The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator

I've been a long time Hacker News (YC) reader, and when I saw this book for sale I immediately purchased it, although, to be honest, I didn't have high hopes for the content. I figured that since I'm already extremely familiar with the YC stories, this book would be more of the same.Luckily, I was completely wrong.This book is a MUST READ for any programmers, entrepreneurs, and aspiring business people hoping to start their own company, work hard, and build something great.This book is essentially an accounting of the experiences of a particular YC group. The book talks about:- How YC works.- Who the founders are (what are their backgrounds, how did they meet their co-founders, what are their personalities like?).- How these companies got into the program.- What advice is offered to the companies when they first get started.- How the companies cycle through ideas, trying to find a perfect business niche to pursue.- How conflicts cause issues (some founders don't heed YC warnings, some founders have family commitments that end up causing lots of personal issues, etc.).- How these companies mature as they're working on their products.- How the YC program works, in great detail (what advice is offered, how to raise money, how these companies should deal with investors, etc.).- The final progress that each company makes before the important YC 'Demo Day'.- How some companies raise money from investors, while others are unable to do so.- And lots more.What really makes this book great is that you (as a reader) are essentially getting a fly-on-the-wall, intimate view of YC, from start to finish. The author wrote this book while sitting in with YC companies, going to all of the YC dinners, meetings, office hours, etc., and essentially picking the most important parts of these meetings and condensing them down into a great story that anyone can benefit from.The book reads like a movie (almost)--you'll be introduced to the founders and their personalities, then you'll learn about YC and how it works, then you'll be taken on an adventure through the ups and downs of each company as they make their way through the program--all of them striving to do something great.I found this book extremely motivational. While reading through the book, I could see myself struggling with the same problems as these YC companies: working tirelessly, trying to beat the odds, attempting to stay optimistic even with the realization that the odds are greatly against you.If you plan on building a successful company, and aspiring to greatness, this is an extremely intimate book that serves to encourage and inspire you--definitely worth your time.

As someone who has followed ycombinator for many years now I couldn't go past a book like this that chronicled a batch going through the program.I thought it was quite a good read. In contrast to another reviewer who said it was a bit long and monotonous I think it was actually far to short. The book mainly focuses on a small batch of companies in the batch, maybe 5 and then does bits and pieces on probably another 10 to 15. It misses so many of the other really great companies and founders coming out of this particular batch though.I guess it is really a question of audience, depending if your writing for the startup founder audience that laps this stuff up or for a wider audience that may not already know the ins and outs of startups, accelerators and seed/ venture capital. I would definitely recommend reading though for anyone that even has a passing interest in startups.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the entrepreneurs who participated in the Summer 2011 Y Combinator session that Randall covers in his book.Here's the deal. Silicon Valley is a really interesting as a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship. Y Combinator pioneered the "seed fund / accelerator" model and has scaled it to impressive levels. As an entrepreneur, it was a tremendous boost for me and my cofounders to participate in the YC program as we started our business. Randall got to see everything that went down and writes about it in a fair and honest way (which means I am left cringing numerous times when I encounter the sections about myself and my company). It also means I got to learn some really interesting things myself about the other companies in my "batch".The book is roughly chronological, but touches on various themes like female founders, generating ideas, acquiring customers, fundraising and risk in each chapter. As a professor and journalist, Stross makes the effort to explain the jargon and clarify the concepts behind startups. His prose is clear, sturdy and never overly dramatic. The Launch Pad shows how tech companies are built at the earliest stages, and more broadly shows how Y Combinator is influencing Silicon Valley and the broader tech community around the world.

I wanted to like it, but it felt as though I had read most of it before. I guess it was probably the Bloomberg Businessweek article that previewed/had a chapter of the book or ran a similar story very recently. If you've read other startup books like 'Founders at Work', or 'Do More Faster' (TechStar's- YC's competitors book), you've already heard these/similar stories before. Stories of the birth, growth and sometimes death of successful and well-known startups and of YC and YC companies are also chockful and free on Quora.If you haven't read the other books or are not familiar with the software startup world, this might be a good book, else its a so-so.

The book starts off feeling almost like a research project (with a plethora of footnote attributions to various blog posts) but the reader soon gets lost in the story.While the book, at its core, is about budding tech startups, it has a unique voice by focusing on YC rather than on individual companies. Although numerous companies' stories are told, we get a different perspective than with other books on the market._The Lauch Pad_ is a fascinating read and will fill you with conflicting emotions: you won't want to put it down, yet you'll want nothing more than to put it down so you can get back to coding and talking to customers.

This book is pretty cool. fully details what YC is like, and stories about select YC companies.The majority of YC stories have come out on blog posts through hacker news that mostly seem to be building links for YC companies.The author had access to interviews that nobody else had access to, and he tells stories that help you understand the economics and attitude around accelerators.

Excellent recap of the highs and lows of what startup life is all about. Also enjoyed the perspective from Y Combinator and Paul Graham's insights on confidence, pivoting, MVP, and team formation that extend beyond the startup world. Must read!

very good position, must be checked by everybody who is interested in how it is made in California.Smooth delivery

Good read.

It's a motivational book, but any peculiar insight given. The story is abou the YC and it's members, for this reason get motivational and anecdotal.

This is a very good book, an insightful narrative of the one of the most successful business accelerators in the Silicon Valley, Y-Combinator. I have come across the stories of the some of the companies they hosted, indeed I use dropbox and read about Airbnb, but this presents a perspective I least expected, a statistically balanced model of investment to mitigate the risks of start-ups, but, at the same time, to take the upside of the creative energy. I liked the style of presentation, a running narrative with interesting asides on founders' backgrounds, business models and ideas that may or may not have been accepted. Being in a similar stage of life - I am working to set up my second company at the current time - I could connect with many of the challenges the founders faced, though I am in a different sector with different challenges (in Education, where Minimum Viable Product, as in technology businesses, may create several ethical and commercial problems). I am also fascinated to note how Y-Combinator may back a good founding team even when they don't like the idea, another thing only possible in technology businesses, I suppose. Overall, a great book, a must have for entrepreneurs, mentors and educators, and a great addition to my collection alongside Eric Ries' The Lean Startup, Steven Gary Blank's The Start-up Owners Manual and Jessica Livingstone's Founders At Work.