Episodes
Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail (Season 1)
In the premiere episode, Jessica and Carolynn sit down with Paul Buchheit. Paul, also known as PB, created Gmail in 2004 while he was employee number 23 at Google. They do a deep dive into the history of Gmail, including the fact that it might never have launched if it weren’t for a leak to the New York Times. After Google, PB went on to found a startup called FriendFeed, which was a social media aggregator, and where the first “like” button was created. It was acquired by Facebook in 2009. After that, he joined Y Combinator as a partner and also became one of the most successful angel investors in Silicon Valley.
David Lieb, Creator of Google Photos (Season 1)
In this episode we’re talking to David Lieb, creator of Google Photos. Back in 2009, YC funded his startup, Bump Technologies, which had a cool technology where you transferred your contact info from one person to another by literally bumping phones. He’ll share Bump’s ups and downs as they went from business school side hustle to hot new iOS app. He’ll talk about getting acquired by Google and ultimately transforming Bump into the wildly popular Google Photos. David recently came back to Y Combinator as a visiting group partner.
Tony Xu, Founder & CEO of Doordash (Season 1)
In this episode we catch up with Tony Xu, founder and CEO of the food delivery service, DoorDash. Tony and his cofounders were students at Stanford when they first launched DoorDash as a class project. Y Combinator funded them as part of its summer batch in 2013. In this episode, Tony takes us through version 1 of their idea to what is now a public company (DASH) operating in 27 countries across the globe.
Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator (Season 1)
In this episode we’re talking to Garry Tan, the president & CEO of Y Combinator. We go full circle with Garry as we chat about his path from turning down a job with Peter Thiel, to founding a YC-backed company in 2008, then starting his own multi-billion dollar fund in 2011, and finally returning to run Y Combinator in 2023. Garry knows about programming, design, running startups, and investing in them, so there are lessons and stories for everyone in this episode.
Tracy Young, Co-Founder & CEO of PlanGrid (Season 1)
Today we're talking with the fabulous Tracy Young, one of the most successful female startup founders so far. Y Combinator funded her company, PlanGrid in the winter of 2012. PlanGrid revolutionized the construction industry by getting blueprints off paper and onto tablets. You’ll hear about how they found their idea, how they lost a cofounder to cancer in the first few weeks of YC, how they sold the company for almost a billion dollars in 2018, and how she’s now gone on to start a new startup called TigerEye, with her husband and PlanGrid cofounder, Ralph Gootee.
Steve Huffman, Co-Founder & CEO of Reddit (Season 1)
In this episode we walk down memory lane with Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, who was in Y Combinator's very first batch of startups in 2005. In those days Steve was a programmer fresh out of UVA. He had no idea that the site he was creating would become the forum of forums, still active and growing 18 years later. Hear about Reddit's eventful early years and how they affected what it eventually became.
Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb (Season 1)
In today's episode, we're talking with Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO of Airbnb. YC funded Airbnb in 2009, when the company was at death's door. During YC we watched the founders work frantically to get growth started and turn Airbnb into the rocketship that it is today. Learn what it takes to come up with an idea so weird that it seems like it will never work, and then make it work.
Paul Graham, Co-founder of Viaweb and Y Combinator (Season 1)
Today, we're doing something I do every day: talking to Paul Graham, who as well as being one of the founders of Viaweb and Y Combinator is also my husband. Paul has been involved with startups since 1995; before he invented the accelerator, he invented the web app. So there's a lot of information in this episode, but it was also, as you'll see, one of the funniest.
Edith Elliot, Co-Founder & CEO of Noora Health (Season 1)
In this episode we talk to Edith Elliot, cofounder of the non-profit startup Noora Health. Like the best for-profit startups, Noora is relentlessly effective, but what they do with relentless effectiveness is save lives. Learn how what started as a graduate school project turned into an organization that has changed the world.
Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb (Season 2)
In this episode, we're talking once again with Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. YC funded Airbnb in 2009, when the company was at death's door. During YC we watched the founders work frantically to get growth started and turn Airbnb into the rocketship that it is today. Today we pick up where we left off in Brian's incredible story of startup survival.
Brian Armstrong, Co-Founder & CEO of Coinbase (Season 2)
Today we're talking with Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, a startup YC funded in 2012 and is now a publicly traded company. Coinbase is truly in the middle of the exciting new world of cryptocurrency. It's particularly interesting to explore this world with Brian, who was unusually candid, even for Silicon Valley.
Dimitri Dadiomov, Co-Founder & CEO of Modern Treasury (Season 2)
Today we're talking with Dimitri Dadiomov of Modern Treasury, a startup Y Combinator funded in 2018. Dimitri works in a very important world whose existence is hidden from most people: the movement of money into and out of companies. Listen in as we follow the money!
Bill Clerico, Co-Founder & CEO of WePay (Season 2)
Today we're talking with Bill Clerico of WePay, which Y Combinator funded in 2009. WePay was one of the first of what are now called "FinTech" startups. In 2017, J.P. Morgan acquired WePay for $400M. Listen in to the adventures of an early fintech pioneer.
Patrick & John Collison, Co-Founders of Stripe (Season 2)
In this episode we catch up with Patrick and John Collison, two brothers from Ireland who founded Stripe in 2009. Since then we've watched Stripe grow from a two-man show to one of the great powers of the tech world.
Emmett Shear, Co-Founder of Twitch (Season 2)
Today we talk with Emmett Shear, who was in the very first YC batch in 2005 with a startup called Kiko. But you know him better as the co-founder of Twitch, which YC funded in 2007. Learn how Twitch grew from one guy walking around with a camera on his head to one of the biggest communities on the internet. It's a crazy story even by startup standards. Enjoy!
Parker Conrad, Founder of Zenefits & Rippling (Season 2)
Today we're talking with Parker Conrad, who founded two startups that went on to become unicorns: Zenefits in 2013, and Rippling in 2016. Parker’s story is one the more dramatic ones you’ll hear on this podcast. In fact this episode is two stories: his misadventures at Zenefits, and the ambitious ideas he has implemented at Rippling.
Trevor Blackwell, Co-founder Y Combinator; Founder, Anybots (Season 2)
Today we have another insider episode: we're talking to Trevor Blackwell, who was my co-founder at Y Combinator. But that's not all he's done. He was also the founder of Anybots, where he created the first dynamically balancing biped robot, and also worked on Viaweb with Paul Graham and Robert Morris.
Adora Cheung, Co-founder of Homejoy & Instalab (Season 2)
Today we chat with Adora Cheung, Co-founder of Homejoy (YC summer 2010) and now Instalab, an at-home blood testing service that helps you optimize your health by measuring over 60 biomarkers. Our conversation is wide-ranging: from how to clean homes efficiently to how she helped defeat Trump in 2020 by getting hundreds of thousands of votes in swing states.
Jessica & Carolynn announce Season 3!
Announcing Season 3 of The Social Radars!
Yuri Sagalov, Co-Founder of AeroFS (Season 3)
Today we are talking to Yuri Sagalov. His company AeroFS, which did enterprise file syncing and sharing, was funded by Y Combinator in summer 2010. Yuri went on to work at Y Combinator before starting his own fund, Wayfinder Ventures.