Ryan Bednar

***3 days until our final close of OC Fund I!*** LPs often ask us how we actually select Y Combinator companies. We have a super power: OC Portal We manage everything in our pipeline, GP notes, due diligence, selection, portfolio tracking, and LP communication OC Portal. No Portal, No OC. Screenshots below. For many of our LPs, access to Portal becomes their super power as well - because they can share it with their entire team. There is simply no better tool out there to invest into Y Combinator, than access to OC's software. With Portal organizing us, we get to ask all the right questions: 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. We try to emulate PG’s amazing ability to see the most amazing future for a company. If we’re wrong, it’s fine - loss of 1x. But if we’re right - 500x can occur. 𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲. The best founders create markets. We want to learn from them what's they've figured out so far. 𝐖𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬. They will discover a market where none exists. And we're okay betting on a founder knowing his or her best ideas are still to come. 𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠. We're using of the actual product and we watch just how fast they iterate. It really is the best predictor. 𝐖𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐘-𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 So fast growth in tiny numbers blows away medium fast and large numbers. We don't ever look at absolute numbers like revenue at point in time. 𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. So formidable founders who are incredibly ambitious (Phil from Starcloud and Nico/Emily from Corgi) can beat out companies with zero revenue. 𝐀𝐧𝐝, 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲, 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐘𝐂 𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐧𝐢/𝐋𝐏𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠. Most of our portfolio use each other’s products. And most of our portfolio founders ended up investing in the fund as an LP. So the loop continues. ~~~ All of that leads to 15 companies who we've already done the due diligence on. Already used their product (when possible). Already met their customers. Already become their customer (when possible). 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐏𝐬. We tell them, ALL these companies are amazing. You should invest in as many of them as possible directly. We're about to pick four, we'll let you know which once we do. But the full 15 are amazing. 𝐖𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 7 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧. We say yes almost immediately and they yes almost immediately. If you want more detail than that...gotta join as an LP. Accredited investors only. And only 3 days left!