Y Combinator is a program that supports early-stage companies through funding, mentoring, and networking. It accepts startups with a 1.78% acceptance rate and provides $100,000 in funding and connections to business leaders and past participants. The document recommends starting immediately without waiting for perfection, learning through real-world experience, focusing only on critical tasks, continually improving the product based on both successes and failures, and not fearing difficult manual work.

1. Y Combinator – Lessons learned
Andrej Pancik
Co-founder of Prizeo
andrej@pancik.com

2. Prizeo
• Win for charity
• Win for celebrity
• Win for brand
• Win for people
• Founded end of 2011.
• Address the ineffectiveness of charity auctions

3. Y Combinator
Program that supports growth-stage companies
through:
• Recognition acceptance rate 1.78%
• Investment $20,000 + $80,000 CN
• Mentoring partners, business celebrities
• Network 500+ past YC companies

4. Start now
• Doesn’t it work? Pivot.
• All ideas are connected
• Learn on the go
• Example: Microsoft
• Example: Prizeo

5. Don’t be afraid of work
• Manual work is almost always
required
• Example: Masterpiece fair

6. Avoid distractions and Launch fast
• Do only three things
–create stuff
–talk to customers
–exercise

7. Keep pumping out features
• Continually improve
–Success leads to improvement (duh?)
–Failure leads to improvement
• Example: Prizeo

8. Summary
• Start now
• Don’t be afraid to work
• Avoid distractions and launch fast
• Keep pumping out features