In this episode Zackavelli talks about the best genre ever, ARPGsSkip to Body of Episode: 6:23Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zackavelli on Twitter @_Zackavelli_Twitch: www.twitch.tv/zackavelli_Intro music by: AvarenOutro remix by: Mugamoomoo…

AI can't yet one-shot an entire product—but with the rise of vibe coding, it's getting close. YC's Tom Blomfield has spent the last month building side projects with tools like Claude Code, Windsurf, and Aqua, seeing just how far you can push modern LLMs. From writing full-stack apps to debugging with a single paste of an error message, AI is becom…

Imagine ordering groceries and having them show up at your doorstep in just 10 minutes. That’s the promise of Zepto, the fastest-growing e-commerce company in India. In this episode of How To Build The Future, Garry sits down with Aadit Palicha, the co-founder and CEO of Zepto, to discuss how they got started in a Whatsapp group, what it’s like goi…

Not long ago, America led the world in building and innovation. But over the past 50 years, bureaucracy and red tape have made it nearly impossible to get big things done. Still, there’s a growing movement to turn that around — to build faster, smarter, and better than ever before. In this episode of The Main Function, Garry sits down with Atlantic…

In this special episode of Design Review, Aaron sits down with Raphael Schaad, the Head of Calendar at Notion to discuss his leap from designer to founder, why illustration is an important first step when building a new product, and what ultimately makes designers uniquely qualified to start a company today.…

12 years after starting DoorDash, co-founder & CEO Tony Xu and his employees still do deliveries every year, staying true to their core value: customer obsession. Today, DoorDash is the largest food delivery platform in the US. In this episode of How to Build the Future, Tony explains how their unwavering long-term vision won — helping create a new…

Gusto (https://gusto.com) made payroll and HR painless for small businesses, growing into a $9.6B company along the way. Co-founder & CEO Josh Reeves joined YC's Harj Taggar to share how they built a payroll company from scratch and their customer-first approach to product design and culture.

Design isn’t just about making things work—it’s about how they work, says Dylan Field, the co-founder & CEO of Figma. As AI transforms tech, he believes a designer's judgment, taste, and agency will matter more than ever. Dylan sat down with YC's Garry Tan to discuss the evolving world of design in the age of AI, the challenging early days at Figma…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about 4 simple math concepts that can help with game devs in various situations.Skip to Body of Episode: 6:40Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zackavelli on Twitter @_Zackavelli_Twitch: www.twitch.tv/zackavelli_I…

YC General Partner David Lieb sits down with Aravind Srinivas, the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, to discuss his origins in Silicon Valley, what it's like to compete with Google, and what the future of search could look like. Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply

Imagine flying from NY to London in just a few hours. That’s the future that Blake Scholl and his team at Boom Supersonic are working towards. Blake started as a software engineer and pivoted mid-career to aviation. Now, he’s at the forefront of trying to bring back supersonic travel for all of us. In this episode of Hard Tech, YC’s Jared Friedman …

Many startups fail because they run out of money. So how should you think about how to spend the money you raise? In this episode of Office Hours, YC General Partners Brad Flora, Pete Koomen, Nicolas Dessaigne, and Gustaf Alströmer discuss how to spend responsibly at each stage of a startup— including advice on when to hire, whether to invest in ma…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about tips for designing stealth mechanics and takeaways that can be learned from that for overall design.Skip to Body of Episode: 6:15Wishlist Baba Yaga:https://store.steampowered.com/app/3154620/Baba_Yaga/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Li…

According to OpenAI's former Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew, reasoning and test-time compute will unlock more reliable and capable AI agents— and a path to scale to AGI. In this episode of How to Build the Future, YC's @garrytan sits down with Bob to discuss the lessons learned from his time at OpenAI, scaling laws, his advice for startups, and …

AI continues to improve at an exponential pace. So what can you do as a founder to take advantage of it? In this episode of Office Hours, YC Partners discuss what you should consider if you’re thinking about pivoting to or incorporating AI as part of your startup.

