YouSaid · the spoken record

Michael Siebel

lines on the record: 78
first: 2021-06-08
most recent: 2021-06-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Next is going to be figuring out YC in the post COVID world, which I think is going to be a lot of fun. And I think next is going to be more international. I think investors have pivoted impressively to being able to fund companies over Zoom, which to me means that the startup communities around the world are going to get more and more and more funding and problems around the world are going to be addressed by more companies. I it's going to be great. 100 years from now, we're going to look back at this moment and say this moment was birthing 5, 10, 15, 20 global startup communities, which would be great.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Businesses with different ceilings. In the gaming world, we saw this a little bit with esports where people kind of went from being gamers to being organizers of teams and then organizers of tournaments, right? I think that, you know, you see it with influencers starting like Mr. Beast and starting Fubrent, right? You're starting to see these people realize that they're not content creators, they're entrepreneurs. And entrepreneurs can create all different kinds of businesses. And so that's another angle, right? Like as more and more of your money doesn't come from the platform because you're the entrepreneur and you use your audience to build other businesses, your allegiance goes away from that platform. That leverage counts.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here's an analogy that might apply here. I feel like what you're asking me is why is it hard to go from creating a family restaurant to creating McDonald's? And I would argue that in some fundamental way, even though they're both restaurants, they're not really the same thing. And so you actually have to fundamentally change what you want to do, right? In order to build a McDonald's, right? And there are sacrifices to that. I think a lot of people who are running family businesses would say I will never want to be a McDonald's franchise owner, let alone inventor of the next McDonald's. And so I think that that's a fundamentally different business. Like if you want to have the power influence and money of a platform creator, then probably you're going to have to switch from being a content creator to a platform creator. It's really hard to stay a content creator and have the money power influence, a platform creator. It's really hard.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That to me is a question. That's why I'm asking about. I see the action in the creator economy and what it feels like to me is a lot of being on someone else's turf. Even if that turf enabled your business to exist. But what I don't see yet is the classic founder story. Here's a creator who was frustrated with YouTube and one often started something that was better than YouTube that solved his problems or her problems better. And that seems very, very hard to me in a way that that's why I keep connecting it to YC.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Most of my kind of middle career, I haven't seen one happen. And if you're trying to compete with these platforms on their home field, it's way harder than if VR were to happen or something else were to happen and you could compete with them in an area where you can be better than them.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's no recommendation. People would tell you it was wrong. And so I don't know what the killers of these platforms will do. And it could be a direct disruptor and it could be something that just renders them slightly less influential every year until they become kind of like MySpace one day. We'll see. Our feeling of apprehension that innovation isn't happening enough. Unfortunately, I think one of the biggest things, especially in the consumer world, that that's tied to, is that the platforms haven't changed. So like you and I came up during a time where the internet happened, like web apps happened, laptops happened, mobile phones happened. Each of those changes enables a whole set of new companies to compete with the old ones. But since iPhone, have we seen one yet? Most of our young career, we saw these things happening all the time. But at least me, I'm 38.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what's interesting? It's not obvious to me that the thing that disrupts one of these platforms even looks like it. So like we funded OpenSea, right? And they're enabling these NFTs. And hey, maybe there's a chance that NFTs are a tool that creators can use to monetize. And if that's the case, then in a weird way, the creator will be less tied to the platform than sending them checks. And so disruption doesn't always look like absolutely straightforward. And I don't know what disruption is going to look like. You know, like TikTok doesn't look like YouTube at all. Like it is very, very different. And in ways that people would argue or bad, like if you were to pitch TikTok to someone when YouTube was dominant and TikTok was so, they'd be like, so you don't get to browse what you want. You can't search for what you want.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you see a wave of applicants to YC that are aiming to disrupt Google search or YouTube or Instagram? Because that to me is one of the most confounding mysteries, right? The end of every YouTuber's life cycle is the video they make where they say how mad they are at YouTube and they have nowhere to go. And I'm mystified why there's not a crop of startups aiming to take those creators in that revenue and that audience away.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would agree with that 100%. I would agree that a platform has to earn your loyalty every single year. And if it screws you long enough, it will get disrupted.