register now for the new track.</p>\n<p>Historically, Startup School has focused on supporting founders actively working on their companies. Last November we decided to expand our mission by launching a <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/startup-school-for-future-founders//">new track</a> for future founders. That program was extremely popular &#8212; over 30,000 aspiring founders participated, and thousands more have signed up for the waitlist since!</p>\n<p>Given that demand, we’ve decided to make the track a permanent part of Startup School. Starting today, founders will be able to access the Aspiring Founders program (formerly known as Future Founders) at any time. The track consists of 17 videos and essays by YC group partners and 6 self-directed exercises. These can be completed on your schedule.</p>\n<p>Of course, there’s no replacement for first-hand experience when starting a startup. Founders who enroll in the Aspiring Founders track and later take the leap to start a company are welcome to switch to the Active Founder track at any time. There they will find more resources, materials and a large community of founders actively working on their companies.</p>\n<p>Whatever stage you’re at in your startup journey, we invite you to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.startupschool.org//">join Startup School</a> and benefit from the best resource on the internet for learning how to build a startup!</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104749","feature_image":null,"featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-03-16T01:57:53.000-07:00","updated_at":"2021-10-20T10:52:05.000-07:00","published_at":"2021-03-16T01:57:53.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a5","name":"Kyle Corbitt","slug":"kyle-corbitt","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/kyle.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Kyle Corbitt is a software developer at Y Combinator. He spends most of his time creating software to support our founders as they build their businesses. Before joining YC he ran his own startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/kyle-corbitt/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117f","name":"Startup School","slug":"startup-school","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startup-school/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71180","name":"#startup-school","slug":"hash-startup-school","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a5","name":"Kyle Corbitt","slug":"kyle-corbitt","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/kyle.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Kyle Corbitt is a software developer at Y Combinator. He spends most of his time creating software to support our founders as they build their businesses. Before joining YC he ran his own startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/kyle-corbitt/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117f","name":"Startup School","slug":"startup-school","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startup-school/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/startup-school-aspiring-founders-track-relaunches/","excerpt":"Starting today, we’re reopening the Startup School Aspiring Founders track as a\ncontinuous course. This track is intended for potential founders who are\ninterested in starting a company in the future. You can register\n[https://www.startupschool.org/future-founders] now for the new track.\n\nHistorically, Startup School has focused on supporting founders actively working\non their companies. Last November we decided to expand our mission by launching\na new track [https://blog.ycombinator.com/startup","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71c00","uuid":"97054c2c-02ab-42bd-9eeb-19a4567bf9d4","title":"Aspiring Founders Forum for Women Globally","slug":"aspiring-founders-forum-for-women-globally","html":"<p>On November 17, we are hosting our second <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://aff2021.ycombinator.com//">Aspiring Founders Forum</a> for women who aspire to become a startup founder. The event will be online, and whether you are curious about launching your own startup or are in the early stages of building one, you’ll walk away with the knowledge to define your own path.</p><p>Attendees will meet YC partners, our alumnae, and other entrepreneurial women. The one-day event will feature talks and panels (agenda <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://aff2021.ycombinator.com//">here), followed by breakout rooms with experts. Speakers will share their honest accounts of entrepreneurship, as well as essential startup advice.</p><p>Speakers include:</p><ul><li><strong>Jessica Livingston</strong>, Co-founder at Y Combinator</li><li><strong>Diane Green</strong>, Co-founder and former CEO at VMware</li><li><strong>Surbhi Sarna</strong>, Group Partner at YC and Co-founder at nVision</li><li><strong>Holly Liu</strong>, Co-founder at Kabam</li><li><strong>Kerry Wang</strong>, Co-founder and CEO at Searchlight</li><li><strong>Stephanie Simon</strong>, Head of Admissions at YC</li><li><strong>Carolyn Mooney</strong>, Co-founder and CEO at Nextmv</li><li><strong>Anu Hariharan</strong>, Continuity Investing Partner at YC Continuity</li><li><strong>Kat Mañalac</strong>, Head of Outreach at YC</li><li><strong>Erika Hairston</strong>, Co-founder at Edlyft</li><li><strong>Vivian Shen</strong>, Co-founder and CEO at Juni Learning</li><li>And more!</li></ul><p>If you’d like to attend, RSVP <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://aff2021.ycombinator.com//">here by November 10. This event is for women who are curious about starting a startup or have just started one. It will be particularly useful for women with science, engineering, or product management backgrounds, or with specific domain expertise that could turn into a startup.</p><p><em><em>At YC, we use an inclusive definition of “women” and welcome trans women as well as genderqueer and non-binary people who identify as women or femme in any way to include themselves in these listings.</em></em></p><p>The Aspiring Founders Forum is an evolution of Y Combinator’s <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.femalefoundersconference.org//">Female Founders Conference</a>. Since 2014, the Female Founders Conference has helped women who want to start and run their own startups. We believe creating a platform where successful women can share their stories and advice with founders who are just getting started is one way to bring about even more successful women-led companies.</p><p>We need more women-founded startups, and we hope to see you on November 17. If you have questions, please reach out to Events Director Lindsay Selvitelle at <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/\"mailto:ls@ycombinator.com\">ls@ycombinator.com.

