# Q&A with YC Partners at Startup School SV 2016

> `[00:00:01]` I\'m cat one of the partners at Y C and I\'m gonna bring on a bunch of the partners with me today to help answer some of the questions that you sent us. Thanks for sending all the questions.

`[00:00:01]` 我是 YC 的合伙人之一，今天我要带一帮合伙人来回答你给我们的一些问题。谢谢你寄来的所有问题。

> `[00:00:11]` Let\'s bring everyone out.

`[00:00:11]` 让我们把每个人都带出来。

> `[00:00:22]` All right. Let\'s have everyone introduce themselves really quick so let\'s go down the line. Start with Dora Amador.

`[00:00:22]` 好的。让每个人很快地自我介绍吧，让我们开始吧，从多拉·阿马多尔开始吧。

> `[00:00:35]` Michael Dalton on Casti.  

`[00:00:35]` 卡斯特岛的迈克尔·道尔顿。

> `[00:00:38]` And so we just took all of your questions and are going to probably get through hopefully about 10. And then if there\'s any that we can\'t get you today we\'ll try to answer them online for you. But let\'s start with if you know you want to eventually start a startup. When should you do it. What\'s the best timing and how do you navigate the tradeoff between becoming a domain expert and just doing it now.

`[00:00:38]` 所以我们刚刚回答了你们所有的问题，很有可能在 10 点左右通过。然后，如果我们今天找不到你，我们会在网上帮你回答。但让我们先从你知道你想最终创办一家初创公司开始吧。你应该什么时候创业呢？什么是最好的时机，以及你如何在成为领域专家和现在就这么做之间进行权衡。

> `[00:01:05]` If you want to start and you have an idea you think you should just start now instead of trying to figure out the tradeoffs. I think when you start and even if you\'re not an expert you should be on your way to becoming the domain expert and you can do a lot by you know going in the field and doing the actual job itself or whatever research you need to do to make yourself a domain expert. But you know one or two years time you better be the domain expert in that field.

`[00:01:05]` 如果你想开始，并且你有一个想法，你认为你应该现在就开始，而不是试图找出权衡的方法。我认为，当你开始工作的时候，即使你不是专家，你也应该走上成为领域专家的道路，你可以做很多事情-你知道进入这个领域，做实际的工作，或者做任何你需要做的研究才能让自己成为领域专家。但你知道，一到两年，你最好成为该领域的领域专家。

> `[00:01:31]` Yeah I\'d add to that if you don\'t have an idea. I thought Mark Andriessen advice was really good. Go join a hot startup for a couple of years. Get an idea of what a a well run startup looks like. So when you do have your idea you\'re kind of ahead of the game.

`[00:01:31]` 是的，如果你没有什么主意的话，我会再加一句。我认为马克·安德里森的建议真的很好。去加入一家热火朝天的初创公司吧。了解一家运营良好的初创公司是什么样子。所以，当你有自己的想法时，你就有点超前了。

> `[00:01:48]` Right.

`[00:01:48]` 对。

> `[00:01:49]` So what\'s a good process for discovering and vetting new ideas that might be worth building.

`[00:01:49]` 那么什么是发现和审查可能值得建立的新想法的好过程呢？

> `[00:01:59]` I always tell founders two things one look in their lives and look in the lives of their family and their community and their work and find problems that interests them. And the thing I say is think about what you want. The first line of your Wikipedia article to be because you know every startup has the potential to be your life\'s work. So you don\'t think about warm up startups. Think about going out and doing your life\'s work solving a problem in the world you care about.

`[00:01:59]` 我总是告诉创立者两件事，一是看他们的生活，一是看他们的家庭、社区的生活和他们的工作，然后找出他们感兴趣的问题。我说的是想想你想要什么。维基百科文章的第一行是因为你知道每一家初创公司都有潜力成为你一生的工作。所以你不去想创业公司的热身。想想出去解决你关心的世界上的一个问题，去做你的生活中的工作吧。

> `[00:02:33]` Yeah I think applause.

`[00:02:33]` 是的，我想是掌声。

> `[00:02:38]` Sometimes people come up with ideas that seem impressive to other people. You want to tell us more about your startup idea. You try really hard to make it sound fancy and to use buzzwords. And I think a better way to do that instead of that is to find something that you\'re deeply passionate about and you can\'t stop thinking about. And it may not it may not actually sound impressive to anyone. Right. There\'s a good chance that when you try to tell people about the thing you\'re actually excited about it sounds stupid and they laugh at you and say it\'s a bad idea. If your only criteria is what impresses other people or it impresses authority figures. That\'s you know you can you can go way off track following that criteria.

`[00:02:38]` 有时人们会想出一些对其他人来说令人印象深刻的想法。你想告诉我们更多关于你创业的想法。你真的很努力使它听起来很花哨，并使用时髦的词。我认为一个更好的方法来做，而不是那样做，是找到一些你深深的激情，你不能停止思考。对任何人来说，这可能听起来并不令人印象深刻。右（边），正确的这是一个很好的机会，当你试图告诉人们你真正兴奋的事情，听起来很愚蠢，他们嘲笑你，说这是个坏主意。如果你唯一的标准是给别人留下深刻印象，或者是它给权威人物留下了深刻印象。这就是你知道的，你可能会在遵循这个标准的情况下偏离轨道。

> `[00:03:19]` So the Segway is to another question that came up which is like how do you choose between an idea that you loved your super passionate about but it might be impossible to monetize. How do you choose between that and a product that has like great revenue potential.

