Grow the Puzzle Around You

Trevor Blackwell's... no, this essay is by Jessica Livingston, a Y Combinator cofounder, who describes her own role in founding the accelerator in 2005. She says she was the only non-technical founder and that her contributions included organizing logistics, legal paperwork and the founder dinners, along with judging applicants' earnestness and the relationships between cofounders. Y Combinator has since funded 1867 startups worth over $100 billion, and she says the core program remains similar to its 2005 form.