In this episode of How to Build the Future, Garry sits down with Parker Conrad, Co-founder & CEO of Rippling, the all-in-one HR, Finance, and IT software company that’s valued at $13.5 billion. Parker is the co-founder of two unicorns and has one of the more dramatic startup journeys in recent years. In this interview, he shares his origin story, t…

Two-time founder Rujul Zaparde knows a thing or two about resilience and learning from failure. After dropping out of college to build FlightCar, he worked as a PM at Airbnb, and later as a visiting partner at YC. In 2020, he co-founded Zip, a procurement software company that has since raised $370 million and reached a $2.2 billion valuation. In t…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about managing motivation as a project resource, similar to money or time.Skip to Body of Episode: 7:23Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/…

YC General Partner David Lieb’s story is all about perseverance. In 2008 he co-founded Bump, one of the hottest startups of the early iPhone era. But even with 150 million users, he couldn’t find a way to create a sustainable business. For many founders, that would be the end of the road. But he didn’t quit there. Instead, David and his team pivote…

In this episode Zackavelli gives an update on what is the "Best" game engine in 2024.Skip to Body of Episode: 7:54Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zackavel…

YC's Nicolas Dessaigne was the co-founder and CEO of @algolia, a Search API used by millions of developers to build great search experiences into their apps and websites. Today it powers over 1.75 trillion searches annually for 17,000+ customers worldwide. In this episode of Startup School, @dessaigne shares his advice for founders building a dev t…

Since Twitter rebranded to X, the platform has added new features and implemented a few major updates to both its UX and algo.So what can founders interested in product design learn from all this?In the first episode of our new series, The Breakdown, YC’s Tom Blomfield (co-founder of Monzo) and David Lieb (creator of Google Photos) take a closer lo…

It’s fair to say that few people in tech are positioned to have a bigger impact on the future than Sam Altman. At OpenAI, Sam and his team have overseen monumental leaps forward in machine learning, generative AI, and most recently, LLMs that can reason at PhD levels. And this is just the beginning. In his latest essay Sam predicted that ASI (Artif…

The biggest companies in the world all had to start somewhere. In this episode of Office Hours, the Group Partners explore the humble origins of several top YC companies to try and identify common traits of the most successful founders. They’ll explore what it takes to keep your company alive in the early days, where to focus your energy and how to…

Stripe, Airbnb and Lyft are a few of the most successful companies of the past decade. And there are at least two things they all have in common - great design, and Katie Dill. Katie was Head of Experience Design at Airbnb, led the design team at Lyft and is now Head of Design at Stripe. We spoke with Katie about her design philosophy, what sets co…

Building a startup and trying to break into an established market is very difficult, especially if you’re trying to do it alone! That’s why it’s critical to find the right co-founder for the journey. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Harj Taggar explains why you need a co-founder, when to bring them on, where you can find one and …

Whether it's for sales, recruiting or making new connections, cold outreach is a necessary tool for helping build your startup. But as you probably know, most cold emails either are ignored or end up in the trash. So what can you do to make sure your emails break through the noise? In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein s…

At YC our motto is make something people want. But how do you actually know if you’ve accomplished that in the early days? One of the best ways to measure successful growth is a concept called cohort retention, which tracks the fraction of new users that come back time and time again to use your product. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group …

In order to get your startup off the ground it's critical to keep your co-founders motivated. One of the best ways to do that is to figure out a fair co-founder equity split. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Michael Seibel explains the ins and outs of co-founder equity, why it's important to be generous with that equity, and how …

After co-founding the successful Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus, Carl Pei felt the tech industry was missing the fun and wonder he remembered as a dedicated gadget fan growing up in Sweden. Pei decided to launch a new smartphone brand, this time with an increased focus on thoughtful user interface and stylish yet practical designs. In only two ye…

If you're a startup founder, how much should you charge for your product or service? It's a simple question that can make many lock up. What number should you pick? In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield guides you on how to come up with a price and then justify that number to customers.…

Launching a company is often pictured as a big splashy event with lots of media attention and hype. This can be scary! It also often results in founders delaying their launches, which then stalls the crucial lessons they could be learning. In this episode, YC Partners discuss this common hesitation and why it can be harmful to the journey and growt…

Y Combinator Partner Pete Koomen led his startup, Optimizely, to $100M ARR. In this video, Pete breaks down the enterprise sales funnel and shares his top tips on how a technical founder can start closing real deals for their startup.

