The social radar: Y Combinator's secret weapon

Y Combinator's "batch investing" means funding multiple startups simultaneously in cohorts, rather than investing in companies one-by-one as traditional investors do.

Sometimes ignorance is sort of bliss and you just discover new things. We decided to fund a whole bunch at once, and then the plan was to go to asynchronous investing like normal investors, but we realized that there was something magical about this batch thing.

Brian, Joe, and Nate are Airbnb's founders who created novelty cereal boxes (Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's) to raise money when struggling financially.

He hated their idea, and Paul tried to get Brian and Joe and Nate to change it. But I remember specifically Joe brought out the cereal boxes, the Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's, and I just thought, oh my God, they're going to work hard to do whatever they can to make this company succeed.

You sort of need that desperation. You have to burn the boat. We found that founders who were still getting a paycheck and health insurance, once the going got tough, they did not quit their job.

"Batch investing" refers to Y Combinator's approach of funding multiple startups simultaneously in cohorts, versus traditional "asynchronous investing" where investors fund companies one at a time.

Sometimes ignorance is sort of bliss and you just discover new things. We decided to fund a whole bunch at once, and then the plan was to go to asynchronous investing like normal investors, but we realized that there was something magical about this batch thing.