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Unlike most other programs, YC does not have mentors--just partners that spend all their time advising startups (and some part-time partners). This is really i
by sama 12y ago
Unlike most other programs, YC does not have mentors--just partners that spend all their time advising startups (and some part-time partners).
This is really important--most people give terrible startup advice, and people that do nothing but select and advise startups all day are probably the best source of good startup advice.
We split into 4 groups, and each company gets 2-3 "group partners" as their main points of contact. We encourage you to talk to these partners at least once a week, and then other partners whenever you need their specific expertise.
- toddsaunders 12y agoHow are the groups/partners assigned? I am assuming it is based on vertical expertise/experience but would love to hear more insight into that process since there are so many great "good partners"
- liyanchang 12y agoThe group split was something that happened after S12, which was at the time the largest batch[0]. As the numbers of startups scaled, connecting all partners to all startups was order o(n^2). I was in this batch - there didn't seem to be any negative impact on the companies given that most/all the founders figured this out and naturally distributed themselves to optimize for talking to the same couple partners week on week. It just meant that every once in a while, you'd be sitting across from a partner that you've never really interacted with and explaining what you do (probably good practice)[1]. Formally grouping partners sounds like a great scaling patch. [1] Not sure exactly how they did it, but the partners had some internal communication. You'd be halfway through your pitch and then they'd be like "Oh, you're THOSE guys who did X, Y, Z". And then proceed to still give you great advice.