Andrew Just

Hot take... YC S24 was the best YC batch i've seen. I break it down why here: https://lnkd.in/enNcbfRK YC is evolving, from in person demos days to new group partners... I cover how this shift is influencing investment strategies, the rise of sectors like batteries and space tech, and why traction—not hype—continues to be the ultimate indicator of value. Catch the full breakdown below.

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It's already hard to get into the top-tier YC world. It's 10x times harder if you're in Europe. Even if you're in Silicon valley, it's still hard to get into the YC ecosystem. Why? Because YC is tightly closed and protected environment. An exclusive world where demo day access is invite-only for the insiders. In the world there are only 400 handpicked guests attended the last in-person event. It was purely an insider event. You have to be an insider to get access to the best deals. And I'm on of the 400 investors who's on that list. This is why I love YC so much: Statistically 6% of these startups will become unicorns. Making them the best asset class you could ever invest your money into. But, it's almost impossible to gain access to them…. You can get access through me, and that's as close to those YC start-ups as you could ever get.

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Bringing people together is how you win in venture capital. Europe could use more of it. Don’t pay yourself a salary—get sponsors, trade favors, put the fees into events, and build a real community. That’s what we’re trying to do at Robin Capital. Highlights: 04:05 - JL: "make sure you dont get on the board of every company just fund a lot more, help them get started, have events. I mean that was a big component like have a lot of events of events to encourage more people to start startups” 05:25 - JL: "Events have always been like the core part of YC" ... "sometimes we joke that we're basically an events company that figured out away to monetize events really well" 05:42 - HT: "It's not intuitive. Most investors dont think oh we need to have really good events" 07:02 - JL: "we saw the value of people coming together, meeting who might not have otherwise met, sharing ideas" ... "this is starting to be a community" ... "community is a really important part of YC's DNA and events are the best way to optimize the relationships within that community" Lightcone Podcast: How YC Was Created With Jessica Livingston Participants: JL - Jessica Livingston - Founding Partner YC GT - Garry Tan - President & CEO YC DH - Diana Hu - Group Partner YC HT - Harj Taggar - Managing Partner YC JF - Jared Friedman - Group Partner YC Cc Robin Capital

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Don’t stack post-money SAFEs. I know YC backs them & I, as an investor, love them. But for founders, 1 post-money SAFE is fine—2+ can be deadly: What if I told you I’ll lead your seed round but I want: 1- Full ratchet anti-dilution rights. If your next round is say at a 50% lower valuation, my share price gets lowered by 50%. 2- Anti-dilution against future options. If you if you increase the size of your ESOP, 100% of the dilution goes to founders and existing employees. 3- Anti-dilution against future notes. If you raise a pre-or post money SAFE or a convertible note, only the founders and employees get diluted, not me. You’d tell me I’m crazy, right? You’d at least tell me it’s not market, not standard? But it is market, it is standard, and it’s called a post money SAFE. #startups #founders #venturecapital

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The last time I was in Atlanta was in April 2018, and I talked for 12 hours straight about early-stage venture capital and startups at digitalundivided. Kathryn Finney is my witness. ====== I arrive in Atlanta this evening, and I'll be there till Monday, when I leave in the afternoon. If you'll be in town for the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) annual conference, please DM me so we can find time to meet. Kurtis Trevan, Candace Mitchell, Brit F., Jewel Burks Solomon, Mark Shaughnessy, Averi Thomas-Moore, Dyci Manns Sfregola, CSCP . . . Please share to help me extend my reach. My network in Atlanta is vanishingly small. I'd love to bring a small group of Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Tech folks together for an impromptu meetup to try and get The Atlanta Supply Chain Meetup back in the early stages of formation. I'd particularly love to meet someone who wants to build the local community with help from The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation. Also, if you're a pre-seed or seed stage startup founder, I'd love to hear about what you're building. Our Investment Thesis: REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund invests in early stage startups refashioning legacy industries through Data & AI, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing, & Next Generation Supply Chains; Defensible through economic moats. At most venture capital firms, Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology is a tiny, emerging “area of interest” . . . At REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund, it’s our entire world. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital

