the day after 😃
1/ Congratulations to
@harshilmathur
and
@shashank_kr
from
@Razorpay
(YC W15) on this amazing milestone. They applied to YC only a year after graduating from IIT Roorkee
This highlights one of the key problems in the VC world. How many women founders get intros to VCs from other CEOs? Pretty much none and yet VCs are looking for warm intros. It is not that women don't hustle but they are not in the same social circles as male CEOs.
6/ It was a year and a half before I learned to get an intro to a VC from another CEO. That led to
@usv
- our Series A. CEO intro beats the lawyer intro - every time.
Got to give it to
@aadit_palicha
. Calls me at 1 AM my time to explain why the ThumsUp was free (I did ask him that ;-) and then to walk through the 12 month plan in detail -- all when India was 3 wickets down in the first hour in a world cup final.
This kid is on 24/7 and all he
India's religious side is starting to show! Sales of puja flowers are through the roof today compared to a regular Sunday
We thought it was because of Chhath Puja, but there's been a major spike since the match started 😉
If you hire too fast before you have product market fit then you now have a bunch of people whose jobs depend on you not changing the product -
@t_blom
Zero sum games are EXTREMELY rare and yet every time a competitor launches there are *baseless* assumptions about who is going to win!
Facebook and Snapchat
eBay and Amazon
Uber and Lyft
Doordash and Uber Eats
Tencent and ByteDance
Swiggy and Zomato
The list is endless.
Silicon Valley for all its strengths is increasingly becoming a tough place to afford a home and raise kids. Raising kids here has become incredibly challenging.
Highly recommend this book - Shoe Dog - What a wild ride! I have read about so many "near death" situations at other startups but nothing that comes this close and more than once
Today in founder news
Large well known crossover fund PM calls one of our founders. Explains to them that they should have "sympathy" that the hedge fund performance is poor and therefore term sheets and hand shakes have no value.
One of the key differences between PE & tech investing mindset:
PE: What is the worst case scenario? (understand all the risks)
Tech: What is the best case scenario? (What happens if things go right)
In tech startups it is quite hard to predict true upside potential
YC has been part of
@GustoHQ
's journey since the beginning (W2012). Today, we are excited to announce an even deeper partnership with the team (
@joshuareeves
@tomerlondon
@edawerd
). We are proud of the incredible progress they have made since
@ycombinator
When I met my grandad (then 96) for the last time he had quite a few things to share. He was the former Chief of Cardiology & Dir. Of Teaching Hospital & worked until he was 78. This was the one book he asked me to read every year :) better late than never I guess!
1/ Most founders and friends ask me about stress and how I manage it. I used to get stressed a lot (still do though I would like to think I have improved:) and may not show it but stress is inevitable
The inflection point for startups focused on serving SMBs in India
(1) Reliance Jio has enabled millions of SMBs online and access to 4G
(2) Aadhaar/eKYC/ UPI remove payments friction
Result - Amazing number of products and services for SMBs that are 100x better!
One of my all-time favorite
@FoundersPodcast
. Letters Rockefeller wrote to his son
1/ As far as my nature is concerned, I don't meet competition. I destroy them
2/ Action solves everything. I firmly believe destiny is determined by our actions, not our origins
3/ People
Now its my turn to be biased! This podcast with
@_ram_
is a must listen.
@patrick_oshag
- You would think I have heard most of these views given I am married to
@_ram_
for 15+ years but I still learned a few things on this podcast for the first time!
My conversation with
@_ram_
, the founder of Octahedron
- scope of the coming internet opportunity
- key levers in 8 internet business models 🤯
- the Carvana playbook
As a friend said “this morning’s pod is NOT a 1.5x listen.”
Ram’s passion is palpable
Late stage investors : "Tell me about all the SaaS companies (not interested in others)"
Impressive employees at successful startups (looking for jobs): "Show me only the climate tech companies"
4 y.o. : I want to watch some TV
Me: It's not the weekend yet!
4 y.o.: We can watch "grown up" TV
Me: No
4 y.o: Mamma - I hear there are "founders" coming on TV. You should turn it on.
Happy Birthday America! 🇺🇲
21 years since I first moved to the US on a student visa to attend Virginia Tech (
@VT_ECE
). Forever grateful to VT for giving me a chance, supporting me when I most needed it.
1/ First admission letter in 2002
2/ Dr. Jeffrey Reed paid my tuition
Read my grandfather's diary this morning. He died at the age of 97 (6 years ago) after practicing cardiology till the age of 75.