`[00:03:19]` 因此，Segway 提出了另一个问题，那就是你如何在你热爱你的超级热情的想法之间做出选择，但这可能是不可能赚钱的。你如何在这两者之间做出选择？一个有着巨大收入潜力的产品。

> `[00:03:36]` How do you know that it should work for what I see.

`[00:03:36]` 你怎么知道它对我所看到的有用。

> `[00:03:39]` We\'ve waiting would love to know that.

`[00:03:39]` 我们等了很想知道。

> `[00:03:43]` So one of the things that wifie has emphasized over and over again is how hard it is to be a solo founder. So there\'s a question you know do you have any advice for solo founders or how did you Shamma for example convince wifie to accept Gobert with what was it in her application that convinced you.

`[00:03:43]` 所以 Wfie 反复强调的一件事是，要成为一个单独的创立者是多么困难。所以，有一个问题，你知道，你对个人创始人有什么建议，或者你是如何说服维菲接受戈伯特的，她的申请是什么说服了你。

> `[00:04:06]` I think all things equal it\'s better to have a co-founder but frankly you know why see we\'ve accepted many companies with so the founders and I think then you don\'t have to you know uses that come with us with something that\'s very unique to you. So I\'m not sure exactly what from a head injury application but if you have traction if you have some really unique insights when are you going to quah users retain users.

`[00:04:06]` 我认为所有的事情都是平等的，最好是有一个联合创始人，但坦率地说，你知道为什么我们已经接受了很多公司，所以创始人，我想你不需要，你知道的用途，与我们一起来的东西，非常独特的东西，你。因此，我不确定头部受伤应用程序到底是什么，但是如果你有吸引力，如果你有一些真正独特的洞察力，你什么时候去 Quah 用户保留用户。

> `[00:04:29]` All these things and you just know your shit and you come across as very competent more than competent.

`[00:04:29]` 所有这些事情，你只知道你的狗屎，你给人的印象是非常有能力，而不是有能力。

> `[00:04:36]` Then we would definitely like to talk to you.

`[00:04:36]` 那我们肯定想和你谈谈。

> `[00:04:39]` And I think the other thing to bear in mind is that startup Sahar to the two founders for three founders for everybody and so coming in as a single single founder. You have to be pretty much superhuman because you have to do everything you know you either are out selling or you\'re out building the product or you\'re out fundraising. So you have to be able to combine all of those things. Whereas if you have a co-founder and one of his greatest sell at sales one of these very technical. There\'s more of an obvious split there. So you know there is definitely a superhuman element to being a single founder.

`[00:04:39]` 我认为要记住的另一件事是，初创公司 Sahar 对两位创始人来说，每个人都有三位创始人，所以作为一位单独的创始人而来。你必须是超人，因为你必须做所有你知道的事情，你要么出去销售，要么你不去制作这个产品，要么你就没钱筹款了。所以你必须能够把所有这些东西结合起来。然而，如果你有一个联合创始人和他最大的销售之一，其中一个非常技术性的。那里有更明显的裂痕。所以，你知道，作为一个单一的创始人，肯定有一个超人的因素。

> `[00:05:17]` Yeah I\'d also add to that that starting a company is an emotional rollercoaster and it\'s really hard to do by yourself. It\'s always nice when there\'s someone else next to you that feels the same pain right that you can commiserate with because it takes that to kind of get through some pretty tough times. If you\'re in a room alone kind of kind of absorbing all the pain yourself. It can be overwhelming sometimes.

`[00:05:17]` 是的，我还要补充说，创业是一种情感上的过山车，独自一人是很难做到的。当你身边的另一个人感受到你可以同情的那种痛苦时，感觉总是很好的，因为这样才能度过一些非常艰难的时期。如果你独自一人住在房间里，那么你自己就能承受所有的痛苦。有时会让人难以抗拒。

> `[00:05:43]` Specifically I remember when I came through wifie and when she\'d applied and I remember we just said they\'re out. All of us had like Richmond never gives up like Jewish men will never give up. Marvel will keep on fighting until this works. And I think we\'d see and you know she\'d already been working on gobble for a number of years before she applied and it was clear that this was something that she was very passionate about and that she was just going to keep working on it like the story was similar to you know you have to be a cockroach reminded a lot of people think of how the urban bees almost failed three times before they actually got things up and running. So one question maybe for you Kirstie is what are some tools or services that you would recommend for founders who are just starting.

`[00:05:43]` 我记得当我通过 Wfie 和她申请的时候，我记得我们刚刚说他们出去了。我们所有人都像里士满一样永不放弃，就像犹太人永远不会放弃一样。漫威会继续战斗直到成功。我想我们会看到的，你知道她在申请之前已经做了很多年的狼吞虎咽的工作了。很明显，这是她非常热衷的事情，她会继续努力，就像故事和蟑螂一样，你知道你必须成为一只蟑螂，让很多人想起了城市蜜蜂几乎失败了三次，才真正开始运转。因此，一个问题，也许对你来说，Kirstie 是一些工具或服务，你会推荐给刚刚开始的创始人。

> `[00:06:32]` Yeah there\'s loads of things out there to help and so as some background I work on more of the financial and operational side with startups and so I often get asked this question. There\'s so much out there that can help with that. So from right from the very start when you\'re incorporating your your company the services like Klefki that can help you do that. That creates very standard paperwork that all the Y see startups use. There are services like gusto that you can use to help you run payroll properly and make sure that your withholding and paying taxes over the services like ironclad which is which helps you store all your NDA and sales contracts all in the same place. So there\'s loads of resources out there to help you and I think it\'s really important that those are the things that you shouldn\'t be trying to reinvent the wheel you know use all your brain power to figure out your product and to figure out how you\'re going to make your company grow with all of these other things. That\'s not going to make your company a success. So just do the basic simple vanilla option and move on to other things.

