we were founders</a>. We know how it feels to be in the hot seat when you’re raising money, and we’ve seen just how many ways an investor meeting can go wrong. </p><p>For this latest episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/introducing-our-newest-video-series-office-hours//">
Office Hours</strong></a>, the Group Partners are sharing stories from their worst investor meetings. We’ll outline some of the weird plays we’ve seen investors try to pull — but we’ll also confess times that we, as founders, bungled meetings we could’ve nailed. We’ll discuss what differentiates a truly great investor, and shed a bit of light on something we rarely talk about publicly: the YC Investor Database. </p><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/ljVan7CGBiE?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Startup Experts Share Their Investor Horror Stories\"></iframe></figure><p>Why share these stories? Because if you’re prepared for the worst, you’ll be better off when it’s your turn. We’re at the beginning of a shift in the way business is done, and the kinds of games VCs played in these stories just aren’t going to work anymore. </p><p>At the end of the day, just remember: the point of your startup is not to raise money, impress investors, or gain status. The point is to create something that actually solves a real problem. We’re here to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html/">make something people want</a>.</p><p>This is the second episode of <strong>Office Hours</strong>.<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/introducing-our-newest-video-series-office-hours//"> Find the first episode here</a>.</p>","comment_id":"64ddd64dbf4b990001b7f938","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/08/maxresdefault.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-08-17T01:11:57.000-07:00","updated_at":"2023-08-17T09:16:54.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-08-17T09:14:16.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Before any of us were Group Partners at YC, we were founders. We know how it feels to be in the hot seat when you’re raising money, and we’ve seen just how many ways an investor meeting can go wrong. \n\nFor the latest episode of Office Hours, we tell some of those stories.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"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/"}],"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/"}],"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/ycs-group-partners-share-their-worst-investor-meetings/","excerpt":"Before any of us were Group Partners at YC, we were founders. We know how it feels to be in the hot seat when you’re raising money, and we’ve seen just how many ways an investor meeting can go wrong. \n\nFor the latest episode of Office Hours, we tell some of those stories.","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":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bcd","uuid":"fc4ee9d2-93ac-4052-9d66-b4ce182dd591","title":"ICYMI: Watch 40+ founders pitch at YC's Work at a Startup Expo","slug":"watch-yc-founders-pitch-from-work-at-a-startup-expo","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>If you’ve ever wondered what <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday/">YC’s Demo Day</a> is like, YC’s annual <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20/">Work at a Startup Expo</a> is a peek behind the curtain. Founders share what’s unique about their company, business and team, and attendees get to meet founders 1-1 to learn more. Granted, these pitches are geared a bit more towards hiring and engineering, but the stakes are still high and founders share the same energy and drive as during Demo Day. (And hiring a great early team is often as important as raising an early round.)</p>\n<p>We were lucky to be joined by 40+ founders for this year’s virtual event. There was a wider range of startups, from up-and-coming seed-stage startups like <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13208/">WhatNot and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13290/">Candid Health</a>, to post-Series A companies <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13097/">Pulley and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13227/">Welcome./nWe’re sharing the recording in case people are interested in crafting their pitch, learning about new technology or even joining a YC startup themselves. (Joining a startup is often the best way to learn what it’s like to start your own.) Watch the pitches above, and learn more about the companies and see open positions on YC’s Work at a Startup:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20/">https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20
/n by Ryan Choi