How is life post YC?
I compiled some of the learnings from my own experience and asked other Y Combinator friends from various batches, so you can get a feel of what happens after YC.
“Many founders look back at their YC journey as the fastest and most intense period of their startup journey, which is ironic because you usually attend YC in the first 1 year (when you are small, confused, and have no repeatable processes). A startup should only ever get faster - adding more employees should add output/velocity, adding another feature should unlock more customers, more time means better processes. YC gives founders a reason to create this DNA inside their company, and then after the batch it’s up to the founder to continue the mindset.”
During that time, we used to have around 146 new sign ups every week, which seemed like a lot for us to handle as a small team of 3 people.
“The hardest thing is to keep momentum, especially with a growing team. During YC, you have to deliver on a weekly cadence. Nobody wants to be the bad performer in their group. After YC, there is nobody providing that pressure. So you need to find other ways to generate momentum. Some companies adopted regular Launch Weeks, we ship bi-weekly at Raycast. Right after YC, we wrote monthly focus documents and assigned projects to everybody. This shared ownership helps to work with agency.”