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Shit on the platform that's enabling that economy. Critique is great, right? Like, I love critique, right? But let's just acknowledge it created jobs that didn't exist before. It created opportunities that didn't exist before. There are more entertainers in the world now than there were 25 years ago. There were more people who could pay their rent creating content today than there were 25 years ago. And these platforms are the ones that enabled that. That's pretty good, right?”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We say thanks for the lights. Like, and don't charge me too much money. And, hey, if my power is not working, screw you. I'm going to go somewhere else. Different kind of business. And so. Creators don't want to be in the creator economy, don't be in it, right? That's fine. And like if creators want to be in it, but they want it to be better, agitate, complain, build something new, right? I'm not saying you should deny like the desire for something better. You should be vocal about it. But like, I can't change the fundamental nature of that kind of business. I can't change the fact that your viewers will leave you if you're not providing them enough content. Because like in a weird way, If your kid company like Twitch, they're building a product, a tool for streamers to give something their viewers want. And like, I can't control what your viewers want. Emmett can't control what your viewers want. We are all the viewers. And if we want something, we will reward the person who gives us in the content world with more views and allow them to make more money. And so to me, that's the economy we're in. It doesn't help us to”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's put this away, right? Let's put this up into two different things, right? So you are a restaurant owner. And yes, if your restaurant is not operating on Sundays, you don't make money on Sundays, of course, right? The power company who delivers power to your business is always open, right? It's always open, right? Twitch is always open. Reddit is always open. The platforms are always open. So it's a different kind of business. Don't go to the power company and say it's fundamentally unfair that you make money when I'm at work and at home.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me connect this to the creator economy question. You take a software founder's mission oriented who sees a big opportunity. They chase it and chase it and chase it. They build a software product that can scale without them. So they could get sick and take a day off. And the database in AWS is going to keep serving their product to people and they're still getting paid. You take a streamer on Twitch or a YouTuber or an Instagram influencer or whoever, they're fundamentally unscalable. So they might be still mission driven. They might still work just as hard. But if they take a day off, they make less money. The platforms that enable them will still collect them. That's the part I don't see.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Microsoft, as a Google, or as an Apple. And I think we don't talk about that enough. I don't think we talk about enough what it takes to make something that big because they're all of these economic successes, right? Investors and founders can make money at success rate levels that are way below you made the next trillion dollar company. But hey, if you want to have a massive impact as a founder, that's where you have to be aiming. And so do I believe that Slack had the potential to be a Microsoft, to be a top player? Yes. We're using Zoom right now. Do I think Zoom has the potential to be a top player? Yes, it's got to get lucky. It's got to execute really well. But I think the potential is there for sure. But let's be clear, all the big players are going to be fighting against them. They're all going to be fighting back. So they're going to have to build a better product. But in this day and age, especially with software, I feel like...”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've talked about this with a lot of people. I don't think big companies competing hard is a bad thing. And I personally believe Slack was in a great position, but it is very, very hard to build another Microsoft. Not because Microsoft's there, although that's a factor, but just building a Microsoft is hard, even if there were no Microsofts. And this is a hidden thing that I think people don't talk about a lot. Not only is it hard from an execution perspective, but think about it from a founder's perspective. You don't have to build the next Microsoft in order to make a life-changing amount of money. So your motivation has to be far beyond serving your customers because your products available, you can serve customers, it has to be far beyond making a lifesaving amount of money. There's got to be something else intrinsically driving you to make something as big as a”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here's my entirely unsatisfactory answer. It both enables and is a barrier, right? In order for these companies to be successful, they had to enable some amount of new activity. They had to build a new part of the economy. Of course, they want to own as much of it as possible. And so from an ecosystem question, I feel like the question you're asking me is, should founders be trying to disrupt the big companies of today? Yes. Disrupt away. Go nuts because one of two things will happen. Either you'll win and your users will get more value than they're getting today, or in the effort of pushing these companies, the companies will have to improve and get better. Right? Like Slack forced Microsoft to get better. And either way, users get served a better product. So I, as a startup investor, can't be protectionist. Kill everyone. Like, go nut.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think that's fair. I think maybe the question I would say is that as much as I love Twitch, maybe Twitch isn't inventing what's next. As much as I use YouTube, maybe YouTube's not inventing. Maybe that's what the next startup needs to do. Like before we started Twitch, you couldn't put live video online. Like, screw making money.