The Social Radars

Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0400

Paul Graham is back in the latest episode of The Social Radars. This time we focus on what was going on behind the scenes at Y Combinator back in the early years. If you really want to understand what YC is like and what made it that way, this is the episode for you.

Peter Reinhardt, CEO & co-founder, Charm Industrial; CEO & co-founder, Segment

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0400

In the latest episode of The Social Radars, we talk to Peter Reinhardt, who has the distinction of having started two iconic companies that are completely different from one another: Segment, which does web analytics, and Charm Industrial, which catches CO2 before it can return to the atmosphere and buries it in the ground.

Tom Blomfield, Partner, Y Combinator; Co-Founder, Monzo

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:00:00 -0400

In today's episode of The Social Radars, we talk to Tom Blomfield, founder and original CEO of the transformative British fintech startup Monzo, and now a YC partner. The striking thing about this interview is simply how much has happened to him. Tom has spent his entire working life in startups and it has been a remarkably wild ride even by startup standards.

Spenser Skates, Founder & CEO, Amplitude

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode we talk with Spenser Skates of Amplitude. Amplitude is a spectacular example of a something people talk a lot about in Silicon Valley: the pivot. Their initial idea failed because they depended on technology they didn't have enough control over, but the new one was so successful that they took it all the way to an IPO.

Christina Cacioppo, Founder & CEO, Vanta

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode of The Social Radars we talk to Christina Cacioppo of Vanta. Christina is a case study in agency. She actually did all the things founders know they ought to do but don't have the discipline to. She taught herself to code. She solved an unsexy but real problem. She focused on talking to customers instead of investors. She even put put off raising a Series A (despite inbound interest) till Vanta had $10M in ARR.

David Kirtley, Founder & CEO of Helion Energy

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0400

In today's episode we talk to the founder of a startup that will have momentous consequences for the whole world if it works: David Kirtley, Founder & CEO of Helion Energy, who is building an actual fusion power plant. Fusion has always been something that was 20 years in the future. Not anymore. The new Helion model, which they're constructing right now, is going to achieve net electricity production.

Jared Friedman, Partner, Y Combinator; Co-founder, Scribd

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0400

In the latest episode we talk to one of the great YC insiders, Jared Friedman, who was in the third batch back in summer 2006, as cofounder of Scribd, and who has worked since 2015 as a YC partner. Jared really embodies the spirit of YC. He's incisive, but also a mensch, as you'll notice when you listen to the episode.

Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5!

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5 of The Social Radars

Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, we talk to Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic. Building a supersonic airliner sounds hard, and it is: startups often have dramatic ups and downs, but Boom’s are among the most dramatic we’ve heard. His story was a gripping series of last-minute saves.

Founder Mode: Sajith Wickramasekara, Founder & CEO, Benchling

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0400

In today's Social Radars, we talk to Sajith Wickramasekara of Benchling. For Sajith, founder mode means a pervasive feeling of responsibility for everything at the company. Nothing can be bad at Benchling.

Founder Mode: Jen Herbach, Founder & CEO, Adventris Pharmaceuticals

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 08:45:00 -0400

In the latest Social Radars, we talk to Jen Herbach of Adventris, which is working on a cancer vaccine. She was in the audience of Brian Chesky's famous founder mode talk, and immediately went home and started changing things.

Founder Mode: Andy Lapsa, Founder & CEO, Stoke Space

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode we talk to Andy Lapsa of Stoke Space. This startup is literally doing rocket science, because they're building fully reusable rockets. Anyone who meets Andy is struck by the depth of his expertise, and in this company that's what founder mode means: a deep understanding of all the engineering problems.

Founder Mode: Emmett Shear, Founder, Softmax & Twitch

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0400

In this Social Radars episode we talk to Emmett Shear, who told us about an interesting founder mode technique he developed when he was running Twitch. He wanted people there to be able to answer the question "What would Emmett do?" and he found the best way to ensure this was via the weekly all-hands, which he'd spend hours preparing for.

Founder Mode: Christina Cacioppo, Founder & CEO, Vanta

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 08:45:00 -0400

In today’s episode, Christina Cacioppo gives us her take on founder mode, which is becoming more important now that Vanta has 1000 employees around the world. She told us about a new variant of the idea: founder mode in fundraising. Christina delayed fundraising till after Vanta hit $100m ARR, which caused some investors to dismiss her, but she ended up net ahead.