`[00:06:32]` 是的，有很多事情需要帮助，所以作为一些背景，我在初创公司的财务和运营方面做了更多的工作，所以我经常被问到这个问题。外面有很多东西可以帮上忙。所以从一开始，当你把你的公司合并的时候，就会有像 Kefki 这样的服务来帮助你做到这一点。这创造了非常标准的文件，所有的 Y 看到创业使用。有些服务，如 GUSTO，您可以用来帮助您正确地运行薪资，并确保您的预扣税和纳税的服务，如铁甲，这是帮助您存储所有的 NDA 和销售合同在同一个地方。所以有大量的资源来帮助你，我认为这是非常重要的事情，你不应该试图重新发明你所知道的轮子，用你所有的脑力去找出你的产品，并弄清楚你将如何让你的公司在所有这些事情中成长。那不会使你的公司成功的。因此，只需做基本的简单香草选项，并继续其他的事情。

> `[00:07:37]` So on that note is there anything that you find really early stage founders. We think a lot of time on that you wish they would just like automate and move on or just are there are there any specific things that you wish founders would spend less time on early on.

`[00:07:37]` 在这张便条上，你发现有什么东西是早期创办人的吗？我们认为很多时间，你希望他们只是想自动化和继续前进，或只是有什么具体的事情，你希望创始人会花较少的时间在早期。

> `[00:07:52]` So for me it\'s things like they try to come up with funky voting structures or weird vesting schedules or they\'re trying to protect themselves from some unknown company that\'s going to come in and steal all their ideas and you know those kind of things you just don\'t need to worry about. In the early days just keep it all simple and concentrate on everything else because as you start to grow if other things come up and you need to be fixed you can afford to pay lawyers at that point and they can help you fix them.

`[00:07:52]` 所以对我来说，就像他们试图想出时髦的投票结构或奇怪的转业时间表，或者他们试图保护自己不受某个不知名的公司的影响，这些公司会进来窃取他们所有的想法，而你知道那些你不需要担心的事情。在早期，只要保持简单，专注于其他事情，因为当你开始成长，如果其他事情出现，你需要修复，你可以支付律师在这一点上，他们可以帮助你解决他们。

> `[00:08:28]` I\'d add to that being secretive and trying to protect your idea. Sometimes I meet founders who think they have this secret idea and the idea super valuable and they tell anyone they\'ll create 100 copycats and in fact the more common problem as a startup is that you\'ll tell your idea to 100 people and all of them will kind of shrug their shoulders whatever.

`[00:08:28]` 我想补充一点，那就是保守秘密，试图保护你的想法。有时，我会遇到一些创始人，他们认为自己有这个秘密想法，而且这个想法非常有价值，他们告诉任何人，他们会创造 100 个模仿者。事实上，作为一家初创公司，更常见的问题是，你会把你的想法告诉 100 个人，他们都会耸耸肩。

> `[00:08:48]` And so as as a startup in most cases you should in most cases you should be like telling your idea to literally anyone who will sit and listen because they might have some valuable piece of feedback.

`[00:08:48]` 因此，作为一家初创公司，在大多数情况下，你应该像把你的想法告诉任何愿意坐下来倾听的人，因为他们可能有一些有价值的反馈。

> `[00:08:59]` Do you have thoughts on how people should think about competition beyond that I think you should be highly aware of it and what they\'re doing and sometimes they are doing some things right.

`[00:08:59]` 你对人们应该如何看待竞争有想法吗？我认为你应该高度意识到竞争和他们在做什么，有时他们做的事情是正确的。

> `[00:09:11]` And when they are failing you shouldn\'t assume you know that they\'re incompetent. They\'re probably really smart people. In fact they can with the same ideas you did.

`[00:09:11]` 当他们失败的时候，你不应该认为他们不称职。他们可能真的很聪明。事实上，他们可以用你做过的同样的想法。

> `[00:09:20]` So you know I think again just be aware of what they\'re doing track what they\'re doing but don\'t follow them and don\'t assume that when they do something wrong that that\'s a bad idea. You know there\'s a lot that goes into execution and and sometimes you know a good idea is just badly executed and to just follow but don\'t copy necessarily.

`[00:09:20]` 所以你知道，我再想一次，只要知道他们在做什么，跟踪他们在做什么，但不要跟着他们，不要假设他们做错了什么，那是个坏主意。你知道执行中有很多东西，有时你知道一个好主意只是执行不好，只是跟随，但不一定要复制。

> `[00:09:45]` So is it more important to move fast.

`[00:09:45]` 那么更重要的是快速移动。

> `[00:09:49]` Art Perfecta made about facts so I\'ll take a crack at that.

