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Twice a year in the heart of Silicon Valley, a small investment firm called Y Combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs from around the world for three months of intense work and instruction. Their brand-new two- or three-person start-ups are given a seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw idea into a viable business, fast.
Each YC session culminates in a demo day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear pitches from the new graduates. Any one of them might turn out to be the next Dropbox (class of 2007, now valued at $5 billion) or Airbnb (2009, $1.3 billion).
Randall Stross is the first journalist to have fly-on-the-wall access to Y Combinator. He tells the full story of how Paul Graham started this ultra exclusive institution, how it chooses among hundreds of aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs, and how it teaches them to go
from concept to profitability in record time.
The Launch Pad is both a gripping narrative and a gold mine of useful insights.
Introduction 1
1 Younger 9
2 Older 22
3 Grad School 34
4 Male 45
5 Crazy But Normal 56
6 Unsexy 67
7 Genius 77
8 Angels 86
9 Always Be Closing 98
10 Clone Myself 110
11 What's Up? 118
12 Hackathon 130
13 New Ideas 140
14 Risk 150
15 Married 161
16 Fearsome 171
17 Pay Attention 183
18 Growth 194
19 Find A Dropbox 206
20 Don't Quit 218
21 Software Is Eating The World 227
Acknowledgments 241
Appendix: The Summer 2011 Batch 245
Notes 251
Index 269
Overview
Twice a year in the heart of Silicon Valley, a small investment firm called Y Combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs from around the world for three months of intense work and instruction. Their brand-new two- or three-person start-ups are given a seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw idea into a viable business, fast.
Each YC session culminates in a demo day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear pitches from the new graduates. ...