YC Partner Harjeet Taggar Gives Insights

Harj started working with YC in W10 (my batch), and even 3 batches later, he still responds instantly to our emails and hops on skype whenever we need advice. Truly a stand-up guy and someone we really trust.

<i>I’ve noticed that technical founders especially have realized that local small business will pay you money for products</i><p>This is true. They also pay a fair chunk of change with a very short sales cycle (even no-touch in some cases -- though Hubspot and Groupon certainly prove you can do well with higher touch sales), and they're not unwilling to be billed monthly for software/services which demonstrably add value to the business.

&#62; With all this experience, I asked about when he launches his next startup, what will he do differently? “I would definitely work on a problem or product that I personally was interested in and meant something to me. When I was working on Auctomatic, we bought all this stuff from China and tried to trade it on Ebay [Auctomatic was an auction and marketplace management system] to try and understand how power sellers work and the problems they faced. But it wasn’t the same as making something that I really resonated with."<p>So, so true. Trying to take this lesson to heart this time around, and build something I want to use everyday.

One of the most in-depth write-ups I've seen on YC anywhere on the web.

"At our stage companies fail because ... the founders don’t get along"<p>It seems that this is a serious but less talked about problem to watch out for. Anyone have insight into how to avoid one of the less visible mistakes beyond the obvious know your co-founders well and set expectations upfront?

On the last picture on the page, I think there should be a bubble coming out of pg's mouth, "One of you has betrayed me. Judas, did you add unnecessary features before launch?"<p>&#60;/joke, don't mean to offend anyone&#62;