How I got into Y Combinator

Don't look for a mentor. Find people who you believe in who can help you, and help them first. That's how I got into Y Combinator, and this is my story.

I’m Garry Tan, venture capitalist and cofounder at Initialized Capital. We were earliest investors in billion dollar startups like Coinbase and Instacart, and I’m a Forbes Midas List Top 100 venture capitalist in the world. We want these videos to be about helping people build world-class teams and startups that touch a billion people. Our startups have gone on to create more than $40 billion in market value so far, and Initialized has over $770M in assets under management. I’m doing my own one man YouTube channel with no staff or crew — we're going for raw and unfiltered, not perfect.

Please like this video and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more videos like this!

[ishangoswami]

*Key points I learnt from this:*

- Do what interests you without thinking of how it will be beneficial in future (you can't connect the dots looking forward)

- Contributing selflessly will lead to wonderful results you can't even imagine of

- Being a great leader come with being a great joiner, join the people who are better than you as it helps you level up too

- And the most important: Video tape your important moments in life so you can show them 10 years later when you are running a YouTube channel ❤️😂

[queuebit]

0:34 - How I got into YC: Give first
4:40 - To be a leader, first learn to be a good joiner
5:18 - Give first (3 steps)
- 1. Develop great skills
- 2. Find and follow great people
- 3. Reap the rewards: Smart people!

[akathir]

Chapters
00:00:00 Intro 🚀
00:00:12 Mentors 👨‍🏫 - You shouldn't go and try to find one
00:00:35 How I got into YC - Give first
00:00:58 People ask - Can you be my mentor❓ How did you get your mentors❓
00:01:14 💬 How giving first got me into Y Combinator
00:02:30 Garry at YC Startup School in 2009
00:02:46 Posterous
00:02:57 Zuckerberg!
00:03:55 💬 Give first and you'll get back a multiple of what you give 💪
00:04:27 💬 What you put out in the world will come back to you 10, 000 times 💯
00:04:39 💬 To be a leader, first learn to be a good joiner
00:05:17 Give first (3️⃣ steps)
00:05:20 1. Have something that you are great at 🙌
00:05:41 2. 👀 and follow people who you believe in
00:06:21 3. If you're a great joiner, you will end up with smartest people 🤓
00:07:27 Like and subscribe!

[pratyushrai]

Just yesterday a junior of mine from college was asking me how to find mentors post-college. I found it difficult to articulate how I found out mine. But your video now made me realize that actually all of my mentors (those who mentored me with great empathy, were genuinely non-judgemental and always available to help) were found using these same methods.

Such a marvelous way you convey your thoughts Garry. Just love your videos.

[WeAreBikeScouts]

For the longest time I've been looking for people I can follow/learn from who are genuinely focused on creating or building things that provide value for people in terms of opportunity, education, equality, and safety through social collaboration. It's easy to just create a service and charge somebody for the trouble, but doing that always ends up compromising the (bigger) potential value of the service. I've learned that having this kind of goal never works well with a short-term plan, it has to be at least a ten-year strategy towards sustainability and there's not a lot of people who talk about this kind of long-range entrepreneurship.

[GrowWithWill]

"Give first and you'll get back a multiple of what you give" -- I love this line, Garry. It's spot on. Being value-driven in copy, sales, etc. was the big differentiator for us when we were just starting out and scaling to those first few million in ARR.

More recently I've heard of allocating 5 minutes of time to give value via cold-email, and I tried it out for just a week -- I was pleasantly surprised by the receptiveness of others and in the process met some cool people.

[brycent]

The way you express your content in such a stylistic way, It is very pleasing to the eye. Sometimes the best mentor can be watching a youtube video :)

[godwinhschan]

Great advice, especially for people like myself who are just getting started in their careers. I hope to one day get into YC as well!

[julianbeing]

"To be a leader, first learn to be a good joiner" - For me, that's the key insight.
You are right, it's all about learning, about soaking up that knowledge, about building you, and to do that, you got to start humble.
Thanks for sharing, Garry.

[epicddgt]

Thank you very much for giving back It go the community Best regards from México !

[abrahamkim]

Your soothing voice is a gem for anyone actively seeking progress. Thanks for sharing and taking the time to improve your video-game to this point of reach.

[sfpoet]

Damn, the photographer who became a venture capitalist. Your story would make a great movie. It's so inspiring. I like what you said about not finding a mentor. I so begged for one at a startup I was at, but glad I bare knuckled through it to go from intern to fulltime.

[MikeWilliamsYoroomie]

Being a great joiner is underrated. Awesome video Garry and wish I would have watched this as my younger self!

[farzamsey]

We appreciate your videos and the positive vibes you give us as well!

[faizandhami]

Y combinator guys are my fav. Good to know u r with them .

[pacoviciana]

Paying it forward. Very inspirational video Garry.

[SigilWen]

Love it Garry! Seems like your channel is gaining the traction it deserves :)

[mmmmmray]

Love these insights, Garry! Looking forward to the premier!

[Collin_Cornwell]

Most feelgood video I’ve watched on YouTube this week. Love it. Always worth the time to listen to your stories.

[shreyansh]

This is the best advice I've ever had. I had been struggling with this question for a while now. Thanks a tonne for creating this video!🙏