{"product_id":"9781101601440","title":"The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator","description":"\u003cb\u003eNumber of teams that applied to Y Combinator’s summer 2011 batch: 2,089\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTeams interviewed: 170\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMinutes per interview: 10\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTeams accepted and funded: 64 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMonths to build a viable startup: 3\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePossibilities: BOUNDLESS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInvestment firm Y Combinator is the most sought-after home for startups in Silicon Valley. Twice a year, it funds dozens of just-founded startups and provides three months of guid­ance from Paul Graham, YC’s impresario, and his partners, also entrepreneurs and mostly YC alumni. The list of YC-funded success stories includes Dropbox (now valued at $5 billion) and Airbnb ($1.3 billion).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReceiving an offer from YC creates the oppor­tunity of a lifetime — it’s like \u003ci\u003eAmerican Idol\u003c\/i\u003e for budding entrepreneurs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcclaimed journalist Randall Stross was granted unprecedented access to Y Combinator’s summer 2011 batch of young companies, offering a unique inside tour of the world of software startups. Most of the founders were male programmers in their mid-twenties or younger. Over the course of the summer, they scrambled to heed Graham’s seemingly simple advice: make something people want.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe watch the founders work round-the-clock, developing and retooling products as diverse as a Web site that can teach anyone program­ming, to a Wikipedia-like site for rap lyrics, to software written by a pair of attorneys who seek to “make attorneys obsolete.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFounders are guided by Graham’s notoriously direct form of tough-love feedback. “Here, we don’t fire you,” he says. “The market fires you. If you’re sucking, I’m not going to run along behind you, saying, ‘You’re sucking, you’re suck­ing, c’mon, stop sucking.’” Some teams would even abandon their initial idea midsummer and scramble to begin anew.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe program culminated in “Demo Day,” when founders pitched their startup to sev­eral hundred top angel investors and venture capitalists. A lucky few attracted capital that gave their startup a valuation of multiple millions of dollars. Others went back to the drawing board.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the definitive story of a seismic shift that’s occurred in the business world, in which coding skill trumps employment experience, pairs of undergraduates confidently take on Goliaths, tiny startups working out of an apart­ment scale fast, and investors fall in love.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120829907184,"sku":"9781101601440","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781101601440_p0.jpg?v=1763688511","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781101601440","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}