","comment_id":"618c0a02cf1ec1000121a52c","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2021/11/YC-AFF-Email.png","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-11-10T10:05:54.000-08:00","updated_at":"2021-12-01T14:36:33.000-08:00","published_at":"2021-10-28T10:06:00.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"The world needs more women-led companies. On November 17th, join YC for the second Aspiring Founders Forum, a virtual event for women globally and learn how to start a startup from inspiring entrepreneurs.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a8","name":"Lindsay Selvitelle","slug":"lindsay-selvitelle","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Lindsay-S.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Lindsay Selvitelle is the Director of Events at YC — primarily focusing on running Demo Day, the iconic three-day event where YC startups present to select investors.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/lindsay-selvitelle/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7116f","name":"Female Founders","slug":"female-founders","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/female-founders/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71170","name":"Startups","slug":"startups","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startups/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71179","name":"YC Events","slug":"yc-events","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-events/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a0","name":"#1898","slug":"hash-1898","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a1","name":"#13122","slug":"hash-13122","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a2","name":"#13164","slug":"hash-13164","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a3","name":"#1809","slug":"hash-1809","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a8","name":"Lindsay Selvitelle","slug":"lindsay-selvitelle","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/Lindsay-S.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Lindsay Selvitelle is the Director of Events at YC — primarily focusing on running Demo Day, the iconic three-day event where YC startups present to select investors.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/lindsay-selvitelle/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7116f","name":"Female Founders","slug":"female-founders","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/female-founders/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/aspiring-founders-forum-for-women-globally/","excerpt":"The world needs more women-led companies. On November 17th, join YC for the second Aspiring Founders Forum, a virtual event for women globally and learn how to start a startup from inspiring entrepreneurs.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71c04","uuid":"137bef50-c46e-42ab-9496-bd321c54e3fa","title":"Does co-founder matching work? It did for these three YC companies.","slug":"does-co-founder-matching-work","html":"<h3 id=\"%E2%80%9Cco-founder-matching-saved-my-life%E2%80%9D\"><strong>“Co-founder matching saved my life.”</strong></h3><p>In August of 2021, Christina Czap, co-founder and CEO of <strong><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.helloseer.com//">Seer (YC W21), found herself badly in need of a technical co-founder. Seer, which raised $2.3M to help retail salespeople create shoppable Lookbooks, was receiving incredible customer interest and couldn’t keep up with the inbound demand.</p><p>At the suggestion of her group partners at YC, Christina made a profile on YC’s <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching/">co-founder matching platform</a>. Three months and many calls later, Seer had a new CTO: Gal Vered, a former PM at Google.</p><p>Gal had been using co-founder matching since July. Although he was initially skeptical of the platform, he eventually met up with 46 potential co-founders, and found the perfect fit with Seer.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/asdfasd.jpeg/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption>The co-founders of Seer (YC W21), Gal Vered and Christina Czap.</figcaption></figure><p>We launched the co-founder matching platform earlier this year to help founders find their co-founders. When you sign up, you tell us about yourself and what you’re looking for, and we show you profiles that most closely match your ideal co-founder. If you message a candidate and they accept, we match the two of you.</p><p>Co-founder matching has also seen success with brand-new companies. Three pairs of co-founders met through the platform earlier this year, worked together on trial projects, became fully committed co-founders, applied to YC, and were accepted into the Summer 2021 batch!</p><p><strong><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.sequincard.com//">Sequin (YC S21) is one of these companies. Vrinda Gupta had left her job after launching credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve at Visa to work on a product to help women build credit. She spent a year working as a solo founder, and, in that time, raised a pre-seed and built an MVP. She knew she needed a technical co-founder who was mission driven, had fintech expertise, and was in it for the long haul.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sequin.jpeg/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption>Sequin (YC S21) co-founders, Vrinda Gupta and Mark Thomas.</figcaption></figure><p>That person was Mark Thomas. He had ten years of engineering experience at Paypal, cared deeply about gender equity, and spent six years as CTO of family-oriented startups. They had an instant connection and arranged to meet in person soon after. Vrinda recalls, “We met the day after we matched, and the day after, and then the day after that.”</p><p>Together, they went through YC’s batch this summer and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2021/09/15/debit-card-startup-builds-credit-for-women/?sh=6283b60b3c67\%22>raised $5.7M</a>.</p><p><strong><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.kiwibiosciences.com//">Kiwi Biosciences</a></strong></strong> (YC S21) has a similar story. Anjie Liu started the company to solve her own pains with irritable bowel syndrome. She had a founding scientist to tackle R&amp;D, but wanted a co-founder to help her build a consumer brand and commercialize the product.</p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/kiwi.jpeg/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption>Anjie Liu and David Hachuel, co-founders of Kiwi Biosciences (YC S21).</figcaption></figure><p>When Anjie saw David Hachuel’s profile on YC co-founder matching, she knew that he was “exactly what [she] was looking for.” David had previously sold a startup in the same space, and was immediately interested in her idea.</p><p>They took a very structured approach to co-founder matching. Both founders answered all 50 questions posed in <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://proof-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/firstround/50 Questions for Co-Founders.pdf/">First Round’s co-founder questionnaire</a>. They found deep alignment on “all the important things” (conflict resolution, vision for culture, etc.). When their month-long trial ended and it came time to say go or no-go, the decision was easy.</p><p>Anjie and David worked remotely for four months and finally met in person after getting into YC. They went through YC and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/14/kiwi-bio-aims-to-free-irritable-bowel-syndrome-sufferers-from-restrictive-diets//">raised $1.5M</a>.</p><p>We’re ecstatic about the companies who met through our co-founder matching and we’re excited to see the platform continue to grow and support more awesome founders in the future!</p><p>Looking for a co-founder? Check out the platform at <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/does-co-founder-matching-work/www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching/">www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching.