`[00:09:49]` 艺术表演是关于事实的，所以我会破译一下的。

> `[00:10:02]` Sometimes when we do office hours founders ask us these binary questions like you know should we grow really fast or should we make a lot of money or why should I hire 100 people or should you know. And the point is they want us to give them an answer. It\'s like this binary thing. And what\'s so frustrating is ninety nine point nine percent in time when we\'re in office hours and founders are pushing us for a binary answer. The answer is like well you know both you know people say What should I be focusing on the product growing faster. It\'s like Well both. That\'s. And unfortunately that is how most of life is a lot of gray area and you\'re going to have to you\'re going to have to do the impossible. And so that particular question we\'re all chuckling because we\'re used to hearing that sort of thing. And whenever we hear that it\'s someone kind of asking for permission to not work on the thing they don\'t want to work on an end unless you know unless I\'m really feeling sorry for them. Usually I don\'t give them permission to. No. No. Oh don\'t work don\'t work on the product. Who cares if your product is good just keep rolling. You know I think that\'s what they want to hear. And so if you find yourself these kinds of dichotomies right if you\'re like should I be working on revenue or should I be doing what I\'m passionate about. You know if you if you\'re trapped in these sorts of chains of thought I think it\'s always good to try to zoom out and realize that life is not black and white and these are not usually Zero-Sum decisions and that if you get to the root of what you\'re concerned about or where you\'re trying to solve for and realize that you kind of you always have to do both.

`[00:10:02]` 有时候，当我们上班的时候，创始人会问我们这些二元的问题，就像你知道的，我们是真的快速成长，还是我们应该赚很多钱，为什么我要雇佣 100 个人，或者你应该知道。关键是他们想让我们给他们一个答案。就像这个二进制的东西。令人沮丧的是，当我们上班的时候，时间是百分之九十九，创始人在推动我们找到一个二元的答案。答案就像，你知道，人们都说，我应该把注意力集中在产品增长更快的时候。两者都很好。那.。不幸的是，这就是生活中大部分的灰色地带，你将不得不去做不可能的事情。所以这个特别的问题，我们都笑了，因为我们已经习惯了听这类事情。每当我们听到某个人请求允许，不要做他们不想做的事情，除非你知道，除非我真的为他们感到遗憾。通常我不允许他们。否否哦，不要在产品上工作。谁在乎你的产品是不是好的只要继续滚动。你知道我觉得这是他们想听的。因此，如果你发现自己的这种二分法是正确的，如果你是像我是工作的收入，还是我应该做的事，我的激情。你知道，如果你被困在这种思维链中，我认为，试着缩小并意识到生活不是黑白的，这些通常不是零和的决定，如果你找到了你所关心的问题的根源，或者你想解决的地方，并且意识到你总是两者兼而有之，那就好了。

> `[00:11:37]` Let me add one thing. If you have a retention problem with your product. If only 10 percent of your people are returning on a monthly basis don\'t spend a lot of time on PR. Right. So don\'t try to grow super fast. If people aren\'t sticking around. Focus on focus on the product but focus on your real problem which is retention before you go try to tell the world what there is. Similarly the one one rule I.

`[00:11:37]` 让我补充一件事。如果您的产品有保留问题。如果你的员工中只有 10%的人每月都会回来，不要花太多时间在公关上。对。所以不要试图快速成长。如果人们不再停留在身边。把注意力集中在产品上，而专注于你真正的问题，那就是在你去之前把注意力集中在你的问题上。同样地，第一条规则是第一条。

> `[00:12:05]` Tell a lot of people is that everyone wants to know should I keep growing fast. Or should I work on the product and make it really good. I think you know in the early days acquiring users is shows that this is something people want you should continue to do that but you should always have this metric where it\'s like a threshold. Usually something like retention or it\'s MPAC or something and continue growing fast.

`[00:12:05]` 告诉很多人，每个人都想知道我是否应该继续快速成长。或者我应该把产品做得很好。我想你知道，在最初的日子里，获得用户是表明了这是人们想要的东西，你应该继续这样做，但你应该总是有这样的指标，它就像一个阈值。通常像保留或者它的 MPAC 之类的东西，然后继续快速增长。

> `[00:12:28]` But once it gets below a certain point like stop and really focus on the product and why people are not retaining why the MPAC is so low and don\'t even focus on growth at all.

`[00:12:28]` 但是一旦它低于某个点，比如停止，真正专注于产品，为什么人们不保留为什么 MPAC 如此之低，甚至根本不关注增长。

> `[00:12:40]` So for a startup that\'s recently launched what would you consider a good growth rate.

`[00:12:40]` 因此，对于最近成立的一家初创公司，你认为增长率如何？

> `[00:12:49]` When I talk to startups and try to give them a rule of thumb around growth would I try to tell them is like what I look for when I read a wide application and basically what I look for is how long have you been working on this project and am I impressed with what you\'ve done. And so the growth rate is very very dependent on a business and different businesses have very different growth rates. I still think a better way of thinking about it is that like if you had to be super intellectually honest with yourself about how fast you\'re moving and how much progress you\'re getting in the amount of time that you\'ve had to work on this compared to other people. That\'s a good way to kind of start figuring out oh my impressive what I\'m doing is impressive.

`[00:12:49]` 当我和初创公司交谈，试图给他们一个关于成长的经验法则时，我会试着告诉他们，当我读到一个广泛的应用程序时，我想要寻找的，基本上是你在这个项目上工作了多长时间，你所做的让我印象深刻。因此，增长率很大程度上取决于一个企业，不同的企业有非常不同的增长率。我仍然认为一种更好的思考方式是，如果你必须在智力上对自己非常诚实的话，你要知道你的行动有多快，和其他人相比，你在这方面取得了多大的进步。这是一个很好的方法来开始弄清楚，哦，我所做的令人印象深刻的事情是令人印象深刻的。

> `[00:13:34]` And I think that like having US reduced that to like 7 percent or 15 percent is like not really going to be that helpful for you.

