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Learnings of a CEO: Wade Foster, Zapier

by Lindsay Amos8/9/2022

Today, Zapier automates work by connecting with over 5,000 apps. The company has been profitable since 2014 and is valued at $5B – with 700 employees working remotely. Wade, Zapier CEO, shared his learnings growing into the role of a growth-stage CEO.

Learnings of a CEO: Max Rhodes, Faire

by Lindsay Amos7/20/2022

Outside of the YC community, little has been documented on best practices to be an effective CEO. We want to help founders everywhere scale and build enduring companies — and today, we’re launching a new series to do just that: Learnings of a CEO.

Same, Same but Different with Vanta and Zapier

by Y Combinator7/7/2022

Both Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo and Zapier CEO WadeFoster made the decision to take a disciplinedapproach to fundraising.

Startups For Students Guide

by Tamanna Khemani, Kat Mañalac1/18/2022

In the past two years, we’ve met over 6,000 students during our virtual outreach tours. We compiled a list of the questions they most frequently asked about startups, and created this Startups for Students Guide.

Venture Debt 101: Basics and Approach

by Jon Levy8/26/2021

In this guide, YC Managing Director Jon Levy talks about venture debt. He covers what it is, walks through some of its benefits and risks, and gives advice on how to approach the process of taking on venture debt.

From Self-Doubt to Starting Up: Words of Wisdom for Women Founders From YC Continuity Partner Anu Hariharan

by Lindsay Amos3/30/2021

We’ve been talking about the unique challenges facing women founders for years,but the pandemic was particularly hard for women looking to start their owncompanies. According to recent data,funding to women-founded companies dropped from 2.8% in 2019 to 2.3% in 2020.

Syndicated rounds: When you can’t find a Series A lead

by Janelle Tam6/24/2020

Series As usually require a founder to secure a single large investor: a lead.This is because the Series A is usually a company’s first priced round, which iswhen crucial terms around governance and control (like board composition) aredecided.Having a lead makes it easier to agree on terms: you negotiate 1:1 with the leadand everyone else follows. It also simplifies the fundraising process: all youhave to do is convince one person to believe in your vision.