- The video features three CEOs introducing themselves and their companies.
- The CEOs share advice for founders starting a new business, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and personal motivation.
- They also stress the need for focus and prioritizing the most important tasks.
- The CEOs highlight the significance of building a strong company culture and diverse teams.
- Several companies mentioned in the video are currently hiring.

The companies in the YC Top Companies List are sorted by valuation as of January 2021, including YC companies that have been acquired or gone public. More at https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/. 

Companies featured: 

Outschool
Podium
Solugen
Flutterwave
Mattermost
Ironclad
ZeroDown
Nova Credit
Upkeep
Squire
Meesho
Go1
LogDNA
Gecko Robotics
Vouch
ShipBob

For job opportunities at YC startups, check out YC's Work at a Startup, where over 700 YC companies are hiring right now: https://www.workatastartup.com/jobs

Why don't you introduce yourself and your company?

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit.

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Flutterweb.

My name is Amir Nathu, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of OutSkool.

And can you share 1 piece of advice you have for founders who are just starting today?

Starting a company, no matter how successful, what a rocket ship you look like from the outside, it's gonna be longer and harder than you might imagine.

I've often found that people pursue ideas because they have a solution looking for a problem.

We're just excited to get into the world of startups.

But that those businesses and those products aren't actually authentic to who they are.

There are going to be many deep dark days as founders and entrepreneurs.

And if you do not truly wish to see this change, or if you do not truly believe in this thing that you're building, it's gonna be far easier to give up than keep persisting.

you personally really want to make this business work?

Does that feel authentic to who you are as a person?

So just think about all the areas in your life that could be improved.

There's so many things that take too long, don't work as well as you think they should, are too expensive.

Ultimately, as a founder, you're in the business of solving people's problems.

It's important to think, do you want to work on this problem for the next 10 years?

A decade is the unit of time that you want to think about if you really want to build something meaningful.

It's a round the clock job that requires your utmost commitment.

It's probably going to be 1 of the hardest things you've ever done.

And really keeps you going through the hard times when you have a personal connection and a really strong personal motivation to work in

A lot of great companies were built through persistence and that the founders really wanted to see that in the world.

When you're building a company, the odds are stacked against you.

Your competitors have more money, more people, more time, more resources.

There's a tendency to want to like do everything at once when you're a young startup.

We were just building technology for local businesses like plumbers and car dealerships.

And so We quickly got distracted with thinking about how we could build AI into our product or build a chatbot so we could get on TechCrunch.

You get a little overwhelmed with like, oh, but I want to be this, I want to be that.

We got distracted momentarily on these things that just don't matter.

1 thing I learned during my time at YC is the power of being focused.

best way you can set up your company for success is to focus in and only do the number 1 most important things.

You always focus on 1 or 2 metrics that's important for you and your company.

And then on a weekly basis growing it as much as possible and really tracking your growth and learning what you can do to you know increase that growth.

The power of that over a period of time, over a period of a year, over a period of 2 years, becomes really really powerful when you're improving something every day, even if it's 1% a day.

Say hey, okay, this is the phase of the company we're in, this is phase 1, this is the milestone for phase 1, this is what we're going

When we hit that milestone we move to the next milestone.

YC is great because for 3 months your entire team does nothing but work on your company, work on rolling your numbers and Being so focused during that time period was extremely helpful for us as a company and we tried to keep that focus on our customers and on our business even up till today.

All of us are just focused on building a product, getting the product market fit, but a lot of us tend to ignore building the right culture from day 1.

Decide and define what your values are to make sure that you build out the right team, align with the vision, align with the mission for the long term.

I think 1 of our commitments is not just to succeed as a business, but to build a world-class, paradigm-defining organization.

We have 1 of the most talented, brilliant, and diverse teams in Silicon Valley.

We're 50% women, we're 40% non-white, we're 15% black and Latinx, and that is a testament to us hiring the very best people and setting them up for success.

We are absolutely hiring, so please check us out.


Speaker 0: Let's start with the introduction. Why don't you introduce yourself and your company?

Speaker 1: My name is Nikki Goulimas. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit.

Speaker 2: My name is Olube Ngagboua. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Flutterweb.