`[00:13:34]` 我认为，如果我们把这个比例降到百分之七或百分之十五，对你就没有什么帮助了。

> `[00:13:42]` So this might be a good segue way to the question like What do you look for when you\'re reading a wiki application. And another question that came up was what do you look for when you\'re interviewing with companies.

`[00:13:42]` 因此，这可能是一个很好的解决问题的方法，比如当你阅读一个 wiki 应用程序时，你在寻找什么。另外一个问题是，当你与公司面谈时，你会寻找什么。

> `[00:13:58]` In reading the applications I look for. Do they have unique insight on how they\'re going to acquire customers. And there are many factors but that\'s the one thing I look for in in terms of interview it\'s how can they communicate their ideas in a very brief manner such they understand it.

`[00:13:58]` 在阅读我寻找的申请时。他们对如何获得客户有独特的洞察力吗？有很多因素，但这是我在面试中寻找的一件事，那就是他们如何以一种非常简短的方式表达自己的想法，使他们能够理解这一点。

> `[00:14:17]` If the entire 10 minutes of the interview trying to tell us what you do that\'s really a bad sign that you don\'t really understand the product quite yet.

`[00:14:17]` 如果整个 10 分钟的面试都想告诉我们你做了什么\真是个坏兆头，表明你还没有真正理解这个产品。

> `[00:14:27]` Yeah I think my biggest thing when reading an application or evaluating a founder is to be biased towards people that are action oriented and actually do stuff a very large percentage of people that have startups haven\'t done anything. They haven\'t made a thing they haven\'t given the thing to other people and their application is basically asking for permission from us as authority figures to let them work on their startup so they can quit their job or whatever. And on the other hand you have folks like when we talked about earlier that hey I\'ve shipped the service I\'ve given it to real people here\'s what we figured out. Here\'s our Web site. You can click on it. We have customers and the more someone the more there\'s evidence that someone is action oriented as opposed to conceptual in their approach to startups that is highly correlated with success across the board. And so that be my advice to everyone on this like how we think about what YRC looks out I mean if you have evidence that you made a thing and given the thing to people and gotten money for the thing that you made that makes your application 10x better than spending more time. You know rewriting your prose to seem a little fancy or something. There\'s all these things people spend a lot of time on their application and actual evidence of action is infinitely better than you know getting better camera angles or something in your video whatever to guys even cam video you know there\'s a lot of people have all these tricks they try to do and those are much easier to do your startup and make progress on it. That would be my suggestion.

`[00:14:27]` 是的，我认为，在阅读应用程序或评估创始人时，我最大的事情就是偏袒那些以行动为导向的人，而实际上，在拥有初创企业的人中，有很大比例的人没有做过任何事情。他们没有做任何他们没有给别人的东西，他们的申请基本上是以权威人士的身份请求我们的许可，让他们在创业中工作，这样他们就可以辞职了。另一方面，当我们早些时候谈论到，嘿，我已经把服务发送给了真正的人，这就是我们所知道的。这是我们的网站。你可以点击它。我们有客户，人越多，就越有证据表明，在与全面成功高度相关的创业方式中，某人是以行动为导向的，而不是以概念为导向的。这就是我对每个人的建议，比如我们对 YRC 的看法-我的意思是，如果你有证据证明你制造了一件东西，并把它给了人们，并且从你做的东西中得到了钱，这比花更多的时间让你的应用程序好 10 倍。你知道改写你的散文看起来有点花哨什么的。所有这些事情，人们花了很多时间在他们的应用上，而实际的行动证据远比你知道的要好得多，在你的视频中获得更好的摄像机角度或其他东西这是我的建议。

> `[00:15:54]` I think the other thing that people often ask about this is that they think we have kind of a checklist that says Oh if they have 10 percent growth and they have revenue and they have less than great they\'re in. And that\'s that\'s not how it works best. It\'s a balance of a number of different things like a number of different things that we\'re looking for. And so it\'s very difficult to say you know this is this is what makes a successful application in terms of concrete things it\'s much more about can you concisely explain your idea. Can you can we get to the end of the application and we actually understand what the company is doing which you\'d be surprised at how many applications we don\'t. And so it\'s it\'s much softer things than just being able to say yes I\'ve achieved this specific thing.

`[00:15:54]` 我认为人们经常问的另一件事是，他们认为我们有一份清单，上面写着：哦，如果他们有 10%的增长，他们有收入，他们的收入不高。这不是最好的办法。它是许多不同事物的平衡，比如我们正在寻找的许多不同的东西。所以很难说你知道，这是一个成功的应用，从具体的方面来说，它更多的是关于，你能简明地解释你的想法吗？你能不能，我们能不能在应用程序的末尾，我们真正了解公司在做什么，你会惊讶于我们没有多少应用程序。所以它比能够说是的要柔和得多，我已经实现了这个特定的事情。

> `[00:16:39]` For me what\'s helpful is if you don\'t bury the lead you know we\'re humans and we have to read literally hundreds of applications. So why don\'t we for the last question the application to say and we have 150000 users. We\'re making 2 million dollars in revenue per month and growing 50 percent month over month. Like the lets you can knock that up probably into the like what does my company do it does this.

`[00:16:39]` 对我来说，有帮助的是，如果你不埋没线索，你知道我们是人类，我们必须阅读数以百计的应用程序。那么，为什么我们不就最后一个问题-应用程序-说，我们有 150000 用户。我们每月收入 200 万美元，每月增长 50%。就像让你把它敲成这样-我的公司是怎么做的-它就是这样做的。

> `[00:17:09]` And then I think the second thing is that I think a lot of these things actually surface filters like what I would say is that you should apply the only way you know you\'re going to get into ISY is if you apply and it doesn\'t cost anything and it\'s open and it\'s pretty easy.