Founder Mode: Kashish Gupta, Founder and co-CEO of Hightouch

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 08:45:00 -0400

In this episode we talked to Kashish Gupta of Hightouch, who made an important point about founder mode: one of the most important things founders can do that employees can't is to take big risks.

Founder Mode: Paul Gross, Founder & CEO of Remora Carbon

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 08:45:00 -0400

In this episode we talk to Paul Gross of Remora Carbon, a startup that does carbon capture right out of the exhausts of trucks and trains. Paul has a unique take on founder mode: once a quarter he decides what the three top risks to the company are, and for that quarter, those three things, whatever they are, are the main things he works on.

Founder Mode: Chris Best, Founder & CEO, Substack

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:45:00 -0400

In this episode, taped in front of a live audience, Chris Best tells us the story of Substack. He reminisces about his adventures with Elon Musk, and explains how he persisted in bringing to market a component of Substack that he knew was critical to their vision, even though any non-founder CEO would have killed it after years without any growth.

Founder Mode: Jake Heller, Founder & CEO, Casetext

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0400

In this episode, Jake Heller talks about how he and his cofounder discovered the perfect product in a weekend of intense experimentation after GPT4 was released, and then changed the whole direction of the company. This was a classic case of founder mode, because Casetext was already 9 years old at that point and it was hard to convince everyone to change course.

Founder Mode: Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Paul Graham talks about how the concept of founder mode arose from Brian Chesky's famous talk in 2024, what it means, and the latest things he's observed in the startup world.

Founder Mode: Garry Tan, President & CEO, Y Combinator

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0400

We spoke with YC president & CEO Garry Tan about the Founder Mode event he organized for YC alumni. He talks about why founder mode matters and how the concept is evolving the the age of AI.

Founder Mode: Brian Chesky, Founder & CEO, Airbnb

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0400

At YC's first Founder Mode event, we talk with Brian Chesky, whose legendary talk last year was the origin of the concept. Unless you were one of the lucky founders in that audience, this interview is probably the closest you can get to experiencing it.

Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)

Fri, 30 May 2025 09:00:00 -0400

In part 4 of our series with legendary investor Ron Conway, we get into the story of Napster. Napster was founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker in 1999 and was the first app to let people access music on demand, at scale. Though it ultimately failed amidst a series of lawsuits, Napster blazed the trail for Spotify and Apple Music, leaving in its wake a series of stories as interesting as the founders themselves.

Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel (Part 3)

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 11:00:00 -0400

In Part 3 of our conversation with Ron Conway, he takes us behind the scenes at early Google. Ron was involved with Google almost from the start; he and Ram Shriram arranged their Series A round. So if you want to know what a really, really big success looked like at the beginning, this is the episode for you.

Drew Houston, Founder & CEO, Dropbox

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0400

In today's episode we talk with Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox. We've known Drew for a long time (YC funded Dropbox in 2007) and he's extremely candid about the many challenges he faced, and overcame, in the journey from building something that solved his own problem to serving as an essential part of the foundation of today's tech infrastructure. If you want to understand what it takes to be the CEO of a public company, this episode is for you.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0400

Today we catch up with Sam Altman, Founder and CEO of OpenAI. Sam was in Y Combinator's first batch in 2005 and later returned as YC's president from 2014 to 2019, so he's one of the people in Silicon Valley that we know best. In this episode we cover his whole journey from Stanford sophomore to one of the most influential figures in tech.

Eric Migicovsky, Founder, Pebble & Beeper

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 11:30:00 -0400

In today's episode Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble and Beeper, shares the journey of building one of the first smartwatches. The Pebble watch made history as Kickstarter’s most-funded project at the time, raising $10.3 million. What happened next showed how difficult it was to build a hardware startup in the 2010s, even if you did almost everything right.

Alexandr Wang, Founder & CEO of Scale

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:30:00 -0400

In today's episode we go down into the engine room of the AI Revolution with Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang. Since 2016 Scale has been supplying training data to most of the top AI models. In fact there's probably no one with a better overall view of the field than Alexandr.

Harj Taggar, Partner, Y Combinator

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 11:30:00 -0400

Today we catch up with Harj Taggar, who knows as much about startups as anyone of his generation. YC funded two of his startups, Auctomatic in 2007 and Triplebyte in 2015. In between them he was the first partner we hired besides the founders, and now he's a YC partner again. Among other things he happened to have a front row seat for the Damore controversy in 2017, and is one of the few people who know just how extreme things got in those days.

