Dalton & Michael

At YC, we're seeing more and more people in their 20s taking the leap and starting their own companies. In this episode, Dalton & Michael share their advice on how young founders can get a head start and hit the ground running in their startup journey.

When it comes to building a successful startup, focus is critical. But how do you know if you’re spending time on the right things? In this episode, Dalton and Michael share advice for how to break through the noise and zero in on solving the problems that matter most for your business.

How should you navigate your 20s - the most important decade in your life? For many people, it’s an age with fewer responsibilities: no kids, no mortgage, no restrictions. And so it’s actually the best possible time to go hardcore: to take risks, invest in yourself, and surround yourself with like-minded people. In this episode, Dalton & Michael share their thoughts on how to live your 20s - f...

Thanks to advances in AI, we're currently living through one of the biggest technological shifts in a generation. And things aren't slowing down anytime soon. So now the question is, what should you do about it? In this episode, Dalton and Michael break down several steps you can take right now to leverage the latest tools and set yourself up for success in the age of AI.

You know what they say, to understand the future, look to the past. Since the early 2000s, Apple and Facebook (now Meta) have been battling over who controls the consumer market. Facebook arguably dominated the web era, while Apple took over during the mobile era starting in the late 2000s. Now, as we enter the AI era, Dalton + Michael discuss who's pulling ahead, and what that means for startups...

Thanks to a recent talk by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and a follow up essay by Paul Graham , the concept of "founder mode" is everywhere. But what does it mean and who does it really apply to? In this episode, Dalton and Michael break through the noise to find out what lessons can be learned from going all in on "founder mode."

As Dalton & Michael have discussed before, ZIRP stands for “Zero Interest Rate Policy” which refers to when the Federal Reserve sets interest rates around 0% and banks were able to borrow money for almost nothing. This phenomenon had a profound impact on tech throughout the pandemic and many companies are still readjusting. In this episode, Dalton & Michael examine how to know whether your...

Space travel, the Internet, cryptocurrency — these huge leaps in technology were fueled at least in some part by distrust and fear of others. In this episode, Dalton & Michael discuss the origins of some of the biggest innovations over the last 75 years.

Remember how in "The Matrix," Neo found out that human beings were really just being used as batteries to power the machines that enslaved them? In a sense, social media companies are now the machines, and we, the users, have become the batteries. With that in mind, Dalton and Michael discuss what to be aware of as we engage online and how we can leverage the social media matrix to our benefit.

Whether it's career advancement, leaving a positive mark at an org, or raising funds for your startup, the ability to convince and influence decision-makers is a vital skillset to develop. In this video, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss actions you can take to be more persuasive and create more favorable outcomes for yourself.

Despite the most successful tech founders being centralized in the Bay Area, there are founders, accelerators, and investors located around the world. In this video, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the phenomenon of local startup experts and why they may be doing a disservice to your entrepreneurial journey.

The long awaited follow-up to their original tarpit ideas video, Dalton and Michael dispel some misconceptions about what a tarpit idea actually is and how it applies to current technology trends like artificial intelligence. Don't get stuck!

ZIRP stands for “Zero Interest Rate Policy,” and it refers to a stretch of time — most recently throughout the pandemic — in which the Federal Reserve sets interest rates around 0% and commercial banks are able to borrow money for next-to-nothing. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll talk about some of the downstream side effects we saw during this stretch of time: an explosion of unicor...

When a major new technology comes out, huge new opportunities open up for founders that get in on the ground floor. Fortunes were made when the app store came out, when online payments became easy, and when the web itself was brand new. In this episode of Dalton and Michael we’ll talk about why this is that moment for AI, who will find those opportunities, and where to look for the people that’ll...

When you’re making important decisions as a founder — like what to build, or how it should work — should you spend lots of time gathering input from others or just trust your gut? The answer: it depends. It depends on who you are, what you’re building, and what you know. In this episode of Dalton + Michael we talk more about this, and how to know when you should spend time validating and when to j...

It’s easy to analyze your way out of taking the first step. It’s something we see a lot, particularly when founders try to choose what to build based on what they think VCs and investors will like. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll talk about the risks of “thinking like an investor”, how to know when you’re stuck in this mindset, and how to unlearn it. We’ll also cover a short list of...

Startups need to innovate to succeed. But not all innovation is made equal and reinventing some common best practices could actually hinder your company. In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the common innovation pitfalls founders should avoid so they can better focus on their product and their customers.

Within the world of startups, you'll find lots of discourse online about the experiences of founders bootstrapping their startup versus the founders who have raised venture capital to fund their company. Is one better than the other? Truth is, it may not be so black and white. Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the virtues and struggles of both paths.

Whether or not you need a co-founder is always a hotly debated topic — but going one level deeper, founders often wonder what kind of co-founder they need. It’s also common for technical founders to be told by investors and advisors that they would benefit from a co-founder with non-technical expertise in things like business or marketing. Are they correct? Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel dive...

Social media often promotes a doom and gloom outlook about our future society. But is that worldview accurate? In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the best ways for founders and aspiring founders to think about weighing optimism and pessimism in their day to day lives.

Based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, the biggest common element between all successful startups is having technical talent on the founding team. But what do you do if you don't know how to code? You may think you can get by using no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops to bring your startup idea to life. But that thinking is wrong. In this episode of Dalton...

If you’re an employee of a late stage company right now, how would you know when it’s time to move on vs. time to double down? The fact is there isn't an easy answer — it can really vary from person to person and situation to situation. In this video, YC Partners Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell share some suggestions on what sort of things an employee of a late stage startup should be looking f...

The stories are true: technical founders (and early technical employees!) often end up with the short end of the stick when starting a company. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll discuss the questions and best practices that an aspiring technical founder should think about — whom to start a company with, and how to think about things like equity split and division of responsibilities....

Do famous founders give advice they didn't follow themselves? How seriously should you consider the advice of people like Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel? It’s hard not to give advice when you’re successful, but context matters. In this episode, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell dig into why some advice givers might be tempted to say “Do as I say, not as I did” and how we try to avoid doing...

Demo day is right around the corner. What do VC firms think of Y Combinator? Dalton and Michael reveal what's really going on behind the scenes with firms like a16z, Sequoia, Founders Fund, and the hundreds of others that invest in YC companies. The data reveals the truth - top investors have stakes in the biggest YC successes. Discover why Y Combinator is a secret weapon for VCs to find promising...