logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2023
12m 58s

How To Earn Customers For Life

Y Combinator
About this episode

In this first in-person episode, Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell reveal how startups can gain a competitive advantage by doing something deceptively simple. They share compelling stories of companies that built loyal relationships and achieved success by making personal connections with users. In contrast, they discuss the traps early-stage founders make by trying to emulate big tech. If you want to build a business that customers love and that thrives in the long run, this advice on why caring deeply about your customers is key.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Up next
Yesterday
The World's First Commercial Mobile Carbon Capture Device
Paul Gross and his team at Remora are trying to do something that’s never been done before.They're building mobile carbon capture devices for commercial trucks and trains—capturing CO2 from moving vehicles before it enters the atmosphere, then turning those emissions into revenue ... Show More
12m 46s
Oct 7
Every AI Founder Should Be Asking These Questions
Jordan Fisher is the co-founder & CEO of Standard AI and now leads an AI alignment research team at Anthropic. In his talk at AI Startup School on June 17th, 2025, he frames the future of startups through questions rather than answers—asking how founders should navigate a world w ... Show More
40m 35s
Oct 1
Anthropic Head of Pretraining on Scaling Laws, Compute, and the Future of AI
Ever wonder what it actually takes to train a frontier AI model?YC General Partner Ankit Gupta sits down with Nick Joseph, Anthropic's Head of Pre-training, to explore the engineering challenges behind training Claude—from managing thousands of GPUs and debugging cursed bugs to b ... Show More
1h 4m
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2023
Do We Need Humans Anymore in Customer Journeys?
Customers are demanding speed and convenience in their interactions with companies. Technology, especially artificial intelligence, is often better at meeting customer needs than humans. Karen Lellouche Tordjman, leader of BCG’s customer experience work, explains how companies ca ... Show More
22m 18s
Apr 2019
The Right Way to Get Your First 1,000 Customers
Thales Teixeira, associate professor at Harvard Business School, believes many startups fail precisely because they try to emulate successful disruptive businesses. He says by focusing too early on technology and scale, entrepreneurs lose out on the learning that comes from servi ... Show More
22m 35s
Aug 2024
The Key to Boosting Your Business and Creating Clients for Life
Send us a textAre you confusing customer service with customer experience? Right now, you might be wondering, “Huh? What’s the difference?” Customer service is reactive; it’s all about handling problems as they arise. But an incredible customer experience is a thoughtfully design ... Show More
21m 14s
Jan 2021
#359: Customer Support 101: Proven Strategies To Create Life-Long Customers
My secret for creating a sustained, successful business? Customer support excellence! 11 years in business, thousands of customers served, and I think it’s safe to say I’ve learned a thing or two about how to make a customer's experience top-notch and unforgettable. Would you lik ... Show More
25m 30s
Oct 2021
The Power of Passion to Develop Technology with Idit Levine, Founder and CEO, Solo.io
Certain types of technology are easier to understand for some people than for others, and that’s okay. Passion is contagious; iIt attracts employees and customers. Strong, passionate leadership with clear vision increases employee satisfaction that then translates to satisfied cu ... Show More
40m 12s
Oct 2023
SaaStr 692: How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator's Managing Director Michael Seibel
Discover the best ways for a seed-stage startup to pitch to investors and successfully fundraise from Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel. Any founder you talk to likely remembers every investor who said no to them. Those founders hold a special kind of “not hatred,” says Michael Seibe ... Show More
30m 19s
Apr 2024
Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Resilience, tar pit ideas, pivoting, more | Dalton Caldwell (Y Combinator, Managing Director)
Dalton Caldwell is Managing Director and Group Partner at Y Combinator. Prior to YC, he was the co-founder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009) and the co-founder and CEO of App.net. During his time at YC, he’s advised more than 35 YC unicorns, including DoorDash, Ampli ... Show More
1h 20m
Mar 2023
TechStuff Tidbits: How Tech Startups Get Funding
How do tech entrepreneurs go from having an idea to turning it into a successful business? We look at the process of funding a tech startup and what might convince someone to invest in a long shot.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
33m 36s
Feb 2022
Getting On Top Of Your User Stories & Requirements (with Richard Awe, founder @ Requstory)
An interview with Richard Awe. Richard is a Senior Business Analyst with the European Central Bank who got bored writing all those requirements documents & user stories, and decided to build a tool to help him do that at scale. He's now here with Requstory, a platform that aims t ... Show More
37m 7s
Feb 2021
Y Combinator's Michael Seibel & Dalton Caldwell - Lessons from 5000 Entrepreneurs
Miguel Armaza is joined by Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell, Managing Directors and Group Partners at Y Combinator (YC). YC is one of the most successful startup accelerators and venture capital funds, and since March 2005 has helped over 5,000 startup founders build and launch ... Show More
39m 1s