Jared Friedman - Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders

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Күн бұрын

YC Partner Jared Friedman covers hard-tech companies and why founders should consider starting one. He also covers a couple of the most common problems hard-tech companies face and how to solve them, with examples from seven YC companies.
You can find the lecture slides and transcript here: www.startupschool.org/videos/78
Find more Startup School and YC content at www.startupschool.org/library.
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Introduction
00:36 - Outline
00:56 - What is a Hard Tech Company?
01:35 - Market vs Technical risk
02:06 - Why start a hard-tech company?
02:42 - Story about Boom
05:38 - Hard-tech and Biotech - Big part of YC
06:04 - Startup School
06:20 - How much of YC's advice applies to hard-tech founders?
07:05 - Two biggest problems specific to hard-tech
07:14 - Heavy MVP
07:58 - Boom - Do things that don't cost money
08:46 - Solute
08:47 - Solugen - Start small
09:35 - AirX - Launch a simplified version
10:22 - Notable Labs - Bootstrap with a service
10:45 - Astranis - Start with a proof of concept
11:33 - Ginkgo Bioworks - Sell it before you make it
12:24 - How do you prove people will want your product if it is not built yet?
12:49 - Pre Sales
13:27 - Letter of Intent (LOI)
14:20 - Advice about LOIs
14:43 - Fundraising for Hard-tech and Biotech companies
15:38 - A better fundraising plan
17:26 - Q&A
17:40 - AI companies
19:36 - Hard to get LOIs
20:53 - How do you prove that your idea is going to work?
22:15 - Sales
23:24 - Find founder and early employees for Hard-tech companies

Пікірлер: 62

@noumantahir9875 4 жыл бұрын

Man, this should rather be an early lecture during school....it cleared Soooo many confusions I had for my startup

@shoaibiqbal9788 4 жыл бұрын

this is a GOD SEND!

@olegc6209 3 жыл бұрын

The best course in YC. Thanks a lot! Really changed mindset

@khouse1554 4 жыл бұрын

Update: Didn’t get into YC but raised $4m at x10 the evaluation I would’ve got if I did go through YC... so lesson learned

@rupamkundu3574 3 жыл бұрын

Brilliant video lecture! This is exactly what I needed.

@ASLUHLUHCE 4 жыл бұрын

Brilliant video, just what I needed. I'll now binge watch the rest of this startup school thingy.

@ninodpillai8436 3 жыл бұрын

Love the way speaker handle the subject

@shoaibux 2 ай бұрын

It's like attending a lecture at a top-tier university without any cost. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

@khouse1554 4 жыл бұрын

Great advice Jared. I’m a biotech company executive with therapeutics and diagnostics and am applying for YC (I’ve had up to $4M in NIH and seed funding to this point, but need network to capital for series A raise) hopefully it works out, thanks for the insights

@JonStenstrom 4 жыл бұрын

Was it hard to raise from NIH?

@asianamerican1980 3 жыл бұрын

@@JonStenstrom It's GRANT from NIH for your proposal on certain subj.

@bill5922 Жыл бұрын

How did it go?

@thehandsomenipple3623 11 ай бұрын

what was the NIH process like?

@camerontousi 3 жыл бұрын

Great Lecture! Re letters of intent (LOI) it’s not necessarily the case that they’re not enforceable as a contract, though typically they are not. The court would look at the intent of the parties, both from the written instrument as well as their actions, so it’s not always the case that the magic words ‘LOI’ would prevent a court from ruling it as binding, when the snubbed party may try to enforce it later. So it is possible and even likely that legal counsel wouldn’t want the business folks executing an LOI without review and counseling.

@michaeldoherty7434 2 жыл бұрын

Really good advice. Most MVP advice is for apps that are pretty simple to develop and to mock-up.

@ebrandonrobinson410 4 жыл бұрын

Another great video from the YC folks!

@SlinexUA 2 жыл бұрын

Insightful!

@Nash0303 4 жыл бұрын

Excellent! Thank you!

@BeyondBorders00 Жыл бұрын

Awesome!

@mikeneverim6136 4 жыл бұрын

whoa. well, this helps. thanks yc

@technologist6102 10 ай бұрын

if I want to found a deep-tech startup, but I don't have the technical skills in the specific sector (for example biology or engineering), how do I do it? Do I have to find partners who have those skills?

@stephenmontgomery9685 Жыл бұрын

A non binding offer to sell a product would make later filed patents on that product invalid. So don’t use them until after patents covering the product have been filed. That is true even if no potential customer signs such a contract.

@labsharesnewton8448 4 жыл бұрын

If any YC biotech startup founder here is looking for a shared laboratory with office space in Massachusetts, you may reach out to us at www.labshares.com/ and see if we can help you.

@paoloviloria1 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for this video, YC and Jared. God bless you guys. 😊

@nyakarundi 2 жыл бұрын

I wish someone would share a list of hardtech investors

@kayitaregisapatrick5481 2 жыл бұрын

Wow

@capt.proton5041 Жыл бұрын

big big like👍👍

@oluo Жыл бұрын

8:00 📖🖍️

@mooktakim 4 жыл бұрын

When hard tech companies raise a lot of money, to do the hard tech r&d, do they give away a lot of the company? That part I don't fully understand. They would need to raise a lot of money early, does the valuation get set really high or are they giving away more of the colony than a usual tech startup?

@charlech 4 жыл бұрын

They should also fund it personally as much as possible to still have control of the company. That's the price of going into hard tech, higher risk higher reward. Just see what happened to the original Tesla founders when they lost control of the company.

@ASLUHLUHCE 4 жыл бұрын

@@charlech Spoiler: they got kicked and now everyone thinks Elon is the founder

@calebcooper2333 Жыл бұрын

@@ASLUHLUHCE eh he is a founding partner. Their idea came to fruition and they both are stupid rich.

@choppaa4204 3 жыл бұрын

Didn't this guy start Pied Piper?

@JPwyckoff 3 ай бұрын

10:48

@nyakarundi 2 жыл бұрын

The challenge is hardtech developed by minorities only command less then 1% of access to investment capital which is unfortunate,

@theghityhour2028 3 жыл бұрын

wow . ;)

@JosephProsnitz1 4 жыл бұрын

I have a hard tech company (connected social fitness) and I just think this is mostly hot air. People pat you on the head and it makes for ok conversation with the smile and nod crowd but no one cares if you are trying to do a fundamental human need differently or you have built something life changing.

@JosephProsnitz1 4 жыл бұрын

Also talk about this honestly. All examples are b2b or large tech. Talk about dilution for these raises. Talk about failure likelyhood and survivor bias

@snippletrap 4 жыл бұрын

Tbh, "connected social fitness" doesn't sound very exciting or technically difficult. It sounds like an aerobics class or softball league.

@JosephProsnitz1 4 жыл бұрын

@@snippletrap tell that to peloton. Products aren't always supposed to be exciting for everyone. They are supposed to solve a problem hopefully an intense one. People struggle with motivation around fitness. Making a frictionless home experience that provides human connection is game changing

@snippletrap 4 жыл бұрын

If you’re right, then you have a big advantage - few will compete with you. I wish you luck, and hope you prove the doubters wrong.

@snippletrap 4 жыл бұрын

If you’re right, then you have a big advantage - few will compete with you. I wish you luck, and hope you prove the doubters wrong.