Gusto Co-Founders: Josh Reeves, Edward Kim & Tomer London

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 10:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, we chat with all three of the Gusto founders: Josh Reeves, Eddie Kim, and Tomer London. Gusto is a payroll and employee benefits company that YC funded in 2012. The striking thing about Josh, Eddie, and Tomer is their level of commitment: to their customers, their employees, and one another. It's rare to see a startup with 3 founders still being run by all 3 founders 12 years in, but these guys are special.

Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel (Part 2)

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 10:30:00 -0400

In Part 2 of our conversation with legendary investor Ron Conway, we chat about how he made one of the most prescient decisions in the history of startup investing when he decided in the early 1990s to focus exclusively on investing in internet startups. It's like being a fly on the wall at the beginning of the internet boom as he takes us through shadowing Sequoia founder Don Valentine and "living" in Netscape's office as it took off.

Surbhi Sarna, Founder of nVision Medical

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode, we speak with Surbhi Sarna, founder of nVision Medical, a pioneering company in women's health diagnostics. Surbhi shares her journey from experiencing a personal health scare as a teenager to founding nVision, which developed a microcatheter for the detection of ovarian cancer. nVision was acquired by Boston Scientific for $275 million in 2018. Now a Partner at Y Combinator, Surbhi discusses her transition from founder to mentor, offering insights into the challenges of healthcare innovation. Her book, Without a Doubt, was released in 2022.

Tyler Shultz, Theranos Whistleblower (Part 2)

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 11:30:00 -0400

We’re back with Tyler Shultz for the second part of his story: the whistleblowing. He’d resigned after noticing potential fraud within Theranos. After he spoke on background to the Wall Street Journal, Theranos retaliated with a series of legal threats, intimidation, and surveillance -- all designed to silence him. Tyler tells us about the nightmare leading up to when the news story broke, and the world found out about Theranos. (Learn more about Tyler at tyler-shultz.com.)

Tyler Shultz, Theranos Whistleblower (Part 1)

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 07:30:00 -0400

Tyler Shultz went to work at Theranos right out of Stanford and soon noticed that things weren't as they seemed. Lots of other employees knew there was something fishy going on, but Tyler was one of a tiny handful able to resist the mesmerizing and intimidating Elizabeth Holmes and speak out about the fraud that was putting patients at risk. This podcast is a lesson for anyone who wants learn what it takes to speak out against misdeeds by powerful people. (Learn more about Tyler at tyler-shultz.com.)

Replit Co-Founders, Amjad Masad & Haya Odeh

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Today we talk to Amjad Masad and Haya Odeh of Replit. They're not just cofounders but married too, and Replit is woven through their lives. Listen in as they describe their mission to bring coding to everyone.

Ryan Petersen, Founder & CEO of Flexport

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode we chat with Ryan Petersen, Founder and CEO of Flexport, a global logistics company that Y Combinator funded in 2014. Ryan takes us on a journey from his early days importing motorcycles, through the supply chain disasters of the pandemic, to a company with thousands of employees and billions in revenue. If you want to hear about established industries being transformed by startups, this is the episode for you.

Dan Siroker, Co-Founder of Limitless & Optimizely

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:00:00 -0400

Today we catch up with Dan Siroker, co-founder of Limitless, which trains a personal AI to remember things for you. Y Combinator funded his previous company, Optimizely, in 2010, and it was acquired a decade later. But before he started Optimizely he ran the new media group within the Obama campaign, which achieved stunning results through A/B testing. In fact Optimizely was the software he wished he'd had then.

Eddy Lu, Co-founder & CEO of GOAT

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0400

In today's episode we catch up with Eddy Lu, co-founder and CEO of GOAT, the fashion marketplace. GOAT represents one of the most epic pivots in Y Combinator history: they started out organizing group dinners. Founders are often told they should be "scrappy". Eddy and his cofounder Daishin are scrappiness personified, and that's what enabled them to bounce from idea to idea and end up on top.

David Rusenko, Founder of Weebly

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:30:00 -0400

David Rusenko was a college student when he applied, at the last minute, to Y Combinator in 2006. His startup, Weebly, made a web site builder. At one point they came within days of running out of money, but they survived to be acquired by Square in 2018 for $365 million. Now David runs a fund, Leap Forward Ventures, focused on climate change. He has spent his whole career in startups, and has seen close to everything that can happen.

