‘Backstory’ introduces you to YC’s Group Partners, starting with the unbeatable Surbhi Sarna

sold that company for $275M</a>. But she didn’t stop there.Today Surbhi is a Group Partner at YC, mentoring the next generation of healthcare founders. Her story is one of the most intense startup stories I’ve ever heard, and it’s one best told by Surbhi herself.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/R2fAYn8R318?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"How a Health Scare Led to a $275M Biotech Company | Backstory\"></iframe></figure>I’m very proud to have Surbhi kick off our newest video series, Backstory. Each episode of Backstory will focus on a different YC Group Partner; how they got here, and often just as crucially, why they’re here. For this episode, Surbhi opens up about her health scare, how it impacted her every decision thereafter, the many ways people doubted her — and how she turned that doubt into her own personal jet fuel.We’re making this series because we want anyone applying to YC to know the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/people/">Group Partners</a> for who we are — not just the milestones, but also the paths in life that got us to them. Group Partners at Y Combinator are in it with you for the life of your company. We’ll bring absolutely everything we’ve learned from founding our own companies and advising thousands of others, but we’re also here for you as people.Be on the lookout for more episodes soon.","comment_id":"6515c3fd47c9f1000193a1c1","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/09/S09E01_SurbhiSarna.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-09-28T11:20:45.000-07:00","updated_at":"2023-09-29T09:00:34.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-09-29T09:00:34.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Surbhi Sarna is a Group Partner at YC, mentoring a generation of healthcare founders. Her story is one of the most intense startup stories I’ve ever heard, but it’s one best told by Surbhi herself. In this debut episode of our new series ‘Backstory’, she’ll do just that.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","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/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/surbhi-sarna-backstory/","excerpt":"Surbhi Sarna is a Group Partner at YC, mentoring a generation of healthcare founders. Her story is one of the most intense startup stories I’ve ever heard, but it’s one best told by Surbhi herself. In this debut episode of our new series ‘Backstory’, she’ll do just that.","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":"YC's Surbhi Sarna next to the text \"Underrated to Unbeatable\"","feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71b4d","uuid":"8a0f88a3-2b5d-464c-8f92-b65351647ba5","title":"Updates for Startup School 2019 and Office Hours with Kevin Hale","slug":"updates-for-startup-school-2019-and-office-hours-with-kevin-hale","html":"<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/ilikevests/">Kevin Hale</a> is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.\nKevin’s on the podcast today to do some Office Hours and talk about this year’s edition of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.startupschool.org/">Startup School</a>.\nIf you’d like to sign up or learn more, check out <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.startupschool.org/">StartupSchool.org.

00:25 – Stats from Startup School 2018\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=1m45s\%22>1:45 – Updates for Startup School 2019\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=8m15s\%22>8:15 – Sign up at StartupSchool.org\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=8m50s\%22>8:50 – Sean Maina asks – In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=11m30s\%22>11:30 – Design affordances\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=13m45s\%22>13:45 – Sunil Tej asks – How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=17m45s\%22>17:45 – Building an audience before a product\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=20m15s\%22>20:15 – Wufoo’s growth\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=23m30s\%22>23:30 – Coming up with the idea for Wufoo\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=27m30s\%22>27:30 – Companies pivoting during YC\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=29m\%22>29:00 – Building a product in an unsexy space\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=32m30s\%22>32:30 – Sivaraj Ghanesh asks – How do you know if you’ve achieved product market fit? Or if your product just isn’t noticed yet?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=43m30s\%22>43:30 – Sivaraj Ghanesh asks – How do you gauge the size of a market?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=46m\%22>46:00 – Tips for Startup School success\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=50m15s\%22>50:15 – Advice on vetting cofounders\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=53m45s\%22>53:45 – Sign up at StartupSchool.org\n<hr />\n<div id=\"backtracks-player\" data-bt-embed=\"https://player.backtracks.fm/ycombinator/ycombinator/m/133-updates-for-startup-school-2019-and-office-hours-with-kevin-hale\" data-bt-theme=\"orange\" data-bt-show-art-cover=\"true\" data-bt-show-comments=\"true\">\n</div>\n<script>(function(p,l,a,y,e,r,s){if(p[y]) return;if(p[e]) return p[e]();s=l.createElement(a);l.head.appendChild((s.async=p[y]=true,s.src=r,s))}(window,document,\"script\",\"__btL\",\"__btR\",\"https://player.backtracks.fm/embedder.js\"))</script> <script> \n(function(p,l,a,y,e,r,s){if(p[y]) return; \nif(p[e]) return p[e]();s=l.createElement(a); \nl.head.appendChild((s.async=p[y]=true,s.src=r,s)) \n}(window,document,'script','__btL','__btR', \n'https://player.backtracks.fm/embedder.js')) \n</script> <script> \n!function(n,i,s,c){n[s]||(n[s]=function(i){n[s].q.push(i)}),n[s].q||(n[s].q=[]), \nc=i.createElement(\"script\"), \nc.async=1, \nc.src=\"https://c.bktrks.com/utils-1.0.0.all.min.js\", \ni.head.appendChild(c)}(window,document,\"BTUtils\"); \nBTUtils(function(use) { \n var options = { \n autoplayLinks: false \n }; \n use('backtracks-autolink', options).init(); \n}); \n</script>\n<hr />\n<h1>Subscribe</h1>\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/y-combinator/id1236907421/">iTunes
Breaker
Google Play</a> \n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://open.spotify.com/show/1tgqafxZAB0Bjd8nkwVtE4?si=Zha2qqbMTcqZxl5lieNi2w\%22>Spotify
Stitcher
SoundCloud
RSS

/n by Y Combinator

Author

Garry Tan