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Make 2024 VC Meetings Easy with These Questions (COPY THIS) 👇 Here are all the questions I ask during meetings. 1. Who specifically is the initial customer? 2. What is your solution and how does it work? 3. How do you know this problem exists? 4. How do you find customers and how do you reach them? 5. How do you make money? 6. Why do you believe that now is the right time? 7. How do you define your target market and customer segments? 8. Who are the main competitors in your field? 9. What similar solutions exist in other markets? 10. How do you plan to defend your product against competitors? What is your moat? 11. What has been built and shipped? 12. What traction have you achieved so far and what are your key metrics? 13. Can you share some of the learnings since you started? 14. Who is on the team, and what are their unique skills and experiences? 15. How did you meet your co-founder? 16. What are the shares of co-founders? Are they full-time or not? 17. What are your superpowers? 18. How much is the company raising, what are the terms, and who else is involved? 19. How many months of runway do you have? How many months will you extend? 20. Where is the company located and domiciled? 21. What is the monthly burn rate? 22. What does the cap table look like before this investment round and after? 23. What are the key business and product milestones over the next 12-24 months? 24. Why do you do this? 25. What keeps you awake at night?

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Today or tomorrow, I’ll hit a new milestone on LinkedIn. 🌟 20,000 followers (𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿?) My commitment to posting 1-2 times daily has transformed my reach, driving 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 of founders and LPs to our site 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵. This is core to our RevOps strategy (demand generation): → How we attract LPs → How we attract Startup Founders → And yes, I play to win. 🏆 𝗔 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗴𝗼, I got serious about LinkedIn. → 7,434.9% increase in reach 📈 → 3.5 million impressions 🎉 But it all started with that first post back on 6/13/22. 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, I know our brand’s success depends on a clear message and a global presence. At CanaGlobal, we’re focused on four pillars: 🚀 Startup Church 🚀 Startup School 🚀 Startup Incubator 🚀 Startup Venture Studio Though we have a stellar team, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. We’ve become a global brand — a global movement, attracting founders from around the world and all walks of life. 100% of our LPs are faith-driven patriots — proudly MAGA — 𝗮𝗻𝗱 100% 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to learn from LinkedIn pros like Kevin Jurovich and Nat Berman. 🔹 I’ve studied their strategies, connected with them, and continue to cheer them on daily. So, if you’ve been part of this journey — thank you! It’s been a privilege to get to know you, support you, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲, 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂. 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽: 100,000. ~~~ Need help, 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 and reach out. Follow me, Gerald Duran for daily startup and VC mentorship, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘁 from CanaGlobal's faith-driven venture studio and startup incubator. #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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Did you know that YC founders get a secret weapon… and it’s not what you think. “Bookface” is YC’s internal social network. It was needed because YC had funded larger batches and the hardest part of a community is knowing who is in it and who you can trust and ask for help. On the platform, founders share real methods and advice that would break if it were shared widely It’s secret knowledge shared with a trust-first community - answering 80% of the questions a founder can have about building and selling a product, be it to clients, candidates or investors. Before the platform, if you had a B2B startup, you had to reach out cold to potential customers. Now there are over 1000 YC companies you can sell your service to and all of their contact information is in Bookface. As a result, YC alumni companies are often over 50% of your new sales during YC. It’s superpowers like this that make YC deals so attractive compared to the norm. You are investing in a founder with a 10x network already!

