20 VC 076: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Aaron Harris, Partner @ YC

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4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2015

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aaron Harris is a Partner at Y Combinator and also newly one of my favourite podcast hosts with his brilliant show, Startup School Radio, for all startup lovers it is a must listen. Prior to YC, Aaron was cofounder of Sequoia backed Tutorspree, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2011. Before Tutorspree he worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he managed product and operations for an analytics group. He also writes an awesome blog which can be found here!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Aaron make his move into the world of entrepreneurship with Tutorspree and then become a YC Partner?

2.) Why did Aaron join YC and why does he believe the biggest potential lies at this stage of the cycle?

3.) Now at YC, Aaron is a Partner, what does that entail, what level of interaction do you have with the founders, where does YC look to add serious value?

4.) With the mass of startups now in the 100s coming out of each YC demo day, how does YC assure the same quality and level of value add?

5.) With regards to testing what is YC’s opinion? How does YC assess whether a product does have product market fit? What are the YC requirements for growth whilst in YC?

6.) What happens after the YC experience, does YC maintain conversations and communication? How does YC try to maintain valuations at a reasonable level to stop YC price inflation?

7.) What is the future for YC? Are we going to see another funding round? Is the YC model scalable? Could we have a YC Europe?

Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:

Aaron & YC's Podcast: Startup School Radio

Aaron's Fave Book: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Founder's At Work by Jessica Livingston

As always you can follow Harry, Aaron, The Twenty Minute VC and YC on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to the 20-minute VC and today we return to the magic of YC following our
0:06.2	amazing interview with Kirste Nathu, CFO at Y Combinator, for our very special feature week
0:12.1	featuring the world's most famous accelerator and today we bring you Aaron Harris, partner
0:17.8	at YC and also newly one of my favourite podcast hosts with his brilliant new show, Startup School.
0:24.7	For all startup lovers, it really is a must listen.
0:28.2	And prior to YC, Aaron was co-founder of Sequoia-backed Tudor Spree, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2011.
0:36.2	And prior to Tudor Spree, he worked at Bridgewater Associates,
0:39.3	where he managed product and operations for an analytics group.
0:43.3	But before we delve inside YC for the second time this week, as a startup founder myself,
0:49.3	the legal side of my business was always a slight pain point for me with no prior experience in the legal
0:54.7	space this made me feel very vulnerable to any legal issues that could have
0:58.4	arisen however I then hired Chris at VDAR Law who has decades of experience in
1:04.9	assisting startups with a variety of issues from entity formation to
1:09.3	contract issues to intellectual property protection,
1:12.6	and many, many more. So check them out at www. vidarlaw.com or email Chris at CW-E-R-N-E-R at
1:23.2	Vidalaw.com. That's C-Virna at Vidalaw.com. Also, if you cannot get enough of the 20-minute VC,
1:31.1	I would love to hear what you think of our sister show, Angel Insights, which dives inside the world
1:37.0	of angel investing to discover their tips, tactics and investing strategies of the world's
1:42.6	greatest angels. So check that out by searching for angel insights in iTunes.
1:47.9	However, without further ado, it is time to open the magical gates of YC again for the second time this week
1:54.5	and enter the kingdom with YC partner Aaron Harris.
1:58.6	3.2.1.0. partner, Aaron Harris. Three, two, one, zero.
	...

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