This Week at YC

October 2, 2023

“What I hope to do is get you to unlearn some of the fundraising advice that you’ve learned so far...”

In his 10+ years as a Partner at YC, Michael Seibel has done over two thousand YC interviews. At this point, he knows better than just about anyone on the planet what makes a startup pitch stand out.

So what's the main thing people get wrong? Is it not having a super flashy pitch deck? No. Is it not coming in with enough energy or pizazz? Nope.

It's not being able to explain, concisely, what your startup does. It's that simple.

“If I don’t know what your company does, I can’t fund you."

At the SaaStr conference just a few weeks back, Michael gave a 45-minute talk on the dos and don'ts of pitching a seed stage startup. It's great, and absolutely packed with concrete advice and real-world examples. Find it here.

📺 The Latest

Backstory: Surbhi Sarna

When Surbhi Sarna was just thirteen, a sudden and excruciating pain in her side changed her life. The pain led to weeks of testing and flimsy diagnoses that would ultimately boil down to “Cancer, maybe?”

Flash forward to today and Surbhi is a Group Partner at YC, mentoring a generation of healthcare founders. Connecting these two points in time is one of the most intense startup stories we’ve ever heard — but it’s one best told by Surbhi herself.

In this debut episode of ‘Backstory’, she’ll do just that. Learn more about this new series here.

🌎 YC Community

Highlights and news from around YC

NYT explores how Can of Soup (S23) and other social apps are embracing AI
New York Times

Slope (S21) raises $30 Million from Sam Altman and others to ramp up AI tools
Forbes

"This isn't just a fundraising announcement, it's the real story of Slope, from starting with a bad idea, to pivoting to a good one, to eventually raising $187M.

The thing that finally worked was the fifth idea of their second company."

YC Group Partner Jared Friedman on Twitter