1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Geoff Ralston, President of Y Combinator (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Apple SDK was one of the most successful developer platforms. 

Geoff Ralston: This expansion of platforms is something on which you can begin your company. We have a company called Shogun that built their business originally on Shopify and then expanded. There’s enormous availability and possibility by these platforms that get to scale. One other aspect of this that I’m super excited about is, I’ve started a sister accelerator of Y Combinator called Imagine K12 focused on educational technology.

What’s really cool about EdTech is companies have created platforms on which other EdTech companies can build. Companies like Clever or ClassDojo. The possibilities that those platforms represent are enormous and a boon to entrepreneurs everywhere. 

Sramana Mitra: The big differentiator now in that trend is the level of abstraction. There’s so much more abstraction. You can do this so much more easily and effectively because there’s so much work that has gone into making it easier for developers. 

Geoff Ralston: That’s right. The infrastructure that we used to build on was pipes and then higher and higher level of abstraction. Another piece of infrastructure that entrepreneurs can build on now is open source. Open source has provided this enormous capability freely available to use with your product. That, as well as those other platforms, is one of the forces driving entrepreneurship. That is why we get an increasing number of applications. We get over 15,000 applications for each batch now. A lot of that is because entrepreneurs see the possibilities in all these platforms.

Sramana Mitra: Solo entrepreneurship is a subject that’s coming up a lot in our universe. Paul Graham never liked solo entrepreneurs. What is your perspective now 16 years down the line?

Geoff Ralston: I actually think that is a misstatement of what Paul Graham would say. We have always funded solo entrepreneurs. We have funded solo entrepreneurs with incredible success. Our opinion on solo entrepreneurs is simple. Your probability of success as a solo entrepreneur is lower because entrepreneurship is so hard. It’s psychologically hard.

I have personal experience with this. I tried to be a solo entrepreneur. I couldn’t do it. I needed a team. Most people do. It’s not just because there’s so much to do. There’s another aspect which is that because of the inevitable ups and downs, you need your partner for support. It takes a very special kind of entrepreneur to be able to do it alone as a solo founder. We just have a higher bar. For most of us, it’s a step too far.

Sramana Mitra: It is an emotionally difficult journey. My favorite solo entrepreneur case study is ServiceNow. I met him in 1999. He told me this amazing story of just doing it very organically and selling to customers.

Geoff Ralston: It’s hard, and it’s lonely. 

Sramana Mitra: It’s a very difficult path. Last week, we had Ben Narasin here. He said, “Don’t come to me if you’re looking for work-life balance.” I pushed back on that. If you can’t maintain mental health, it is very difficult to run the marathon. You flame out.

Geoff Ralston: I talked a bit about our mantra in YC. We’ve expanded that to “Write code, talk to users, and exercise. Eat and stay sane.” Over time, we need to beat people over the head with the fact that if they burn out, they’re miserable and that reduces their probability of success. It’s important that you stay sane and find some balance in your life. 

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Geoff Ralston, President of Y Combinator
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