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Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Pivoting, resilience, avoiding tar pit ideas, more | Dalton Caldwell (Y Combinator, Managing Director)
- Dalton Caldwell, the Managing Director and Group Partner at Y Combinator, shares learnings from his experience at YC in this podcast. Successful founders have an unwavering belief in their startup’s potential, even in the face of daunting obstacles. Beware of “tar pit ideas”, concepts that are initially well received but could lead to long-term challenges. Pivoting can be a successful strategy, and often entails drawing on founders’ prior experiences and insights gained from previous solutions. If there are still untapped ideas, persevering and trying them first is recommended.
- Investors may say no even if they like aspects of a startup, typically because they are waiting for opportunities that meet a higher bar. Founders should put themselves in investors’ shoes and consider which opportunities are most promising given their constraints. In terms of market size, investors give more consideration to the total addressable market (TAM) while founders should focus on the initial market. Over-delegating and hiring senior people too early are pitfalls to avoid.
- Startups should effectively communicate with customers and understand what makes them happy or unhappy. It’s important to hustle to talk to customers, particularly as startups often lack access to analytical tools and data. Successful startups typically secure a significant first client who signals to other clients that the startup is worthwhile working with.
- YC is seeking new enterprise resource planning software (ERPs), commercial open source companies, new space companies, a way to end cancer, spatial computing, new defense technology, bringing manufacturing back to America, better enterprise glue, small fine-tuned models as an alternative to giant generic ones. Dalton concludes by saying to always think for yourself, think critically, and experiment rapidly.
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