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This is how YC teaches their companies to pitch investors in 2 sentences. 👇 (straight from the playbooks) Your "Two Sentence Description" is a short description of what your company does, explained to an investor. Imagine this is what you say if an investor asks you “What does your company do?” during a cocktail party. There are two main formats: Format 1️⃣ Sentence one: What we do. Sentence two: Example. 👉 Example: Airbnb is a marketplace where you can book a home or apartment when traveling for work or vacation. When you visit New York City with your family, instead of staying in a cramped and expensive hotel room, you can stay in a comfortable 3-bedroom apartment at the same price. Format 2️⃣ Sentence one: The problem we solve. Sentence two: How we solve it. 👉 Example: Stripe makes it easy for developers to accept payments on their websites or mobile apps. We do this by providing a simple and well documented payments API that any developer can instantly start using straight from our website. ❌ Common mistakes to avoid: ❌ → Making a description too long ↳ Don’t try to pack as much as possible in two sentences → Talking about a general problem ↳ Be specific. The description should begin with your company’s name → Don’t try to “sell” your company to investors ↳ Just clearly explain what you do, so you stimulate questions → Using a customer pitch instead of an investor pitch ↳ In most cases investors are not your users. Don’t use “you” in the investor description → Trying to make your company sound impressive ↳ Use informal, simple language. Think of it as a company description in a casual conversation I hope this helps in crafting a better pitch! 🙌 Rock the next cocktail party! P.S. Check my first comment for examples of YC company descriptions using these formats. ⬇️ Drop your company's two sentence description as well.

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In 2015, Sam Altman made a bold bet on YC's future. Despite tech bubble fears, he predicted: 1.. YC Private Unicorns (Airbnb, Dropbox and Stripe) would 2X to $100B+ total value 2.. Mid-stage YC cos (like Instacart, Coinbase) would 3X to $27B+ 3.. Latest YC batch (then $0) would reach $3B valuation Fast forward - 2024: 1. Airbnb ($78B), Dropbox ($9B), Stripe ($95B) = $182B+ 📈 2. Instacart ($9B), Coinbase ($38B) smashed the 3X target 🚀 3. That YC batch? W15... GitLab alone hit $8B valuation 💥 Sam's predictions? Vindicated. But it also reveals just how good YC is. From 2005-2024, YC has funded 4000+ startups, with a combined valuation of $600B+. Today is S24's demo day!.... I wonder what this class will look like in 2033 🔮

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The VC funding model when everything works out fine... In real life: Only a few startups make it! So if you are considering going the VC route: Have a backup plan!

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Founder-Turned-VC Investor Raised $150 Million for Her New Fund💰 Masha Bucher, ex-entrepreneur and founder of Day One Ventures, has raised $150M for her new VC fund. Founded in 2018, Day One Ventures focuses on early-stage startups, offering initial investments ranging from $1M to $2M. Notable companies in the firm’s portfolio include Worldcoin, legal services company DoNotPay Inc., and AI assistant You.com. 📝Diverse Investments and Real-World Impact Day One Ventures supports startups across various industries, with Bucher particularly drawn to founders tackling real-world challenges. “From profound wealth disparities to the urgent threat of climate change and the growing sense of social isolation, tech founders will be our lifeline toward a more abundant, diverse, and sustainable future,” Bucher stated regarding the new fund. 🏆The firm’s track record is impressive, with six of its investments achieving billion-dollar valuations and 22 companies either being sold or going public. This success highlights Day One's knack for identifying high-potential startups. 🎯PR Expertise and Strategic Growth Before transitioning to VC, Bucher founded a PR firm that managed communications for numerous tech companies. She has leveraged her PR expertise to coach startups on media strategies. “If you look at any business problem you want to solve and any business goal you want to solve, 90% of the business problems are communications problems,” Bucher explained on Bloomberg Television. “I think this is something we train founders on and something that we help them to do.” 📈Growth of Day One Ventures The new fund is Day One’s third and largest to date. Fund I, closed in 2019, was nearly $20 million, while the second fund in 2020 totaled $52.5 million. This latest fundraising effort saw contributions from US and European institutional LPs, as well as 14 of Bucher’s own portfolio company founders.💰 “When you are building a firm with value add and staying close to founders, you can attract a lot of capital from your own network,” Bucher said. Notably, she made a concerted effort to include female investors, securing backing from 9 female LPs. Significant in the male-dominated VC industry, where female founders received just 2% of the total capital invested in US startups in 2023, according to PitchBook.🤷‍♀️ 🤝New Investments and Future Focus Day One has already made 5 investments from its Fund III: Cradle, an AI startup focused on human longevity; Rainmaker, a Los Angeles-based company working on cloud-seeding technology; Affiniti; Astroforge; and Layer N.  🚀🌍 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #VCfund and increase the international pool of your LPs?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments (Series A/Series B)?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VentureCapital #TechInvesting #FemaleFounders #StartupFunding #Innovation