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What it is doing is allowing them to quit their job that they hate and do their job that they love. That's pretty good. Now I would argue that in the entertainment industry, that's still hard because it's still kind of this thing where most of the viewers want to look at relatively few streamers, right? And so it's still very, very hard to make that dream available to everyone. But when we started, nobody was making money streaming video games.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But as a product, we didn't have a user and a user's motivation in mind. And Emmett and Kevin Lynn spent months talking to our video game streamers, and they all kept on saying the same thing. How do I make money so I can quit my job and do this full time? And that's what Twitch did. It gave those people jobs. And so it's weird that you would make the case, oh, like it's not giving them a platform that allows them to stream video completely independently of Twitch. That's really hard.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I disagree. I would say that shop owner was just as tied in. I don't think any business can survive on its own. It was tied into the advertising it was doing in the yellow pages. It was tied into the bank that was giving it a line of credit. It was tied into all the different institutions in that community. I think this is the same thing. I remember when Emmettshire, the CEO of Twitch, I remember when he came up with the insight for Twitch. And I think everyone thought that the Twitch insight was that people wanted to stream video games or watch video gaming streaming was not the insight at all. The core insight was that video game streamers wanted streaming video game to be their job. They wanted to quit their day job and do this. And Twitch had to figure out how to enable them to do that. And I got to tell you, before that insight, we were lost as a company. I mean, we did a bunch of stuff. We got a lot of traffic. A lot of technology.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I'm curious because if a Reddit community forms, it is still inextricably tied to Reddit. If you develop a great Twitch channel and you have a career as a Twitch streamer, we have now seen this. You still can't leave. You can't go make Mixer happen if you're ninja, the most famous Twitch streamer, right? Like your relationship has become tied to the platforms in a way that the shop owner who got a loan from the bank was not forever necessarily beholden to one chain of banks.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You see in the creator economy is creative people trying to figure out how do I build a business online, just like you would see shop. And so the creators might go to a YouTube or a Twitch or TikTok or wherever. The shop owners of the 21st century will go to a Shopify or something like that. And what's cool about it is it seems that at least in some areas, it seems to be both increasing the size of the pie and increasing the number of people who can participate in the pie. And both of those things are very good.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that I'm not a spokesperson for Reddit, so I rather answer this question more broadly. This is what I would say. The economy in America has always been very friendly to small businesses, and it's always been part of our culture. And I think one of the things that we're witnessing is how small business is changing. And for the longest time, small business meant starting a shop or barbershop or a restaurant getting a loan from a bank. And it's obvious that as software takes over the economy, that has to change. And I think what's interesting is that if you look at that in the creator world, the old fashioned thing was you have to go through the gatekeepers, the studios, or the agencies and da-da-da-da, and only a small number of people become really popular and can make money. I think software is changing that. I think all of these tech platforms are changing that. And I think that what...”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Some new international founders who are just like, I wish I had half of what you had. And so I love mission-oriented founders. Now, let's be clear, right? Governments can do things with unintended negative consequences. Nonprofits can do that. Communities can do that. Individuals can do that. Businesses can too. All those entities have to be held to account for what actual impact they're having. But society has problems. And if you want to build a business to try to solve them and it's an ethical, fair business, I want to help you.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To me, the opposite of that founder is the founder that just wants to get rich. And so if I had to choose between those two, I much rather a founder who is mission oriented. 100%. And like eventually anyone who builds a successful product has to become mission oriented, right? They have to be consumer focused. They have to care about their customer or else in the long run, they're not going to be building a sustainable business. Sometimes I think that founders get confused into believing that like Society isn't their problem, that they're just in a mode of like get theirs while they can. And they're kind of shitting on the commons. And, you know, I find this more with US founders than international founders. I find it, man, U.S. founders really sometimes take US for granted.