Across the globe, as the novel coronavirus moves us from communal spaces into the confinement of our homes, our social experiences are forced to adapt. Beyond the social networks we already know and use, we are finding new ways to integrate social into our online lives. At Y Combinator, we are considering what this might mean for the future of e-commerce. For several years, we have had our eye on Pinduoduo as an interesting case study. But now, as China is recovering from the impact of COVID-19, Pinduoduo and their social-shopping approach is even better poised to fully capture the offline-to-online transition in commerce. The success of Pinduoduo in China suggests there is a huge opportunity for social commerce platforms to emerge in other regions.
May 6, 2020Anu Hariharan shares the collective wisdom of the YC community to help guide founders on best practices in managing a board––including running board meetings and overcoming board issues.
Jul 15, 2019The YC Growth Program is designed for companies with between 50 – 150 employees that are scaling rapidly. If you would like to be considered for admission, please complete this application.
Jul 31, 2018We are delighted to invite interested founders to apply to the YC Growth Program. The Growth Program is designed for companies with between 50 – 150 employees that are scaling rapidly. The deadline for application is February 23, 2018.
Jan 30, 2018Today, we are excited to announce the YC Growth Program, our first formal program for later stage startups. If we imagine Y Combinator as the university degree for startups, the Growth Program is grad school. The program is designed for founder-CEOs of post-Series A companies with between 50-100 employees who are in the early stages of company-building. The basis of the program is a 10-week dinner series, with each dinner focused on a specific issue that every startup has to overcome in order to scale successfully.
Dec 14, 2017Toutiao, one of the flagship products of Bytedance, may be the largest app you’ve never heard of–it’s like every news feed you read, YouTube, and TechMeme in one. Without any explicit user inputs, social graph, or product purchase history to rely on, Toutiao offers a personalized, high quality-content feed for each user that is powered by machine and deep learning algorithms.
Oct 12, 2017“Growth hacks” can be extremely helpful in driving viral growth early in a product’s path to product market fit. However, sustaining long-term growth and reaching hundreds of millions of users requires a scientific approach to growth. In fact, growth experts resoundingly say that “growth hacking” isn’t in their vocabulary or something they relate to their work. “Hacking” implies a haphazard / gut-driven approach, and the reality is quite the opposite. Startups that have seen amazing growth have developed teams and processes that are intentional, exceedingly metrics-driven, and thrive on experimentation. We talked to 25 of the experts who have driven this growth programs and have included their advice in this guide.
Jul 20, 2017