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Some thoughts on the following post regarding the "Secret YC SAFE" o  Isn't the whole point of a SAFE the fact that it is not debt or equity so it is only convertible based on a future fixed valuation (priced round), less whatever discount is stated and therefore requires only minor legal review. o  A valuation cap if attached to the SAFE only guarantees a maximum price for conversion. o  It therefore is not a fixed percentage of the cap table but on a post money SAFE it would guarantee a minimum percentage of the post total equity. o  There are legal, regulatory and tax consequences to buying or selling straight equity or debt. o  A SAFE agreement is neither, and therefore you only have fluff until there is a priced round that triggers the SAFE and locks in a fixed price for conversion to equity on the cap table. o  What if instead of the standard SAFE terms, (discount and or valuation cap) the 'Secret YC SAFE' simply locks in a post money percentage of equity. o  In that case you might as well subscribe for straight equity and purchase common or preferred stock. o  This however will have legal, tax, and regulatory consequences that the SAFE was designed to avoid. o  Why then, if the price is fixed and you are an accredited investor would you want to hold a SAFE that has no value until there is a priced round. o  If there is no priced round there is generally no guaranteed conversion. o  As a possible solution we have added a clause to a standard SAFE agreement to cover this obvious shortcoming;  “If this instrument does not otherwise expire or terminate prior to the two-year anniversary of the issue date, the company will, at the sole option of the Investor, and prior to the provisions of any subsequent 'Events' as described in Section 1(a)(b)(c)(d) below, issue Common Stock at a Conversion Price determined by and equal to the Safe Price.” o  This may potentially create a grey area where it could be argued for tax and regulatory purposes that the price of the offering had an ultimate fixed price and therefore did not meet the ambiguous price certainty that sets a SAFE apart from being painted with the same brush as Debt or Equity. o  A SAFE agreement that is altered to state only a definitive percentage of total outstanding equity, post money, becomes a fixed value security with the exception that it may have no guarantee of conversion prior to a fixed price round of financing. o  Taking away the ‘discount’ from a future priced round erases a key incentive for an early investor without having to negotiate the price per share upfront. Investors should want the discount in the scenario that a priced round valuation comes in lower than the valuation cap or it at least guarantees them a substantial discount to the priced round investors that come in much later at less risk.