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And when I look at the entities that do that, it's government, it's nonprofits, it's kind of loose the organized communities, right? Your neighbors, your friends, it's individuals, it's business. And in the end of the day, all of them are trying to address societal problems in one way or the other. Now, some of those problems might seem trite or not significant. The problem of entertainment is often shot on, right? Like, oh, people want to be entertained. But hey, like people like entertainment. I don't think that they should be, you know, people should be insulted for that. Like, it's a problem, and there are a lot of businesses that solve it. So when I go back to your question, I think business, of course, is solving societal problems. Does it always do it well? No. Can it do it with just software alone? No. Like, like, of course, problems are multifaceted. But I love founders who want to solve societal problems.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's fair. The first thing I will say is that in some large part I think it's all of our responsibilities to try to solve societal problems. Like that's part of being part of a society. That's part of the civic responsibility.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You think about mission driven founders and you think about okay we want to be very technically focused one thing I see often with with YC companies in particular is they think they can solve societal problems with a pure application of technology and so I'll just give an example I interviewed Chris Best who's CEO of Substack's a YC company and we had we had a great conversation I encourage people to listen to more episodes of Decoder There's my plug But you know as I reflected on that conversation afterwards, I realized I was talking about very specific journalistic problems and Chris was talking to me about very specific technical solutions and we might not have been speaking the same language. I just wonder if that tight focus on we can use technology and technology solutions to solve a range of huge problems whether that kind of leaves out an entire category of founder by the way and I will add I don't think the media is great at technology so I understand why”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Go there. All you have to do is click some buttons on your computer. You can theoretically make money, maybe. That sounds appealing to you. I'd rather not work with you. And so go over there. Now, is it good for the economy at large? Like, no. I wish we had a better way of educating the get rich quick people that maybe they shouldn't be get rich quick people. But in the meantime, I'm actually seeing the startup world, and especially in the international startup community, more mission-driven founders, not less. That's really appealing to me.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So here's the thing. I'm so happy you brought this up. It's hard for me to look at the speculation that's going on in crypto and that's going on in the stock market or certain parts of the stock market and say it's good. It's hard for me to say that. The silver lining of that activity though that is probably positive for the startup community in the long run is that I think startups were getting too popular. And it was starting to attract people who were more interested in the results than in the work that were more interested in getting rich quick than solving an important problem or giving a shit about their customers. And there were all these forces that were kind of telling people, oh, it's super easy. Oh, you can get ACU hired. Oh, you don't need to write code. You can just use no code tools. Like there are all these tools, these things kind of communicating to people who want to get rich quick, that startups were the place to do it. Now, with GameStop, with the crypto training, I'm kind of hoping that that's...”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's really interesting. At the same time, I can't help but notice there's like a lot of really dumb money floating around. How do you think about funding companies where that money comes from? What kind of money you should take in those seed rounds? If you should just, I don't know, not do a startup and buy a bunch of crypto instead. I think the dynamic of money has just really changed the pandemic. And the thing you're describing is school, it's rigor. It's, you're probably going to fail. You're going to get an alumni network of people who are going to be as hard as you as your buddies from college. Or you could just chase the dumb money.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The more I think about YC in this context, we're part of the larger YC community, but like, we're not the center of it. You know, we're just another entity within it. There's alumni, there's big companies, there's small companies, there are people who go off and work at companies. There's all this other stuff that's going on. And we're just trying to support this community. We're not trying to dominate it.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it's tricky. I would say that it's almost how I would want a school to be, right? Like I would love a school that was more project oriented and less classroom oriented, that was more about working on something that you're passionate about than working on something that someone told you to work on. But that still gave you a feeling of a community, that still gave you support, that gave you even more support after you graduated from the school than a lot of schools do. In a weird way, we're trying to take the best from investors and the best from schools, and we're trying to figure out how to make something great. And, you know, it was interesting. I was having this conversation with Jeff Rawlson, who's the president of YC, just yesterday, where he said, I think we're the only fund where people who raise money from us call themselves alumni. And like, I like that. Like, I like that there's a relationship with the community, not just a relationship with us.