95: What Makes or Breaks a Startup with Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Dubbed "the world's most powerful startup incubator" by Fast Company, Y Combinator (YC) has been plucking startups from garages, dorm rooms, coffee shops, and assorted founder hangouts for over a decade.

With a combined valuation of more than $65 billion among its alumni, a list that reads like a who’s who of startup fame—think AirBNB, Reddit, Dropbox, Instacart, Scribd, Weebly—YC has become a Silicon Valley institution. It is described as an elite founders boot camp, a place where ideas are incubated, annihilated, refined, and polished for a period of three months, ready to be served up to a bevy of hungry investors.

As co-founder of this entrepreneurial playground, Jessica Livingston has seen it all: the tears, the tantrums, and the triumphs, while getting a bird’s eye view of some of the startup world’s biggest success stories.

In this interview you will learn:

• How to close the gap between a failed startup and a wildly successful one
• What Y Combinator is looking for when they take on new startups
• The exact process that Y Combinator puts startups through in order to ensure success
• The key traits and qualities shared by every successful founder
• What signs to look out for that your startup may be doomed
• & much more!