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Exciting News: Schematic is publicly available and we’ve raised $4.8M in seed funding! 🚀 I’m pumped to share that Schematic is now publicly available! We've also raised $4.8M in seed funding, led by MHS Capital with participation from NextView Ventures, Active Capital, Atlanta Ventures, and Ritual Capital—along with support from incredible founders of companies like CrowdStrike, LaunchDarkly, and Salesloft. A big thank you to our investors for believing in us, to our customers for guiding us, and to Benjamin Papillon, Jasdeep Garcha, Giovanni Hobbins, Vladyslav Len, Youssef Salah, Christopher Brady, Joseph Chrzan, Mohammed Almusaddar, and Markiian Simkiv for the opportunity to build this together. ➡️ Solving the last mile of pricing & packaging At every startup, one thing is certain: pricing and packaging will always change. Product and engineering teams shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time this happens. Most companies hard-code pricing and packaging into their applications, making it slow and painful to evolve as market demands shift. ➡️ What We’re Building We're building Schematic to transform pricing and packaging for B2B SaaS companies by getting product and engineering teams out of billing projects. With Schematic, B2B SaaS companies can change pricing & packaging without code changes or billing refactors. ➡️ How It Works With just a few lines of code, businesses can implement pricing and packaging into any application—end-to-end—from feature delivery through billing and customer experience. Quickly roll out new features and tie them to your pricing plans. Target specific plans to customers and adjust them without engineering support. Experiment, scale, and manage pricing & packaging operations: trials, plans, limits, entitlements, metering usage, handling exceptions, provisioning customers, & embedding front-end purchasing components —all without code changes. ➡️ Who we’re building for We’re building Schematic for B2B SaaS companies who want their pricing & packaging roadmaps to move in sync with their product roadmaps, without slowing down their engineering teams. Some key use cases our customers are already benefiting from: 🔹Outsourcing homegrown & hard-coded entitlement services. 🔹Programmatically managing feature access based on subscription plans. 🔹Metering usage and actually enforcing limits. 🔹Updating and managing plans, add-ons, bundling, and customer exceptions 🔹Delivering embeddable purchasing experiences (pricing tables, customer portals, upgrade/downgrade flows, etc). We’re still in the early innings, but the foundation is strong—we're already handling 500K entitlement flag evaluations every month. If you’re a founder or a product leader looking to avoid building what should be out-of-the-box (feature flags, entitlements, admin dashboards, customer portals), check out Schematic and let us know what you think.

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Boldstart Ventures Raises $250M for Fund VII boldstart ventures, based in Miami, US, has successfully closed $250 million for its seventh fund, Boldstart Ventures VII L.P., with support from 68 investors. Led by Founder and General Partner Ed Sim and GP Eliot Durbin, Boldstart invests early in enterprise tech founders, often collaborating with them before incorporation. The firm specializes in "inception rounds," providing initial checks between $500k and $5 million and maintaining ample capital for follow-on investments. Boldstart’s portfolio includes leading enterprise-focused startups such as Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer, BigID, and Superhuman. If you are experiencing difficulties in raising fresh capital and would require warm introductions to new LPs, contact G+QUANT🤝     ▶ Please use G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks, or send your inquiry to [email protected] #VentureCapital #BoldstartVentures #EnterpriseTech #EarlyStageFunding #InceptionRounds #EnterpriseStartups #MiamiTech

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"Platform" in VCs often feels undefined, and different at every firm. But one thing is clear: firms with dedicated platform teams are seeing higher investment returns. What is 'Platform' in VC? Think of it as a support engine for portfolio companies. Platform teams accelerate growth by providing: 1) Strategy & Growth 2) Talent Partner 3) Marketing & Brand Partner 4) Business Development & Partnerships Lead 5) Community Manager 6) Operations & Scaling Partner 7) Fundraising & Capital Advisor Platform in Venture Studios vs. VC Funds: The big difference? Timeframe. Venture Studio Platform: Involved from concept to exit, guiding startups from the very first spark of an idea. VC Platform: Steps in after the startup is funded, focusing on scaling and growth but not the initial concept phase. Both play critical roles—but understanding these distinctions helps founders and investors make the most of their platform relationships.

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I think one of my absolute favorite things working in startups was seeing Y Combinator publish it’s Request for Startups list - it’s impossible not to get pumped seeing some theses on how the world might improve due to shifts in tech + markets. YC has a RFS for improving public safety technology (incredibly relevant living in SF 😬) and reference Flock Safety - who I think is both super interesting + positively impacting lives here. SFPD use Flock Safety drones to tail car thieves in the act, making it easier for cops to catch them, and make our lives + car windows safer - you can see the drones in action in the video! Anyways this is just a friendly reminder that YC W25 applications are happening now and close tomorrow (Tuesday, November 12th). If you’re tempted to build cool things and want to improve people’s lives, you should apply! We only had a few 100 lines of code written on Inari (YC S23) but YC got us in a groove for shipping daily, thinking about ideas, and talking to people for feedback. I’m linking our YC app notes directly in the comments if you’re curious about how early we were and could use some support.

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