We're bootstrapped, and we did it last year. I wrote about our experience: https://canny.io/blog/what-youll-get-out-of-y-combinators-st...

I would guess that this is YC's version of freemium. They're giving away a slimmed down version of their product for free, to drive brand awareness / resonance, and attract more qualified leads to their paid (7%) program.

You might not be interested in YC proper, but there's still plenty of great advice, that will probably translate into you having a more successful startup.

(1) Yes (2) Tight feedback loops are key in keeping momentum, so even if you're bootstrapping you don't want to go too slow

Hi Guys,

Im a psychologist with a specialty in entrepreneurship mental health and co-founder conflict. I help people (sometimes individually sometimes as a co-founder pair) address difficulties such as impostor syndrome, communication skills, burnout, making decisions under stress, and effective leadership.

The co-founder relationship is extremely intimate and specific, and it is near impossible for two people to work so hard on a rigorous and trying endeavor and not run into issues. Part of what makes it hard is also the fact that outwardly, everything always has to look awesome. So there aren't any realistic comparison points.

A co-founder relationship is not unlike dating in that you have to figure out where your deal breakers are, what issues you can work through, and what issues you can let go. You also have to be open to accepting your own role in problems that arise, and commit to trying to work on those too. All of which is hard to do while also managing the stress of starting and running a company.

If anyone has questions I'm happy to answer them. You can look me up at azimuthpsych.com.

Also, if you're looking for a therapist for either yourself or you and your co-founder, heres an outline to help you out.

https://azimuthpsych.com/articles-and-ebooks/how-to-find-a-t...

Janna Koretz, Psy.D

We did! The session taught by Daniel Gross: "Life as a Founder" will largely be focused on this.

Absolutely right that this is important. Working at a small AI-blockchain incubator over the winter, a large part of my initial brief was to encourage and help the participants learn to be their better selves and identify problematic behaviours, attitudes and assumptions in themselves, and identify and fix the resulting dynamics in their teams. Learning the soft skills necessary was meant to help them not have to deal with this further down the line, and obviate the problem of the asshole founder. That strategy didn't work out due to founder interference, which made me realise now much resistance there still is in some kinds of moneymen and engineers to acknowledging the important psychological and social factors in team success. I'm glad this is acknowledged to be needed in some of the existing better incubators!

One could argue that this is a huge part of any serious undertaking which requires intense focus.

Interesting.

I tell people believing in their abilities made the difference.

Having money helps(well paid 9-5), but knowing that with enough googling and never giving up mentality, you can solve real problems. Sometimes I am shocked at how little is needed to solve problems that the entire world is currently dealing with, but my fully capable friends dont even try.

Hey, check the settings link in the menu. The application is still editable. In addition, the entry fields seem to have increased in length recently, so perhaps a good idea to review your submission even if it was submitted properly last time.

I'm pretty excited, I hope there is a way to 'meet people'. I hate to say, but random people from reddit I added on instagram/facebook are some of my most interesting and beneficial social connections.

What has @pg been up to recently? I remember the good old days when he was semi-invisible moding on hn. My participation has gone down due to other priorities but it seems that his spirit is well continued here and the new mods are excellent at keeping drama out and making hn stay true to its core.

They touch on this in the latest podcast. The $10k grants are an experiment to try and increase the completion rate of the program. They assign you with advisors who track your progress.

https://blog.ycombinator.com/geoff-ralston-and-adora-cheung-...

You can audit the course.

Yep!

From the "About" page[1]:

> You must submit at least 9 out of your 10 weekly updates and attend 9 out of 10 group office hour sessions.

1: https://www.startupschool.org/about

I'm of the opinion that all knowledge is helpful. If you work at a startup, understanding the bigger picture of how it operates, where it fits in the market, and what all the roles and responsibilities for success may be can only help you.

Just the expected value of getting the $10k grant probably justifies the time investment.

Being the place for startups is potentially worth billions. This branding is important to get mindshare and to attract talented teams and startups. A million is nothing compared to this.

They're giving a million dollars to companies and asking for no equity in return and you're giving them crap for it? Unbelievable.

I think it's good feedback but perhaps not well stated, which is why you're getting grief for it. It is generous and a good thing to give away $1 million no matter how you do it.

Ideally though, they would give $100k to 100 (or 1000) companies and actually take equity. Most startups want to give up equity for good amounts of money, they call it "funding" ;-)

The best way to cope with the stress of running a company is by having peers to talk to, like other startup founders.

The same is true of other hard roles in life, but most roles have built-in peer groups. Like, being a parent is hard so you need other parents to talk to, but you naturally meet other parents in your neighborhood. Being a soldier is hard, but you're bunking with other soldiers. Being a startup founder is isolating by default, if you don't make some effort to build yourself a support group.

The regular YC program helps with this because founders meet frequently in person and get to know each other. I've seen many lasting friendships come out it. Also, the YC partners and staff psychologist help many founders cope with pressure.

It's a valid concern that online-only startup schools will encourage people to start companies in isolation, and they'll end up with unbearable levels of stress. Ways to cope with pressure will be discussed, and there'll be peer interaction that could lead to lasting supportive relationships, but it's an open question how well it'll work without in-person connections.

Whether or not you're in the class, if you're suffering founder stress please consider doing a workshop with https://www.helloinnerspace.org/ (YC S15).

As per other comment, this one seems to be about it: "Daniel Gross (YC) – Life as a Founder"