1/ A lot of people hypothesize about ways to "build a better YC" (accelerators, incubators, etc.).
2/ I think there are all kinds of opportunities to serve early stage entrepreneurs in new ways. But the best way to find an opportunity like this is to look at what's underserved by the existing systems. Hint: access to capital is not your differentiator.
3/ When @paulg started @ycombinator access to capital for that stage and company profile *was* an important part of his differentiator. Today it is not. What is underserved today?
4/ Early stage talent assembly. Once a company is founded and has raised some early money the team is always in a scramble to hire quality people. @Harjeet and @jakeklamka are building services to do this in a systematized way for engineering talent (usually at some scale).
5/ Once a company is obviously working it may become a talent magnet, but just after financing and before hypergrowth there is a gap. Specifically, the systematized ways often don't work yet. Talk to @ericbahn about what he's doing. Also, @eriktorenberg has experience here.
6/ There are all kinds of generalist roles like "Chief of Staff" that are insanely valuable for giving founders leverage, but the process of finding great people for this role is very haphazard. Also, talent doesn't always know how to find the interesting/early companies.
7/ The knowledge about the early companies that are breaking out is often locked up inside the heads/email-inboxes/portfolios of angel investors. This kind of network should be systematize-able to some extent.
8/ Vertical-specific communities. Assemble the *specific* content, advisors, people, partners, and talent for something very deep and valuable to entrepreneurs. People like @LauraDeming @niffer725 and @iam_preethi are doing a great job of assembling these communities.
9/ Better startup storytelling. YC is good at helping with this for demo day, but lots of startups really have a deep need to tell their story better. Better storytelling is useful for attracting both talent and capital. A "narrative coaching" service would help a lot.
10/ Mental health and CEO coaching. I've seen an uptick in asks for help in managing the stress and mental health requirements of early startup work. @Greenstein_Joe is working to serve these needs for founders and systematize with community/content.
11/ There are so many ways new companies need help. What are the biggest needs you see today?