A little over ten years ago Paul Graham published the essay "Do Things That Don't Scale." At the time, it was highly controversial advice that spoke to the drastically different needs of an early startup versus the needs of a much larger, more established company. YC Partners discuss PG's essay, its influence on Silicon Valley, and some prime examp…

Over the past decade crypto has been declared dead hundreds of times. But with the price of Bitcoin surging over the past few months it’s clear that there are still enormous opportunities in this space. And few people know that better than Chandan Lodha, the co-founder of CoinTracker (W18), a crypto asset management and tax filing platform. He and …

In this episode of Startup School, YC Partner Tom Blomfield dives deeper into the metrics that matter most for consumer startups. Tom discusses paid and organic user growth, unit economics, net promoter scores, and the "magic moment" in your product that is most important to track.

In this episode Zackavelli takes a look at the genre of idle gamesMath of idle games article:https://blog.kongregate.com/the-math-of-idle-games-part-i/Skip to Body of Episode: 8:33Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community…

This is a audio only version of the first test episode of the Game Dev Game Show.See the video recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxdiE19BPl0You can watch GDGS Live on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/zackavelli_Music by MugamoomooBy Zackavelli

In this episode Zackavelli talks about negotiating your design ideas with others.Skip to Body of Episode: 5:01Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zackavelli o…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about reusing game environments and plays buff debuff.Skip to Body of Episode: 5:29Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zackav…

This is a audio only version of the first test episode of the Game Dev Game Show.See the video recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUy1Ub_DEhI&t=2135sYou can watch GDGS Live on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/zackavelli_Music by MugamoomooBy Zackavelli

In this episode Zackavelli talks about how to build and optimize your content workflow.Skip to Body of Episode: 8:20Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zackav…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about how to recognize and avoid design traps.Star Wars Galaxies Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz9Ohl1MqmQSkip to Body of Episode: 11:02Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community ab…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about how to recognize and avoid design traps.Game Makers Toolkit Balatro Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk3S3o1qOHo&t=315sSkip to Body of Episode: 10:25Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with …

In this episode Zackavelli talks about how to identify little things that go a long way.Skip to Body of Episode: 6:12Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/2C8eTsUFollow Zacka…

When you’re making important decisions as a founder — like what to build or how it should work — should you spend lots of time gathering input from others or just trust your gut?In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we talk more about this and how to know when you should spend time validating and when to just commit.Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about the state of the games industry and why we may be going through a paradigm shift.Skip to Body of Episode: 13:13Extremism in games article:https://thatparkplace.com/u-s-government-funded-organization-take-this-encourages-game-developers-to-denounce-gamers-who-are-being-harassed-by-sweet-baby-inc/Try the demo fo…

One trait that many great founders share is conviction. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll talk about finding confidence in what you're building, the dangers of inaccurate assumptions, and a question founders need to ask themselves before they start trying to sell to anyone else.Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-applyWork at a St…

Startups need to innovate to succeed. But not all innovation is made equal and reinventing some common best practices could actually hinder your company. In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the common innovation pitfalls founders should avoid so they can better focus on their product and their customers. Apply to Y Combinato…

In this episode Zackavelli talks about what tutorial hell is, how you likely got there, and how to get out.Skip to Body of Episode: 6:28Try the demo for my game Mirror Throne:store.steampowered.com/app/2520490/M…Auto_Battler/Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/GDFGJoin the discord and talk with the community about making video games! Link: discord.gg/…