Grow the Puzzle Around You

Key ideas

Livingston tells how an unlikely mix of traits suited Y Combinator and argues founders should build on what is distinctive about them, not copy the press's founder type.

1. 1

   Founders come in more than one shape

   Livingston lists what made her suited to YC: reading people, planning events, being maternal and empathetic, being direct, and not being driven by money or fame. She points out how far that sits from the founder profile in the press, and says it was still critical to YC. She also reports no conventional early signs of success, including a decade in which she says she achieved nothing of note.

2. 2

   Ask what is distinctive about you

   Livingston argues that not everyone can start every startup, but many more people can start some startup than realize it, because many, perhaps all, people have a distinctive mix of abilities and interests that may match an idea. She says the most successful startups tend to grow out of founders' lives, and suggests the oddest mixes may be the most valuable.

3. 3

   Judge founders when numbers don't exist yet

   Livingston says the growth figures and market-size estimates VCs relied on didn't exist at YC's stage, so YC needed technical people to assess ideas and someone to assess founders' characters and the relationships between them. She looked for earnest, determined, flexible-minded people and watched the cofounder dynamic, usually staying silent in interviews. She says she tried to keep conceited founders out early on, and thinks that is the basis of the alumni culture.

4. 4

   Try it small, then keep what works

   Livingston says funding a batch began only as a way for inexperienced investors to learn, and that within weeks it looked promising: founders had colleagues and YC could help them all at once. YC then committed to batches and moved the next one to Silicon Valley so that no copycat would take that position. She adds that having stayed small is what made the move possible within months, and that YC still tests things on a small scale before expanding them.

5. 5

   Pick a cofounder and ignore the mainstream

   Among her closing lessons, Livingston advises a cofounder whose skills complement yours and whose morals match, noting she and Graham agreed on the big questions and deferred to each other on the small ones. She says outside opinion doesn't matter unless it comes from users, that rejection shouldn't stop you, and that founders need enough boldness to work on ideas most people would consider stupid.

In Jessica’s words

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