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One night a week for three months, right? So most of the time 95% of the time you are in your apartment working on your startup. You're not hanging out with us. You're not in some classroom learning. That's not YC. And so I want to be careful to make sure people understand, like, from an expectations perspective, it's not like pre-COVID, all the founders are at my house 24-7. So I think that we're going to be able to strike that balance. And what's cool is that We have all these great feedback mechanisms, right? I still work with founders directly. I still help run a group. All the group partners still run a group. We're all going through this experience with the founders. In addition to serving them and looking at all the data, et cetera. So I'm confident it will make it work. I'm actually excited to make it work. This job's boring if it doesn't change. I think running a school that hasn't changed in 50 years”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So if I want to give you the most diverse set of speakers that can help you the best, I got to do that on Zoom. But there should be events where you can actually see alumni who are further ahead of you and start building a relationship with them in person. So I have to provide that kind of product too. And so in my mind, I think the question we're going to have to answer in YC is what parts of it work better in person? What parts of it work better online? And let's be clear. A lot of people think of YC like school, right? This like 24-7 thing. YC programming historically has been one night a week”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Needs to preserve the time saving components of remote. Because if every office hour is done in person, we're giving a burst product to the founders. So that's just a single example. I'll give you another example. We had events down in Mountain View. The set of speakers that I can bring to Mountain View is entirely different than the set of speakers that I can bring on Zoom. If you want to hear from a speaker that's halfway around the world, well, they're not flying a mountain view for a two-hour talk.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Give you a perfect example in kind. When we did office hours with founders before COVID, oftentimes they'd have to drive to our office, either in Mountain View or San Francisco, figure out how to park, get in through security sign-in. Inevitably, we were running a couple of minutes late, so wait around, talk for half hour and then reverse that whole thing. So to get a half hour of advice, they probably had to invest about two hours, sometimes longer. In the remote program, half our advice takes half hour. So YC partners did 50% more office hours with companies. But it's harder to build a personal connection with someone through a screen, not impossible, but harder. So I think that kind of FutureYC is going to, one, need to put people together enough that they feel like they're getting that personal connection, but really, really, really.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So here's one thing that I think about all the time, and I think every company is thinking about this. There's a whole bunch of serendipity that happens from having people in the office. People are wandering around, they can see each other's screens, they can talk in the hallways, some idea that you were never going to have happens because of serendipity in the office. Then I look on the flip side, I look at our own staff meeting, which is now in Zoom, and the chat in our staff meeting is like rockin'. So the meeting has become more participatory. I have no idea how to recreate that in person. Absolutely none, right? And so like I've got this thing that I want, which is serendipity in person, and I've got this thing that I have now because of remote work, which is serendipity in virtual spaces.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the silver lining of COVID was it forced us to look at some of the sacred cows of how YC worked and ask why. It forced us to innovate. And that was a great process. I think that, you know, everyone who runs any kind of organization is being asked some version of this question right now. And the only correct answer is some version of we want to take what's best from the in-person program. We want to take what's best that we've learned from the remote program and use it to make the best product possible. And the most accessible product possible. And that's not a one-time decision. I think one of the fun things about YC is that between every batch, we survey our founders and we ask ourselves, how do we make the damn thing better?”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I'll say this. I was shocked at how well Remote worked, and I was shocked at how it forced YC to get better. And I was shocked at how it made YC more accessible to founders around the world. I was nervous, right? I went through YC in person twice, and I was nervous. Could we make something that was as”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, that they understand this choice, I should make sure that this choice is well documented, they can access it. I have a responsibility to promote success cases and say, hey, if you want to do this, we're here to help. In the end of the day, we have to treat people like they're intelligent people making the best choices possible for their families and for themselves. Like, we got to do that. That's basic respect, right?”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, I don't want to lie. So it doesn't matter, right? Like the typical YC company raises enough money on Demo Day to pay the founders for years if they didn't hire a bunch of people. And that's clearly documented, but it's still like, I'm going down a path where probably I'm going to fail. And I think what's so interesting about this is that there's a lot of people who are saying, why aren't underrepresented people doing startups more and they're not recognizing that like for some people it's not the logical choice. And these are smart people who should make the choices that are better for their lives and their families. You know, when I started this job, I tried to twist people's arms to do startups. And these are the stories that I heard. I'm supporting my mom. I have a family with health problem. And I was like, fuck. Like, I shouldn't be guilt-tripping someone into doing a startup. Like, that's bullshit. Everyone should have the freedom to choose the right choice for them. I should make.