Speaker 3: My name is Amir Nathu, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of OutSkool.

Speaker 4: And can you share 1 piece of advice you have for founders who are just starting today?

Speaker 1: Starting a company, no matter how successful, what a rocket ship you look like from the outside, it's gonna be longer and harder than you might imagine.

Speaker 5: I've often found that people pursue ideas because they have a solution looking for a problem.

Speaker 4: We're just excited to get into the world of startups.

Speaker 5: But that those businesses and those products aren't actually authentic to who they are.

Speaker 6: There are going to be many deep dark days as founders and entrepreneurs. And if you do not truly wish to see this change, or if you do not truly believe in this thing that you're building, it's gonna be far easier to give up than keep persisting.

Speaker 7: Start with some introspection. Understand Why

Speaker 3: you personally really want to make this business work? Why this company? Why this idea? Why this market?

Speaker 5: And does that feel true to you? Does that feel authentic to who you are as a person?

Speaker 7: So just think about all the areas in your life that could be improved. There's so many things that take too long, don't work as well as you think they should, are too expensive. Ultimately, as a founder, you're in the business of solving people's problems. It's easy to start with your own.

Speaker 4: It's important to think, do you want to work on this problem for the next 10 years?

Speaker 8: A decade is the unit of time that you want to think about if you really want to build something meaningful.

Speaker 2: It's a round the clock job that requires your utmost commitment.

Speaker 7: It's probably going to be 1 of the hardest things you've ever done.

Speaker 3: And really keeps you going through the hard times when you have a personal connection and a really strong personal motivation to work in

Speaker 5: the area that you're working on.

Speaker 6: A lot of great companies were built through persistence and that the founders really wanted to see that in the world.

Speaker 4: When you're building a company, the odds are stacked against you. Your competitors have more money, more people, more time, more resources. There's a tendency to want to like do everything at once when you're a young startup.

Speaker 9: We were just building technology for local businesses like plumbers and car dealerships. And so We quickly got distracted with thinking about how we could build AI into our product or build a chatbot so we could get on TechCrunch.

Speaker 4: You get a little overwhelmed with like, oh, but I want to be this, I want to be that.

Speaker 9: We got distracted momentarily on these things that just don't matter.

Speaker 7: 1 thing I learned during my time at YC is the power of being focused.

Speaker 3: Focus. The

Speaker 1: best way you can set up your company for success is to focus in and only do the number 1 most important things.

Speaker 6: You always focus on 1 or 2 metrics that's important for you and your company.

Speaker 7: And then on a weekly basis growing it as much as possible and really tracking your growth and learning what you can do to you know increase that growth.

Speaker 6: The power of that over a period of time, over a period of a year, over a period of 2 years, becomes really really powerful when you're improving something every day, even if it's 1% a day.

Speaker 4: Say hey, okay, this is the phase of the company we're in, this is phase 1, this is the milestone for phase 1, this is what we're going

Speaker 2: to execute on. When we hit that milestone we move to the next milestone. It's incremental progress.

Speaker 7: YC is great because for 3 months your entire team does nothing but work on your company, work on rolling your numbers and Being so focused during that time period was extremely helpful for us as a company and we tried to keep that focus on our customers and on our business even up till today.

Speaker 10: All of us are just focused on building a product, getting the product market fit, but a lot of us tend to ignore building the right culture from day 1. Decide and define what your values are to make sure that you build out the right team, align with the vision, align with the mission for the long term.

Speaker 1: I think 1 of our commitments is not just to succeed as a business, but to build a world-class, paradigm-defining organization. We have 1 of the most talented, brilliant, and diverse teams in Silicon Valley. We're 50% women, we're 40% non-white, we're 15% black and Latinx, and that is a testament to us hiring the very best people and setting them up for success.

Speaker 4: We are hiring at Ironclad.

Speaker 0: We're hiring at Go1

Speaker 4: at the moment all over the world. Elseville is hiring. Madamos is hiring.

Speaker 1: We are absolutely hiring, so please check us out.

Speaker 2: We're hiring right now at PhotoWib.

Speaker 4: Gecko Robotics is hired.

Speaker 7: We're hiring Esquire. If

Speaker 0: you

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2021 YC Top Companies on Their Startup Journey