The 5 things that kill startups after their seed rounds with Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator

Cofounder conflict No product market fit Stalling innovation and product development Treating investor as a boss

Michael this is by far one of the best talks, you have given, really hit those areas us start ups struggle with. Many thanks.

Thanks a lot, Michael, Our whole startup is referring to the information you provide through youtube videos, especially the one you made which explained what makes the top10% founders, please keep doing this ..it helps a lot of people than anyone can ever imagine.

The knowledge that Michael drops is still relevant today. He know what he is talking about.

I WISH I listened to this years ago!

Amazing. Coming from a non technical background this advice is priceless

15 min of time well spend , listen now for the second time...Thanks Michael

00:00 Introduction 00:55 Fake product market fit 04:00 Understanding product market fit 06:18 Preventative measures 08:47 Turning investors into bosses 09:59 Causes and signs 11:25 Real KPIs and tracking retention 11:59 Co-founder conflict and relationship debt 13:00 Being ordinary vs being extraordinary 23:05 Access to customer data for all team members 23:55 Product release responsibility for product lead 24:26 Q&A session begins 26:00 Raising more money doesn't guarantee success 27:54 Technical talent and goal setting for startup success 29:02 Customizations for big logo customers 30:11 Focus on customer satisfaction before growth planning 32:04 Key pillars for early-stage recruiting 33:01 Being an underdog and not relying on press coverage 35:12 Being Extraordinary as an Early Stage Startup 36:10 Qualities of Extraordinary Startups 38:55 The Power of Doing Hard Things 41:18 Setting Clear Goals for Early Stage Startups 43:09 Conclusion and Final Advice

Wow. Hitting every point.

Thank you very much Michael. You are THE real educator!

This is brilliant! Appreciate you pointing a finger towards these key problems and how overcome them.

Thank you Michael.

Just met you Michael and it was in the perfect time. I'm starting a startup and your video gave me a lot of insights that maybe will change some paths that we had decided. You opened our eyes. Congratulations for the video and for the time you invested sharing those valuable informations. Let's win from the competition right now!

Fantastic talk.

thanks for sharing Michael!!

So underrated, I recently raised a seed round and have experienced strongly 3 of the problems you mentioned

This is pure gold. Thanks

Thanks Michael

God bless you Michael.

About extraordinary engineers and how they never say "I've never done it before" - same thing goes for extraordinary cofounders or employees. But the downside for this that you need to be open with mistakes and failures. Especially for engineers, if they are doing something they've never done before, chances are they'll make mistakes, but since they are not intimidated by it they will get back up quickly and do it again.