Aaron Harris is a Partner at Y Combinator and also newly one of my favourite podcast hosts with his brilliant show, Startup School Radio, for all startup lovers it is a must listen. Prior to YC, Aaron was cofounder of Sequoia backed Tutorspree, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2011. Before Tutorspree he worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he managed product and operations for an analytics group. He also writes an awesome blog which can be found here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Aaron make his move into the world of entrepreneurship with Tutorspree and then become a YC Partner?
2.) Why did Aaron join YC and why does he believe the biggest potential lies at this stage of the cycle?
3.) Now at YC, Aaron is a Partner, what does that entail, what level of interaction do you have with the founders, where does YC look to add serious value?
4.) With the mass of startups now in the 100s coming out of each YC demo day, how does YC assure the same quality and level of value add?
5.) With regards to testing what is YC’s opinion? How does YC assess whether a product does have product market fit? What are the YC requirements for growth whilst in YC?
6.) What happens after the YC experience, does YC maintain conversations and communication? How does YC try to maintain valuations at a reasonable level to stop YC price inflation?
7.) What is the future for YC? Are we going to see another funding round? Is the YC model scalable? Could we have a YC Europe?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Aaron & YC's Podcast: Startup School Radio
Aaron's Fave Book: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Founder's At Work by Jessica Livingston
As always you can follow Harry, Aaron, The Twenty Minute VC and YC on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!