Week 1, we drive down to Mountain View, buzzing with excitement. As we entered the halls of a non-descript warehouse, what I considered the pinnacle o

Stop Miscommunicating Your Big Idea

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2021-10-27 19:30:10

Week 1, we drive down to Mountain View, buzzing with excitement. As we entered the halls of a non-descript warehouse, what I considered the pinnacle of early-stage training grounds, I could barely contain myself. We were going to sit down with our Group Partners that day and kick off the core program.

Before I get int o that, though, let me give a quick bit of context. YC is entirely off the record, which allows for a significant amount of vulnerability, and I won’t share anything not public or my personal story.

My affinity for YC goes back to the early years when an old friend from my hometown Palo Alto, Trip Adler, reached out to me with a text message “can you help us find an office?”.

He and his co-founders Jared and Tikhon had just raised a $3.7M Series A and started hiring. I jumped at the opportunity (this was my craft at the time).

After I kicked off this project, I got a chance to spend time with the guys at a place they lived called Crystal Towers or Y-Scraper. There were many other YC founders there, and I was surprised that people our age were building and running successful companies.