20 VC 032: Inside Y Combinator with Nicolas Michaelsen, Founder @ AirHelp

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The Twenty Minute VC

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4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2015

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's show I am joined by the immensely talented Nicolas Michaelsen, Founder & CMO at AirHelp, the go to place if you have grievances during air travel. Nicolas draws back the curtain on the exclusive world of Y Combinator, this includes the admissions process, the infamous interview, the tutoring available to YC startups, the effects of YC on the valuation of startups and the key takeaways from his time at YC.

Items Mentioned in Today's Show:

In today's show you will learn:

How Nicolas got AirHelp started?
At what point did Nicolas realise that Y Combinator was the place to go?
Had Nicolas considered other more local incubators?
What was the admissions process like? Is there any specific documentation required to apply?
How is the YC interview structured? What type of questions do the partners ask?
What percentage of the partners need to say yes for a startup to be accepted?
How does the tutoring system work at YC? Who did Nicolas receive as tutors for AirHelp?
What is a typical day in the life of a YC startup?

We then finish today's episode by hearing Nicolas' thoughts on his most valuable takeaway from YC, the impact of YC on the valuation of a startup, what the future holds for AirHelp?

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If you would like to stay up to date with Nicolas and AirHelp, click here!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to episode 32 of the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stubbings.
0:05.9	Now I'm so excited to bring you today the insider's perspective on all things Y Combinator.
0:11.9	Yes, that includes the admissions, the interview, a typical day in the life of Y Combinator startup,
0:18.5	what Y Combinator does to the value of your startup, and who better to
0:22.6	reveal all than Y Combinator alumni Nicholas Michelson, founder at Air Help and part of the
0:28.6	Winter 2014 batch 2. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's Nicholas Michelson.
0:34.9	3.2.1.0. You have now arrived. it's Nicholas Michelson. Three, two, one, zero.
0:40.3	You have now arrived at your destination.
0:43.8	Nicholas, welcome to the 20 minute VC.
0:45.9	It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
0:48.6	Thank you.
0:49.4	Thanks for having me.
0:50.4	Let's start by hearing a little about yourself and your background and the beginnings of their help.
0:56.8	Yeah, sure. So my background is within the marketing space. I have started marketing agencies in the past and also tech startups. So I've had my share of losing money and gaining experience.
1:13.6	Essentially, the way that Air Help got started was because myself and my co-founder, Henrik,
1:19.0	were traveling quite a lot.
1:20.9	And, you know, we were, like any other traveler, always experiencing delayed and canceled flights.
1:27.3	And we got to the point where
1:28.8	we were thinking, or we were thinking, you know, there must be something that protects us as consumers.
1:34.5	So we did some research and we found that there were these laws that, you know, obligate the airline
1:41.2	to pay you up to 600 euro if your flight is delayed, canceled, or overbooked.
1:46.7	So we tried, you know, claiming this money ourselves, and we just found that the process was
	...

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