Y Combinator CEO: The Key To Writing For Startups & Entrepreneurs | Garry Tan | How I Write Podcast

Learn how the CEO of Y Combinator Garry Tan wrote his way to success in the startup world - and how you can, too.
Writing is (and has always been) Garry’s #1 tool to excavate his identity and discover his purpose. In his own words, “Writing is the most potent form of representing your own experience.”
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:40 Garry's early days on the internet
00:01:40 Garry's underground newspaper
00:04:40 X / Twitter
00:05:00 Early childhood and education
00:08:30 Finding identity
00:12:00 Internet obsession
00:15:00 KZread scripts
00:17:00 Shilling, marketing, and zero cringe
00:20:00 Online forums like Reddit and Hacker News
00:22:00 Garry's design background
00:24:45 Garry's web development background
00:26:30 Human attention and Reddit
00:27:25 Advice for Y Combinator applications
00:29:20 School
00:30:30 Documentation
00:32:10 Influencers and Y Combinator
00:33:20 Effective Communication
00:34:45 Peter Thiel
00:36:30 Vulnerability and Novelty
00:38:00 Stanford University
00:41:20 Novelty
00:42:45 Building a brand
00:44:55 KZread
00:48:45 Writing at Y Combinator
00:49:45 Y Combinator writers like Paul Graham and Sam Altman
00:50:55 Learn from successful founders
00:54:45 Human-computer interactions
00:56:30 Writing online
SPEAKER LINKS:
Website: www.ycombinator.com/people/ga...
Twitter: / garrytan
Instagram: / garrytan
Blog: blog.garrytan.com/
KZread: / @garrytan
Linkedin: / garrytan
WRITE OF PASSAGE:
Want to learn more about the next class Write of Passage?
Click here: take.writeofpassage.school/wr...
PODCAST LINKS:
Website: writeofpassage.school/how-i-w...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSbo...
ABOUT THE HOST:
I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

Пікірлер: 9

  • @DavidPerellChannel
    @DavidPerellChannel6 ай бұрын

    Garry Tan isn't just the CEO of Y Combinator. He's also a passionate writer, has a KZread channel with 251,000 subscribers, and once turned a $300k investment into $2 billion. Here are 10 of his best ideas: 1. How to write a good YC application: Teach the reader something new as fast as you can. 2. The world’s most successful people tend to be extremely curious, and if you can tell them something interesting and true they didn’t know, you have their attention. 3. Short words have long legs. The worst thing you can do is alienate people using jargon. All good communication incites action, which means you have to use words people are familiar with. 4. What good design is and isn’t: “Good design is not picking colors and making it pretty. Good design is removing steps, understanding motivations, making it clearer, more navigable, faster, easier... it is how it works, not how it looks.” 5. Better believers than skeptics: “Being a believer is more profitable than being a skeptic because if you're a skeptic and right, you make no new thing happen. If you're a believer and you're right, something awesome happens. Nice incentive to be positive sum.” 6. The internet is the greatest friend writers have ever had. No editors, no centralized media houses, no gatekeepers. You, your unique idea, and your readers. That’s it. You don’t need anyone’s permission or approval. Just the courage to publish. 7. Schools taught us to conform because that’s where safety is. But the internet rewards people who have the courage to be their true selves, no matter how weird they may be. 8. If you refuse to solve smaller problems, the chance of you solving big problems goes to zero. 9. To sell a piano, don’t tell them to buy one. Show them people enjoying a music parlor in their homes and make them want that. That’s what Edward Bernays did in 1928 when he was inventing modern PR. Sell the emotion, not the thing. 10. You can tell a startup idea is good when the first thing you ask is “How did this not exist already?”

  • @phillip_jacobs
    @phillip_jacobs5 ай бұрын

    I have this feeling that Garry Tan is just getting started and will do (more) amazing things that will greatly benefit the world. Super excited!

  • @teeI0ck
    @teeI0ck6 ай бұрын

    I'm just following the latest fashion trend: the no-socks look.

  • @jahikhalfani

    @jahikhalfani

    6 ай бұрын

    I recently visited China for the first time and the majority of people had no-show socks which was a pleasant surprise to me, in the states it seems almost taboo at times lol. I've always loved that style though

  • @joeslack
    @joeslack6 ай бұрын

    amazing talk. thank you so much for this david & garry.

  • @PaulLumen
    @PaulLumen6 ай бұрын

    have watched 5+ conversations now, love the show. one critique i have for this episode is around 22:05 when Garry is finishing his story about the comparison of 10% of the world's energy vs 10% of the body's energy. he seemed like he had more to say but David jumps into another unrelated question. based on the editing, not sure if that's how the actual conversation played out but it was very jarring listening to that break. could have been edited better to cut off at the laugh instead of including the filler words that indicated Garry had more to say.

  • @DavidPerellChannel

    @DavidPerellChannel

    6 ай бұрын

    Good point, will look into it. Thanks for sharing

  • @gabriel_michelson3425
    @gabriel_michelson34256 ай бұрын

    "Vulnerability is almost a necessity"

  • @dallin_stagg
    @dallin_stagg5 ай бұрын

    I love this podcast, but those might be the shortest pants I’ve ever seen. We either need some longer pants or some socks, that’s a lot of leg bro haha

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