","comment_id":"61a505fbcf1ec1000121a57c","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2021/12/BlogTwitter-Image-Template--11-.png","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-11-29T08:55:23.000-08:00","updated_at":"2021-12-30T11:27:19.000-08:00","published_at":"2021-11-24T08:55:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"Read about how the founders of Seer, Sequin, and Kiwi Biosciences used YC’s co-founder matching platform to complete their founding team.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71081","name":"Catheryn Li","slug":"catheryn","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/10/catheryn.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Catheryn (Cat) is a Product Engineer at YC focused on Startup School. Before that she was an engineer at Instagram and Facebook. Cat has a B.S. in Computer Science and Math from MIT.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/catheryn/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71152","name":"Founder Stories","slug":"founder-stories","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/founder-stories/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71180","name":"#startup-school","slug":"hash-startup-school","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117f","name":"Startup School","slug":"startup-school","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startup-school/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a7","name":"#23139","slug":"hash-23139","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a8","name":"#24381","slug":"hash-24381","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711a9","name":"#24628","slug":"hash-24628","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71081","name":"Catheryn Li","slug":"catheryn","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/10/catheryn.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Catheryn (Cat) is a Product Engineer at YC focused on Startup School. Before that she was an engineer at Instagram and Facebook. Cat has a B.S. in Computer Science and Math from MIT.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/catheryn/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71152","name":"Founder Stories","slug":"founder-stories","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/founder-stories/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/does-co-founder-matching-work/","excerpt":"Read about how the founders of Seer, Sequin, and Kiwi Biosciences used YC’s co-founder matching platform to complete their founding team.","reading_time":3,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71c09","uuid":"32743a77-d903-4b5f-997a-7cd4ee854788","title":"Startups For Students Guide","slug":"startups-for-students-guide","html":"<p>In the past two years, we’ve met over 6,000 students during our virtual outreach tours. We compiled a list of the questions they most frequently asked about startups, and created this Startups for Students Guide.</p><p>The guide is informed by hundreds of hours of talks, blog posts, and essays we’ve written for students who are interested in starting or working at startups – many of which can be found in the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/">YC Library</a>).</p><p><strong>Below is the introduction, and you can read the full <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/D0-startups-for-students-guide/">Startups for Students Guide here</a>.</strong></p><h2 id=\"introduction\"><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></h2><p>In his 2007 essay “<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html/">Why to Not Not Start a Startup</a>,” YC co-founder Paul Graham wrote about how common uncertainty was among people considering starting a company. “There's nothing wrong with being unsure,” he noted. “You’re part of a grand tradition.” When Y Combinator launched in 2005, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html/">starting a startup was an unusual career path for recent graduates</a>. It was hard to be taken seriously by investors if you didn’t have an MBA or years of experience in business or tech. To get a sense of how many startups were in the world, look at TechCrunch in 2005. It published about 40 company launches per month, and YC itself only got a couple hundred applications for its first batches.</p><p>The world has changed since then. Today we get tens of thousands of applications per year. On any given day you can look on Product Hunt and see dozens of new companies launch. Taking a chance and starting a startup is not the foreign concept it once was. While it has become more common for people around the world to start startups, there are many more who could consider startups as an option. For example, lots of folks choose a career in finance or as an engineer at a big company without considering other options. Whether you know you want to become a founder or are more interested in finding a job at a startup, we want to equip you with the best resources for getting started.</p><p>In this guide, we’ll discuss why you should think about starting a startup and why you should consider not starting a startup. We’ll also talk about what you should do in college and walk-through some tips for applying to Y Combinator. And if it turns out being a founder isn’t for you, we’ll talk about how to choose the right company and the benefits of working at a startup.</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/library/D0-startups-for-students-guide/">Read the Startups for Students Guide here</a>.</p>","comment_id":"61f5f94feb74f90001a95776","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/01/Startups-for-Students-Guide.png","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-01-29T18:34:55.000-08:00","updated_at":"2022-02-01T16:22:58.000-08:00","published_at":"2022-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"In the past two years, we’ve met over 6,000 students during our virtual outreach tours. We compiled a list of the questions they most frequently asked about startups, and created this Startups for Students Guide.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710ca","name":"Tamanna Khemani","slug":"tamanna-khemani","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Tamanna.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Tamanna is YC's Outreach Manager. Previously, she worked on business operations at All Raise.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/tamanna-khemani/"},{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a2","name":"Kat Mañalac","slug":"kat-manalac","profile_image":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c15939b217561ebda4c129bfea5f65f3?s=512&d=mm&r=g","cover_image":null,"bio":"Kat is the Managing Outreach Officer at YC. She was Chief of Staff to Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of reddit, before joining YC as its Director of Outreach. Prior to that, Kat was at WIRED Magazine.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/kat-manalac/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71174","name":"Advice","slug":"advice","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/advice/"},{"id":"61fe2438c7139e0001a70e98","name":"Getting Started","slug":"getting-started","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/getting-started/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71177","name":"Jobs","slug":"jobs","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/jobs/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71170","name":"Startups","slug":"startups","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startups/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71171","name":"Work at a Startup","slug":"work-at-a-startup","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/work-at-a-startup/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117f","name":"Startup School","slug":"startup-school","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startup-school/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710ca","name":"Tamanna Khemani","slug":"tamanna-khemani","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/Tamanna.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Tamanna is YC's Outreach Manager. Previously, she worked on business operations at All Raise.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/tamanna-khemani/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71174","name":"Advice","slug":"advice","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/advice/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/startups-for-students-guide/","excerpt":"In the past two years, we’ve met over 6,000 students during our virtual outreach tours. We compiled a list of the questions they most frequently asked about startups, and created this Startups for Students Guide.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/01/BlogTwitter-Image-Template-8-2.png","twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null}]},"url":"/blog/startup-school-aspiring-founders-track-relaunches","version":null,"rails_context":{"railsEnv":"production","inMailer":false,"i18nLocale":"en","i18nDefaultLocale":"en","href":"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/startup-school-aspiring-founders-track-relaunches","location":"/blog/startup-school-aspiring-founders-track-relaunches","scheme":"https","host":"www.ycombinator.com","port":null,"pathname":"/blog/startup-school-aspiring-founders-track-relaunches","search":null,"httpAcceptLanguage":"en, *","applyBatchLong":"Winter 2024","applyBatchShort":"W2024","applyDeadlineShort":"October 13","ycdcRetroMode":true,"currentUser":null,"serverSide":true},"id":"ycdc_new/pages/BlogPage-react-component-c4f53a2d-accb-4fdb-8183-4bd01fe5d321","server_side":true}" data-reactroot="">