`[00:17:09]` 然后我认为第二件事是，我认为很多这些东西实际上是表面过滤器，就像我要说的那样，你应该应用你知道你将进入 ISY 的唯一方法，如果你申请它，它不需要任何费用，它是开放的，而且它非常容易。

> `[00:17:25]` I

`[00:17:25]` i

> `[00:17:25]` would say like the software is good so just apply it like the number of founders who tell us that even in the not getting in answering those questions helps them build their business is so high. So you should never hear any of these answers and say oh that means that I shouldn\'t replied Oh.

`[00:17:25]` 就像软件是好的一样，所以应用它，就像许多创始人告诉我们，即使没有回答这些问题，也能帮助他们建立自己的业务。所以你永远不应该听到任何这样的回答，并且说，哦，这意味着我不应该回答哦。

> `[00:17:42]` Even if you think you\'re a single non-technical co-founder with a horrible idea and you haven\'t quit your job apply and roll the dice you know you don\'t need to know.

`[00:17:42]` 即使你认为自己是一个有着可怕想法的非技术联合创始人，而且你还没有辞去你的工作申请，并掷出你知道你不需要知道的骰子。

> `[00:17:51]` You don\'t need an intro you don\'t need a warm intro just to play on our website there\'s a link. The vast vast vast majority of the state often ahead of people we have no contact with whatsoever.

`[00:17:51]` 你不需要一个介绍，你不需要一个温暖的介绍，只是为了在我们的网站上播放一个链接。绝大多数的状态往往在我们没有接触过的人之前。

> `[00:18:03]` Yeah 40 percent. I know it started to happen didn\'t laugh but had never had a single touch point with wifie like they haven\'t come to any events they\'ve never exchanged e-mail with a partner or an alumni. It\'s kind of cool. I mean it\'s unlike other beefy funding type situations where you need the worm and you have the ability to just apply and it\'s and it\'s free and it\'s open to anyone.

`[00:18:03]` 是的，40%。我知道事情开始发生了，没笑过，但从来没有和 Wfie 有过一次接触，就像他们从来没有参加过任何活动一样，他们从未与合伙人或校友交换过电子邮件。这有点酷。我的意思是，这与其他强大的融资模式不同，在这种情况下，你需要蠕虫病毒，而且你有能力申请，而且它是免费的，而且对任何人都开放。

> `[00:18:25]` The thing that I think a lot of us tell a lot of people who are thinking about applying is that the application is very simple.

`[00:18:25]` 我认为我们很多人告诉很多考虑申请的人，应用程序非常简单。

> `[00:18:32]` The questions are very simple and it\'s actually a really good way to think about your business. It\'s a good framework and so even if even if you don\'t I mean just just fill up the questions and I think you\'ll actually help you think about your private in business better.

`[00:18:32]` 这些问题非常简单，实际上是一个很好的方式来思考你的业务。这是一个很好的框架，所以即使你不这样做，我的意思是把问题填好，我认为你实际上会帮助你更好地思考你在商业上的私人问题。

> `[00:18:48]` So a question that always comes up and that came up today is at what point should a company apply is there like an optimal time in the life cycle of a company.

`[00:18:48]` 一个经常出现的问题是，一个公司应该在什么时候申请，就像公司生命周期中的一个最佳时刻。

> `[00:18:58]` Keep on applying.

`[00:18:58]` 继续申请。

> `[00:19:00]` I think I think there\'s two things here. I think people people use this as an excuse to not apply because their company is too early or their company is too late. They\'re like oh I can\'t possibly apply to Y Combinator and that\'s not true. There is no too early and there is now too late. We can be helpful to companies at all different stages. And you know this also comes back to should you polish your products a little bit more. It doesn\'t matter. You know we can we can help you at any stage. And the other thing to bear in mind is if you do apply and you\'re not successful first time round then no problem you know apply again. There\'s no there\'s no black marks against you for doing that. There\'s no problems with that. So just even if you\'re a little bit early to the first time six months or more working on the company could totally change things.

`[00:19:00]` 我认为这里有两件事。我认为人们以此为借口不申请，因为他们的公司太早或他们的公司太晚。它们就像哦，我不可能应用于 Y 组合器，这不是真的。现在没有太早，现在也太晚了。我们可以在不同的阶段对公司有所帮助。你也知道，如果你把你的产品再抛光一点的话，这也会回来。这不重要。你知道我们可以在任何阶段帮助你。另外要记住的是，如果你真的申请了，而你第一次没有成功，那么你就不会再申请了。你那样做没有黑点。这没什么问题。因此，即使你第一次工作的时间有点早，在公司工作 6 个月或更长时间，也会完全改变事情。

> `[00:19:50]` Just to put facts on that in the last batch of 100 companies. There was a company that literally didn\'t or multiple companies didn\'t start writing code until 2 for their application was submitted. There was a company that had a 40 million dollar revenue run rate and there and everyone in between.

`[00:19:50]` > `[00:19:50]` 仅仅是为了在最后一批 100 家公司中公布事实。有一家公司实际上没有或多家公司直到提交了 2 份申请才开始编写代码，还有一家公司有 4000 万美元的收入流通率，而且每个人都在其中。

`[00:20:08]` And they all got tons of a lot of. So everyone is probably somewhere between those two points.