It is the greatest gift he left behind for us. It has all the notes - becoming head of medicine and raising 3 daughters with all it's ups & downs
Our daughter went for her assessment for kindergarten this morning.
Teacher's feedback: We have been observing her since pre K. She is a nerd, loves to sit in the first bench and do math for hours
@_ram_
: That sounds like my wife. She is her daughter 😂
Customer service is often how startups bridge the gap between the potential of the ambitious thing they're building, and its early unreliability -
@paulg
Reminder to every startup to put CX as one of your top priorities
If you are a South Indian living in the Bay Area you are pretty much taken care of in terms of food of w/
@DoorDash
Shastha Food and
@MylaporeExpress
Doordash for restaurant food and groceries
Shastha Food for batter and snacks
Mylapore Express for daily vegetarian meals for
Here is the brand new list of top 100 YC companies of 2019
- 20 Companies valued at $1B and above
- Cumulative valuation of $155B, 195K+ jobs created
- 28 of them went through the more recent YC Growth Program!
Humbled to work with so many founders!
Myth: Growth investors are model driven (build a TON of scenarios and need to see so many proof points)
Reality: We do ALL of that and pay 50x -100x forward on valuation. Betting on the future and all the new products that have not launched
We are venture investors at heart 😇
1) I have huge respect for Mike Moritz and understand the spirit of the argument here about work ethic and things we can learn from China. However I can't wrap my head around this paragraph.
To my grandmom - who passed away 10 years ago today. Thank you for everything you did for our family. You are the reason we went to school and have a graduate degree ♥️
She had to drop out of school in 8th grade as she had no choice or say in the matter.
There will be arbitrage again with tech investments.
Most people in the world are negative about tech investments today - public and private. VC is out of fashion. Most cannot see beyond 2025.
And therefore the cycle begins again!
Long tech and further confirms what we all
1/ We are thrilled to double down in
@RealWhatnot
(YCW20). Sellers and Buyers love them -- they are the fastest growing marketplace among all the ones that launched in the last decade!
$COIN (YCS12): Excited for your debut on the Nasdaq From "Bitbank" to Coinbase
@brian_armstrong
in 2012: Bringing bitcoin to the masses is a frighteningly ambitious idea, which for us is motivating - this idea could change the world
@garrytan
in 2012: Paypal for Bitcoin
4 y.o. logic
Mamma - its almost a year since Anosuhka arrived.
I would like another baby sister River and another baby brother Benjamin. {Me: You have even thought of names?!?! }
Can you please go to Stanford hospital and pick them up today?
Pretty much every investor (public and private) I talk to : Retail is on structural decline. No one is at the store.
Pretty much every maker I talk to: FB/ Instagram are the only channels for online sales. We want to find offline channels to drive sales via boutique stores.
Growth stage startups run by *great* founders are becoming way more resilient. Many are on track to hit positive free cash flows and net income positive without having to raise a single penny from external investors. Quite a few have already achieved this.
The fundamentals look
"Having new ideas is a lonely business. Only those who've tried it know how lonely. These people need your help. And if you help them, you'll probably learn something in the process."
BREAKING: Kamala Harris just made history as the first Black and the first Asian American vice president-elect, and her win is the culmination of work by many.
#Election2020
At YC we don't invest based on themes/trends. We strive to invest in the "best" founders.
I have heard a lot of criticism about quick commerce/grocery delivery.
@ZeptoNow
will be different because
@aadit_palicha
&
@v0hra
are EXCEPTIONAL founders w/ incredible attention to detail
When Aadit (20 y/o) and Kaivalya (19 y/o) couldn't find a good grocery delivery app to use during Covid in India, they started
@zeptonow
, joining
@ycombinator
's W20 class.
Now, Zepto is worth $900 million.
Here are my four biggest takeaways from chatting with Aadit last week 🧵
Congrats
@TSMonzo
and the
@monzo
team! Raising $430m at a $5B valuation in a bearish fintech private market.
How did they pull it off?
Net income positive, FCF positive and growing really fast. Added 2m customers in the UK alone in 2023!
Welcome CapitalG and HongShan to the
And in 10 years it will be limiting to be just a US focused investor.
Every investment fund will need to expand their activities globally but very few are trying today
In Q1 2019, 39% of Stripe's hiring was outside Bay Area and Seattle. Last quarter, it was 74%. I think the rate at which tech industry is going global is still under-appreciated, and that this will be a big tailwind for the world over the next decade.