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Year OneAuthor: Year One
Every billion-dollar YC company survived a brutal first year after Demo Day. Year One captures those twelve months as they happen, tracking one founder's make-or-break decision per episode: the pivot that saved the company, the co-founder fight that almost killed it, the fundraising round that closed at 2am on a Thursday. Two hosts (one former YC founder, one startup reporter) sit down with recent batch founders while the wounds are still fresh, then bring in YC partners to dissect what went right, what went wrong, and what the founder couldn't see from inside the fog. If you're an aspiring founder, an early startup employee, or an investor trying to understand why 90% of startups stall while a handful become Stripe or Airbnb, this is the show that replaces hindsight polish with the version founders tell each other at 1am on Bookface. Language: en-us Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Nadia: The Verdict Arrives
Episode 23
Tuesday, 25 August, 2026
Nadia has just opened the YC decision email she has been waiting on for weeks, and in this episode you hear the exact moment she finds out if her company’s next year is completely rewritten. The stakes are simple and huge: either she’s in and locked into a YC batch, or she has to rebuild the plan she’s been working toward all summer. You have to hear this one because Nadia reads the verdict out loud, processes it in real time, and immediately loops in her cofounder before she even lets herself react. From there, Miles and Grant bring the YC partner back on mic to break down what this outcome structurally changes for her next 90 days, and what the alternate path would have looked like if the answer had been no. Together they unpack what “useful feedback” really means, what founders who don’t get in actually do next, and how persistence shows up beyond the polished success stories, all through the lens of Year One decisions that compound. Published August 25, 2026, this episode is especially relevant if you’re anywhere near hitting submit on your own YC application.