> `[00:20:08]` 他们都有很多。所以每个人都可能在这两点之间。

`[00:20:15]` And to add to that question out of the 100 companies in the last batch of Poissy about 50 of them had previously applied and been rejected and they were being accepted on their second third fourth application so a play by choice.

> `[00:20:15]` 在最后一批 Poissy 的 100 家公司中，除了这个问题外，其中约有 50 家以前曾申请过并被拒绝，他们在第二次第三次申请中被接受，因此这是一种选择。

`[00:20:34]` It was I was on a panel with a bunch of alumni and the question came up from the audience and literally everyone all the alumni on the panel had applied more than once.

> `[00:20:34]` 我和一群校友一起参加了一个小组，这个问题是从听众中提出来的，实际上每个人都申请过不止一次。

`[00:20:43]` I put four times with three times and I was like whoa. Interesting.

> `[00:20:43]` 我放了四次，三次，我就像哇哦。有意思的，有趣的

`[00:20:48]` And so you know getting to the last few minutes. So I kind of wanted to go down the line and ask Is there anything you wish you\'d known when you first got. We\'re getting started.

> `[00:20:48]` 所以你知道最后几分钟。所以我想先问一问，当你第一次拿到的时候，你有什么希望你知道的吗？我们已经开始了。

`[00:21:01]` Any particularly helpful advice that you got or would like to pass on someone can volunteer.

> `[00:21:01]` 你得到或希望传递给某人的任何特别有用的建议都可以是自愿的。

`[00:21:11]` Sure I\'ll start. I wish someone had told me it was as rewarding as it ended up being right. I just kind of did it because it sounded like it was interesting and I was passionate about the idea. But looking back on having started several companies it is unbelievably rewarding because it\'s so hard to get through it and be successful at it. On money many different levels. You know just look back at some of the best experiences of my life.

> `[00:21:11]` 我肯定会开始的。我希望有人告诉我，这样做是有回报的，因为它最终是正确的。我这么做是因为听起来很有趣，我对这个想法很有热情。但回顾一下已经创办了几家公司，这是令人难以置信的回报，因为它很难通过，并在这方面取得成功。在金钱上有很多不同的层次。你知道，只要回顾一下我生命中最美好的经历。

`[00:21:48]` I wish it someone told me. To let go of let go of.

> `[00:21:48]` 我希望有人告诉我。放手，放手。

`[00:22:02]` Being in the nitty gritty so much because when you\'re starting to essentially like for myself I went through for like three or four years of just nothingness.  因为当你开始喜欢我自己的时候，我经历了三四年的虚无。

> `[00:22:09]` And so I was always the one coding and building the product. And then as my companies start scaling up fast I didn\'t let go that stuff fast enough. So I think there\'s a lot to learn in terms of scaling a company and when you should know what you should be managing and what your priorities should be.

`[00:22:09]` 所以我一直是那个编码和构建产品的人。然后，当我的公司开始迅速扩张时，我并没有把这些东西放得足够快。因此，我认为，在扩大公司规模方面，还有很多需要学习的地方，你什么时候应该知道你应该管理什么，以及你的优先事项是什么。

> `[00:22:25]` And yeah I wish I learned that faster I wish I had asked for more help when I started my first company I was 21 and I dropped out of college to do it and I\'d never actually had like a real job before. So I only had this sort of like dim understanding of how companies actually worked on the inside gleaned maybe from TV shows.

`[00:22:25]` 是的，我希望我能更快地了解到，我希望在我第一家公司成立的时候，我就要求更多的帮助，我 21 岁的时候就辍学去做了，而且我以前从来没有真正的工作过。所以，我对公司实际上是如何从内部运作-也许是从电视节目中-有了这样一种模糊的理解。

> `[00:22:49]` And all of a sudden I was managing like 30 people and I had no idea how to do it. And I actually felt like very isolated and alone and I didn\'t know who to ask for for help. And I\'ve learned since then that particularly in Silicon Valley people are incredibly willing to help even if there\'s like no even if there isn\'t anything apparently in it for them they\'ll just help you just because. And so I really wish I just ask. Like lots of people for help. Best piece of advice I got was actually this guy named Gideon you yelling at us and telling us that we were stupid.

`[00:22:49]` 突然间，我管理了大约 30 个人，我不知道该怎么做。事实上，我觉得自己很孤立，很孤独，我不知道该找谁帮忙。从那以后，我了解到，特别是在硅谷，人们非常愿意帮助你，即使没有这样的帮助，即使他们没有任何明显的帮助，他们只是因为。所以我真希望我能问一问。像很多人一样寻求帮助。我得到的最好的建议就是这个叫吉迪恩的家伙，你对我们大喊大叫，告诉我们很蠢。

> `[00:23:30]` We had got just on TV profitable and we are actually making a couple million dollars a month. I mean a year sorry in profit and we were kind of sitting back and patent ourselves on the back and Gideon said you\'ve built something that\'s useless it will fade from the Internet in the next three years and nothing you\'ve done will ever be known ever again. And after we finally picked up our egos we started thinking about new things to build and a couple of them worked out. So yeah probably the best piece of I say God like to don\'t rest on our laurels.