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was like, are you? And so they were like, Michael, it's too risky. I should definitely work at Facebook for a couple years just. And I'm like, oh my God. So let's be clear, right? It's not like everyone wants these kids to do startups. And so one, that's very, very hard. Two, Apple's not going anywhere. Like I can't tell a founder that if they raise enough money, their startup will succeed. We know that's false and I don't want to lie to a founder, right? I got to tell the founder the truth. Most startups fail almost all startups fail, right? So the chances of Apple failing basically nill. The chances of your startup succeeding closer to nil.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know what's interesting? So that's what I thought. I thought, look, if you get a job at Facebook, that's your safety net. You can always get that job at Facebook. So I was talking to some college kids a couple years ago. You know what they told me? They told me that the recruiter told them if they didn't take the offer out of school, they would never get an offer again from Facebook.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Down to brass tacks. Isn't the solution just more cash, right? If you want to de risk a choice like that, like the simplest way to do it is to just throw more cash at that problem. So you've got a longer window of opportunity to take the risk. Because if you're great at Apple and you leave for a year and you can still float your family, you can go back into big tech at the end of that year.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Economic disparities in America, and at some extent, I have to help founders overcome those, where there's a whole other set of founders who that's not even their challenge. I think that's kind of one of the more depressing parts of my job is that there exists a whole set of founders who have experience with a ton of real-world problems and have structural socioeconomic issues that prevent them from solving them by creating startups. There's a whole other set of founders who grew up in an upper middle class just kind of beautiful setup, almost never experienced any real problems, who have all the ability and all the skill to build great products, but they don't even know what to apply that skill to.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are used to that responsibility, almost everyone's used to that responsibility for their kids. But disproportionately, it's underrepresented founders who are used to that responsibility for the generation above them and for the generations to the side of them. How do we solve those problems? Part of the solution is making sure that I can tell them if you get into YC and you do well, I guarantee you you will be able to raise money. But wow, that's still risky. There's a geographic problem, especially pre-COVID. My family needs me there physically. I've got family members with health issues. I've got family members where I'm helping out with childcare. And historically, YCs deeply encourage people to move to the Bay Area. Well, that creates a barrier. Now that YC is remote, that becomes a little bit easier. So it's like we can do these tweaks to kind of make things a little bit easier. But, you know, what I've noticed is that like, man, I can't solve general socio-economic”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'll be ridiculously specific, right? Socioeconomic. So when I talk to people who have the technical skills, who are interested in software, who are interested in startups, socioeconomic barriers are really tricky. So at 23, I'm working at Google and I am part of the safety net of my extended family. When people need money, they come to me. Do I have the same freedom to do a startup as somebody who grew up, went to the same school as the same level of education and the same interest, but whose parents were doctors and lawyers? No. And I think that like we don't talk about that. I was talking to a woman who was working at Apple as an engineer and absolutely murdering it. And she was just like, I have people who depend on me. And I need to make sure that no matter what, my family doesn't fall down. Now, I think that, you know, parents.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And what I've realized is that there are so many things to do. And I wish there was a silver bullet, but I haven't found one. So in the last six years, YC has funded about 150 black founders, about over 400 Latinx founders and close to 600 female founders. And after doing that, I still feel like, one, there's a ton of work to be done, like an absolute ton of work. And two, every time I think that I've figured out a problem, another problem arises.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“About how to get started with the startup. So that's the first one. The second one's cash. It's a big deal, cash, right? And so with YC, we not only have to fund companies, but we have to make sure that they raise money on demo day. The third one's advice, of course, advice on how to run your startup. And then the fourth, of course, is community. So YC is kind of structured to try to help outsiders become insiders. And to be honest, a disproportionate number of underrepresented founders are outsiders. And so I think it's one of the reasons why I was attracted to YC, both as a founder and to work here. Now, in terms of the challenges, one of our YC partners, Dalton Caldwell, he often refers to this idea that a lot of times people look for silver bullets, one silver bullet, when they should be looking for 12 lead bullets. And I've been working on how to increase diversity at YC since I joined.”
2021-06-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · The next generation of startups is remote, with Y Combinator's Michael Siebel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT