How YC Was Created With Jessica Livingston

Familiar with the lore of Y Combinator? Then you'll know Jessica Livingston - one of the original co-founders who started YC back in 2005. On a recent visit to our SF headquarters she shared with the Lightcone hosts the stories and decisions of the early days that would form the foundations of YC as we know it today. Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 0:00 Coming Up 0:55 Jessica Livingston: The social radar 1:49 YC was unique from the beginning 5:20 Why events are so important to YC 13:39 The DNA of YC 18:02 The first batch 23:07 YC dinners were strong motivators to work hard 28:00 Why YC alumni help new founders 29:57 YC going from underdog to serious + desired 35:55 Harj’s legendary meeting with Yuri Milner 41:33 The first YC startup school 46:12 Diana’s experience going through YC 50:08 Lessons from interviewing so many founders 58:05 Outro

Jessica LivingstonguestGarry TanhostHarj TaggarhostDiana HuhostJared Friedmanhost

Sep 6, 202458mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: September 6, 2024
Duration: 58m
Channel: Y Combinator
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Familiar with the lore of Y Combinator? Then you'll know Jessica Livingston - one of the original co-founders who started YC back in 2005. On a recent visit to our SF headquarters she shared with the Lightcone hosts the stories and decisions of the early days that would form the foundations of YC as we know it today. Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 0:00 Coming Up 0:55 Jessica Livingston: The social radar 1:49 YC was unique from the beginning 5:20 Why events are so important to YC 13:39 The DNA of YC 18:02 The first batch 23:07 YC dinners were strong motivators to work hard 28:00 Why YC alumni help new founders 29:57 YC going from underdog to serious + desired 35:55 Harj’s legendary meeting with Yuri Milner 41:33 The first YC startup school 46:12 Diana’s experience going through YC 50:08 Lessons from interviewing so many founders 58:05 Outro

SPEAKERS

Jessica Livingston
guest
Garry Tan
host
Harj Taggar
host
Diana Hu
host
Jared Friedman
host

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Y Combinator, featuring Jessica Livingston and Garry Tan, How YC Was Created With Jessica Livingston explores jessica Livingston Reveals How Y Combinator’s Unusual DNA Was Forged Jessica Livingston recounts the origins of Y Combinator, from a scrappy Boston experiment called Cambridge Seed to the batch-based accelerator that reshaped early‑stage startup funding.

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