Startup School Aspiring Founders Track Relaunches

by Kyle Corbitt3/16/2021

Starting today, we’re reopening the Startup School Aspiring Founders track as a continuous course. This track is intended for potential founders who are interested in starting a company in the future. You can register now for the new track.

Historically, Startup School has focused on supporting founders actively working on their companies. Last November we decided to expand our mission by launching a new track for future founders. That program was extremely popular — over 30,000 aspiring founders participated, and thousands more have signed up for the waitlist since!

Given that demand, we’ve decided to make the track a permanent part of Startup School. Starting today, founders will be able to access the Aspiring Founders program (formerly known as Future Founders) at any time. The track consists of 17 videos and essays by YC group partners and 6 self-directed exercises. These can be completed on your schedule.

Of course, there’s no replacement for first-hand experience when starting a startup. Founders who enroll in the Aspiring Founders track and later take the leap to start a company are welcome to switch to the Active Founder track at any time. There they will find more resources, materials and a large community of founders actively working on their companies.

Whatever stage you’re at in your startup journey, we invite you to join Startup School and benefit from the best resource on the internet for learning how to build a startup!

Author

  • Kyle Corbitt

    Kyle Corbitt is a software developer at Y Combinator. He spends most of his time creating software to support our founders as they build their businesses. Before joining YC he ran his own startup.