Yin Wu, Co-Founder of Pulley

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:45:00 -0400

In today's episode, we talk with Yin Wu, founder and CEO of Pulley, a cap table management system that YC funded in 2020. Yin has been founding startups since 2011 and she talks about her experiences testing startup ideas, what she's learned about persistence and determination, and why she loves having startup founders as users.

Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel

Wed, 22 May 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Ron Conway has been close to the center of things for longer than anyone else in Silicon Valley, from the point when he started his career at National Semiconductor in the early 70s to the AI conference he organized last month. He's the embodiment and the transmitter of Silicon Valley culture. He knows all the stories, usually because he was personally involved in them. In this episode we talk about what Silicon Valley was like when it was all about silicon, and how his career at Nat Semi led to working at and then running tech companies, and finally to angel investing.

Kyle Vogt, Founder of Cruise Automation

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Today we catch up with Kyle Vogt, whose self-driving car company, Cruise, was funded by Y Combinator in 2014 and acquired by GM in 2016. Before that he was a co-founder of Twitch and its predecessor, Justin.tv. Learn how his love of building hard things started at a young age, and why he’s nowhere near done building yet.

Yuri Sagalov, Co-Founder of AeroFS

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 12:30:00 -0400

Today we are talking to Yuri Sagalov. His company AeroFS, which did enterprise file syncing and sharing, was funded by Y Combinator in summer 2010. Yuri went on to work at Y Combinator before starting his own fund, Wayfinder Ventures.

Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 3!

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:30:00 -0400

Announcing Season 3 of The Social Radars!

Adora Cheung, Co-founder of Homejoy & Instalab

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:15:00 -0400

Today we chat with Adora Cheung, Co-founder of Homejoy (YC summer 2010) and now InstaLab, an at-home blood testing service that helps you optimize your health by measuring over 60 biomarkers. Our conversation is wide-ranging: from how to clean homes efficiently to how she helped defeat Trump in 2020 by getting hundreds of thousands of votes in swing states.

Trevor Blackwell, Co-founder Y Combinator; Founder, Anybots

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Today we have another insider episode: we're talking to Trevor Blackwell, who was my cofounder at Y Combinator. But that's not all he's done. He was also the founder of Anybots, where he created the first dynamically balancing biped robot, and also worked on Viaweb with Paul Graham and Robert Morris.

Parker Conrad, Founder of Zenefits & Rippling

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Today we're talking with Parker Conrad, who founded two startups that went on to become unicorns: Zenefits in 2013, and Rippling in 2016. Parker’s story is one the more dramatic ones you’ll hear on this podcast. In fact this episode is two stories: his misadventures at Zenefits, and the ambitious ideas he has implemented at Rippling.

Emmett Shear, Co-Founder of Twitch

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 12:30:00 -0400

Today we talk with Emmett Shear, who was in the very first YC batch in 2005 with a startup called Kiko. But you know him better as the co-founder of Twitch, which YC funded in 2007. Learn how Twitch grew from one guy walking around with a camera on his head to one of the biggest communities on the internet. It's a crazy story even by startup standards. Enjoy!

Patrick & John Collison, Co-Founders of Stripe

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode we catch up with Patrick and John Collison, two brothers from Ireland who founded Stripe in 2009. Since then we've watched Stripe grow from a two-man show to one of the great powers of the tech world

Bill Clerico, Co-Founder & CEO of WePay

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Today we're talking with Bill Clerico, co-founder of WePay which Y Combinator funded in 2009. WePay was one of the first of what are now called "FinTech" startups. In 2017, J.P. Morgan acquired WePay for $400M. Listen in to the adventures of an early fintech pioneer.

Dimitri Dadiomov, Co-Founder & CEO of Modern Treasury

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Today we're talking with Dimitri Dadiomov of Modern Treasury, a startup Y Combinator funded in 2018. Dimitri works in a very important world whose existence is hidden from most people: the movement of money into and out of companies. Listen in as we follow the money!

Brian Armstrong, Co-Founder & CEO of Coinbase

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Today we're talking with Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, a startup YC funded in 2012 and is now a publicly traded company. Coinbase is truly in the middle of the exciting new world of cryptocurrency. It's particularly interesting to explore this world with Brian, who was unusually candid, even for Silicon Valley.

Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:00:00 -0400

In today's episode, we're talking once again with Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. YC funded Airbnb in 2009, when the company was at death's door. During YC we watched the founders work frantically to get growth started and turn Airbnb into the rocketship that it is today. Today we pick up where we left off in Brian's incredible story of startup survival.

Jessica & Carolynn wrap-up Season 1

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 13:00:00 -0400

Announcing Season 2 of The Social Radars!

Edith Elliott, Co-Founder & CEO of Noora Health

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 13:30:00 -0400

In this episode we talk to Edith Elliot, cofounder of the non-profit startup Noora Health. Like the best for-profit startups, Noora is relentlessly effective, but what they do with relentless effectiveness is save lives. Learn how what started as a graduate school project turned into an organization that has changed the world.

Paul Graham, Co-Founder of Viaweb and Y Combinator

Thu, 18 May 2023 15:00:00 -0400

Today, we're doing something I do every day: talking to Paul Graham, who as well as being one of the founders of Viaweb and Y Combinator is also my husband. Paul has been involved with startups since 1995; before he invented the accelerator, he invented the web app. So there's a lot of information in this episode, but it was also, as you'll see, one of the funniest.

Brian Chesky, Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb

Tue, 02 May 2023 12:45:00 -0400

In today's episode, we're talking with Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO of Airbnb. YC funded Airbnb in 2009, when the company was at death's door. During YC we watched the founders work frantically to get growth started and turn Airbnb into the rocketship that it is today. Learn what it takes to come up with an idea so weird that it seems like it will never work, and then make it work.

Steve Huffman, Co-Founder & CEO of Reddit

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:45:00 -0400

In this episode we walk down memory lane with Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, who was in Y Combinator's very first batch of startups in 2005. In those days Steve was a programmer fresh out of UVA. He had no idea that the site he was creating would become the forum of forums, still active and growing 18 years later. Hear about Reddit's eventful early years and how they affected what it eventually became.

Tracy Young, Co-Founder & CEO of PlanGrid

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 13:00:00 -0400

Today we're talking with the fabulous Tracy Young, one of the most successful female startup founders so far. Y Combinator funded her company, PlanGrid in the winter of 2012. PlanGrid revolutionized the construction industry by getting blueprints off paper and onto tablets. You’ll hear about how they found their idea, how they lost a cofounder to cancer in the first few weeks of YC, how they sold the company for almost a billion dollars in 2018, and how she’s now gone on to start a new startup called TigerEye, with her husband and PlanGrid cofounder, Ralph Gootee.

Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 04:00:00 -0400

In this episode we’re talking to Garry Tan, the president & CEO of Y Combinator. We go full circle with Garry as we chat about his path from turning down a job with Peter Thiel, to founding a YC-backed company in 2008, then starting his own multi-billion dollar fund in 2011, and finally returning to run Y Combinator in 2023. Garry knows about programming, design, running startups, and investing in them, so there are lessons and stories for everyone in this episode.

Tony Xu, Founder & CEO of Doordash

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode we catch up with Tony Xu, founder and CEO of the food delivery service, DoorDash. Tony and his cofounders were students at Stanford when they first launched DoorDash as a class project. Y Combinator funded them as part of its summer batch in 2013. In this episode, Tony takes us through version 1 of their idea to what is now a public company (DASH) operating in 27 countries across the globe.

David Lieb, Creator of Google Photos

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode we’re talking to David Lieb, creator of Google Photos. Back in 2009, YC funded his startup, Bump Technologies, which had a cool technology where you transferred your contact info from one person to another by literally bumping phones. He’ll share Bump’s ups and downs as they went from business school side hustle to hot new iOS app. He’ll talk about getting acquired by Google and ultimately transforming Bump into the wildly popular Google Photos. David recently came back to Y Combinator as a visiting group partner.

Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail

Sat, 11 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

In the premiere episode, Jessica & Carolynn sit down with Paul Buchheit. Paul created Gmail in 2004 while he was employee #23 at Google. They do a deep dive into the history of Gmail, including the fact that it might never have launched if it weren’t for a leak to the New York Times. After Google, PB went on to found a startup called FriendFeed, which was a social media aggregator, and where the first “like” button was created. It was acquired by Facebook in 2009. After that, he joined Y Combinator as a partner and also became one of the most successful angel investors in Silicon Valley.