`[00:23:30]` 我们刚刚上了电视，赚了好几百万美元。我的意思是，一年的利润很抱歉，我们坐着做专利，吉迪恩说你已经造了一些没用的东西，它在未来三年内会从互联网上消失，你做过的任何事都不会再被人知道了。在我们终于找回自我之后，我们开始思考要建立的新事物，其中有几个已经解决了。所以，是的，也许是我说的最好的一段，上帝不愿意在我们的荣誉上休息。

> `[00:24:10]` Yeah I think my piece of advice is just to watch out for cargo cult in on a lot of the aspects of startup culture that you may or may not agree with. I think a lot of people have all these ideas about how they\'re supposed to act or they\'re supposed to go to meet up. You\'re supposed to go to this and you\'re supposed to hang out. You\'re supposed to network and you don\'t have to do any of that stuff like that\'s totally not. If anything that can be a signal of being distracted from your startup and instead I would suggest the way to think about this is in most jobs in life you have to conform to someone else\'s culture or someone else\'s company. You getting control every aspect of things if you\'re designing your own job. You get to choose who you work with. You get to choose what your work styles like you get to choose your hours. You get to choose what you\'re actually even working on. And so you should open your mind to create an entire reality that really serves your needs and your passions of what makes you happy and not this cargo cult idea of like Hey I read on this blog post that all 14 of the most successful founders all you know went to Stanford or whatever that thing is just write your own damn story right.

`[00:24:10]` 是的，我想我的建议是，在创业文化的许多方面，你可能同意，也可能不同意。我认为很多人都有这些想法，他们应该如何行动，或者他们应该去见面。你应该去看这个，你应该出去玩。你应该建立关系网，你不需要做任何这样的事情\完全不是。如果有什么可以让你的创业公司分心的信号的话，我会建议你在生活中的大多数工作中都要考虑这个问题，你必须遵守别人的文化或其他人的公司。如果你在设计自己的工作，你就能控制事情的各个方面。你可以选择和谁一起工作。你可以选择你的工作风格，就像你选择你的工作时间一样。你可以选择你实际上在做的事情。所以你应该敞开心扉去创造一个真正满足你的需求和激情的现实-什么东西能让你快乐，而不是像我在博客上看到的，所有 14 位最成功的创始人都上过斯坦福大学，或者其他什么东西-写你自己该死的故事。

> `[00:25:20]` Like stop reading all these blog posts about how to be like famous people and like do it your own way.

`[00:25:20]` 不要再读这些关于如何成为名人的博客文章，而要用你自己的方式去做。

> `[00:25:25]` And I just that\'s really my incursion when I talk to people that are that are sometimes get lost in reading too much advice to remember that this is your story and you\'re gonna do it your own wayvs. just like Apin whatever you\'ve read. You know in the popular press. So that\'s my advice to you.  

`[00:25:00]` 当我和那些有时在阅读太多建议而忘了这是你的故事的人交谈时，我真的感到了入侵。你会按照你自己的方式去做，就像你读到的任何东西一样。你知道，在大众媒体上。这就是我对你的建议。

> `[00:25:49]` Although I think my advice is that you know when you hear about people talking about startups all the time they\'re always killing it. They\'re always growing they\'re always hiring people and that\'s actually not reality. And so I think you know finding yourself some some trusted people that you can go to and say things aren\'t going so well. I\'m finding this a little bit tough or you know things things aren\'t quite working how I want them to work. All right you don\'t have to broadcast that to the entire world but if you have if you have a few people that you can actually talk to about that whether it\'s other founders or whether it\'s a couple of your investors or whoever it might be that can actually really help to take a load off so that you can feel like you\'re not constantly acting and you\'re not constantly having to be there. I\'m the startup founder who where everything\'s going fantastically well for thank you. All of us.

`[00:25:49]` 尽管我认为我的建议是，当你听到人们总是在谈论创业公司的时候，他们总是在扼杀它。他们总是在成长，他们总是雇佣员工，而这实际上不是现实。所以我想你知道你自己找到了一些值得信赖的人，你可以去和他们说事情进展得不太顺利。我觉得这有点困难，或者你知道事情不太顺利，我希望它们能正常工作。好吧，你不需要向整个世界广播这个消息，但是如果你有几个人可以和你谈论这个问题，不管是其他的创始人，还是你的几个投资者，或者是其他人，这样你就会觉得自己不是在不停地行动，你也不必一直在那里。我是初创公司的创始人，在那里一切都进行得非常顺利，谢谢你。我们所有人。

> `[00:26:45]` Are going to be out in the sunken garden for the reception. So if you have any particular questions for us you can come up and just ask us in person. And so I wanted to take this opportunity to give a couple things out. I wanted to thank all the people that were involved with making this happen all the partners all the staff. A huge thank you to Dominique who runs events for Y C and Tom who got the Wi-Fi working and Gerard who bailed out of the software for us said. And Steven and everyone else. And also thank you to all of you for coming. It\'s a huge pleasure to get to meet you and get to get to hear what you guys are working on. A big thank you to the startups who came up here and did office hours today and pitch practice. It takes takes them like a lot of grit. You know they were all really great sports and so there is a reception right outside till 7:00 at the sunken garden and we will see you there. All right thank you. 

`[00:26:45]` 将在沉陷的花园里参加招待会。所以如果你有什么特别的问题要问我们，你可以亲自来问我们。所以我想借这个机会说出几件事。我想感谢所有参与实现这一目标的人，所有的合作伙伴，所有的工作人员。非常感谢为 Y C 和 Tom 提供 Wi-Fi 服务的 Dominique 和 Gerard，他们为我们提供了软件。还有史蒂文和其他人。也感谢你们所有人的到来。很高兴认识你，听听你们在做什么。非常感谢那些来到这里的创业公司，他们今天上班时间和投球练习。他们需要很大的勇气。你知道，他们都是非常棒的运动，所以在外面有一个招待会，直到 7：00，在沉没的花园，我们会在那里见到你。好的谢谢。  