YC SUS: Eric Migicovsky hosts founder office hours
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Eric Migicovsky, partner at Y Combinator and Startup School course facilitator, introduces live office hours with Startup School companies. YC typically provides 10-15 minutes every week or two to discuss founder problems and apply YC wisdom.
Jovial rescues software developers from pointless sales calls by vetting potential projects and clients. Provides leads to salespeople; acts as outsourced business development for software development consultants who code but want to be efficient with time. Starts conversations with qualified customers and projects.
Service is a software add-on. Currently in pilot stage with customers, testing theories, learning, and improving. Solo founder doing everything: coding, building site, sales, customer help.
Problem: Managing and balancing customer expectations, order fulfillment, and sales without skipping a beat.
Advice:
- Get as many paying customers as possible first, then focus on fulfillment.
- Avoid building too much process or product before paying customers.
- Assume customers lead you to what other customers want.
- Be transparent with first customers on pilot success metrics.
- Align expectations with delivery ability.
- Work through pilots quickly to convert to paid monthly recurring service.
- Include success criteria in pilot contract for easy transition to full contract.
Customers pay taper monthly fee. Pilots use company metrics, but some customer expectations weren't reality.
Goal: Close 2 customers in next 2 weeks.
Cogme is a tool for cognitive psychology connecting patients with therapists using distortion of thought records. Patients record emotions and thoughts; therapists understand patterns during sessions.
App digitizes paper-based distortion of thought records used at treatment start. Free version grew organically to 160,000 signups, 7,000 new signups monthly, 30,000 MAU. Therapist dashboard tracks client progress; 200 monthly subscriptions started 2-3 weeks ago, now 45 subscribers. Shifting to annual subscriptions. Charge therapists $13/month.
Problem: Convert large free user base to paying therapists.
Advice:
- Ensure analytics (Mixpanel/Amplitude) track usage (e.g., notes frequency).
- Segment users: 20-30% have therapists (collected 30,000 therapist emails from patients).
- Personal outreach doesn't scale but is startup advantage: phone for $13/month sales.
- Target therapists with existing patients on app: contact via email/phone, highlight patient usage.
- Improve pitch via real-time feedback from calls; refine emails based on call data.
- Email campaign: 500 opens out of ? (low conversion).
Goal: Sell 10 annual subscriptions in next 2 weeks (sold 0 last 2 weeks); has hundreds of phone numbers.
Hotspot matches hotels with vetted travel influencers. Hotels offer complimentary stays, media discounts, or paid collaborations.
Launched summer last year; MVP with free hotels for feedback. Now ~200 hotels, 20-25 active. 99% revenue from 1% paid collaborations (most are barter deals).
Problem: Chase leads in airlines, tourism boards, travel products/accessories, or focus on hotels pre-PMF?
Metrics: Revenue growth 5-10% month-over-month (small base). Cold outreach to small owner-operated boutique hotels (mid-level, no big chains). 14-day free trial.
Advice:
- Segment deeply: not for all hotels; test hypotheses on 2-week experiments (e.g., Latin American beach hotels <1hr from airports with US one-stop flights; owner-operated; first marketing spend; spend on Facebook).
- Examples: Indonesia (Bali), South Africa.
- Manually run marketplace: poke influencers to match new hotels.
- Boost outreach: 100 calls/week (every hotel has phone); WhatsApp/video for feedback.
- Test hypothesis: high conversion in segment? Spreadsheet 100 properties, phone all; know after 20 calls.
- If successful, scale to 200 calls.
Hypothesis: Southeast Asian (Indonesia/Bali), South Africa smaller properties without big budgets; their first spend (spend on Facebook already).
Eric wraps up with a hotel pitch, asks for a tweet in two weeks with call numbers and conversions.
Next is Diana from Dreamlist.
Dreamlist lets users add not just items from the web but larger pursuits like classes, bigger purchases for special occasions. Friends and family contribute small amounts toward bigger dreams instead of trinkets. Like a wedding registry for useful things.
Started as wishlist and registry beachhead. Evolving into collaborative app: multiple people manage lists (parents for child, teams for company shopping lists). Foundations use for direct giving campaigns, e.g., families who lost house in fire (like GoFundMe but not crowdfunding).
Example: Spark Foundation funds Christmas for single moms in Bay Area, nominated by community (70 families last year, before 50, before 30).
Stage: Launched. Business model: Affiliate revenue (no ads, better for kids; created as parent). Aims to replace advertising with user-aligned model for online communities.
Eric's reaction: Overwhelming info; hard to grasp if for personal use or foundations. Advice: Keep pitch focused, especially for first-time hearers.
Website: dreamlist.com (meaningful wishlist and registry for funded dreams). Initial impression: For individuals (birthday, Christmas, wedding, baby shower).
Revenue: Affiliate from retailer when someone buys item from list (small cut, no influence on purchases).
Eric asks problem they're solving and advice for consumer startups avoiding ads.
Eric: Screw investors ridiculing affiliate; build fantastic company. Loves vision/mission. Example: Wirecutter makes 5% on recommendations, aligns goals with users.
How much revenue? Track backwards: Success = user builds list, others sponsor, click to buy.
Who are best users for revenue? Families/grandparents power users (invite friends/family).
Eric clarifies: Focus on revenue-producing users, not just usage. Of $10k revenue, what % from foundations? Track via affiliate links to specific lists/campaigns.
Website lacks foundation mentions; foundations more interesting.
Diana: Affiliate tracking issues (ad blockers; non-Amazon networks mis-track across domains). Amazon accurate. As manufacturer, margins to retailers? Limited personal experience but seen in other companies.
Eric: Affiliate viable if close data loop (which lists drive revenue, engineer more of those).
Outreach: Email on every signup (e.g., yesterday YMCA joined for campaigns). Reach out to interesting users/foundations for feedback/features. SEO key strategy.
Tracking challenge: Privacy-focused, no data to retailers.
Eric: Must track internally to segment/understand.
Website lacks foundation-specific landing page. Has one now (SEO?). Too much text; suggest images/flow: 3-step process for foundations running gift drives (fall/Christmas for kids). Text OK for SEO but make visual for lazy users.
Goal: Break into baby registry category via SEO (big category).
Eric: Specific number? Last two weeks: zero new baby registries. Babies not seasonal.
Website buries key: "Dreamlist is the first free, privacy-free, ad-free online wishlist" in footer. Experiment putting above fold.
Goal: 10 new baby registries in next two weeks. Tweet update.
Verlox helps set and hit goals (lose weight, get jobs, make money).
Framework for goals/habits. Talks to each user weekly to set goals, track progress, accountability (like personal trainer).
Eric: Pitch focused on goal types; highlight direct involvement (text/message/call).
Stage: 15 users, $20 MRR. Sticky to calls; less to website.
Product: Calls + website (come to site to set/track goals).
Last 6 months: Manual calls (30 min avg, Sundays). Hit 15 users, $20 MRR; can't scale.
Eric probes: Tried other days? Hiring help? Economics: 4x30min calls/month = 2hrs; at $10/hr, no profit.
Tried scaling (didn't work). New models:
- Coach model: Connect users to experts (e.g., job seeker to recruiter); take cut.
- Family/friends model: Leverage pre-existing networks; weekly check-ins, track on site.
Launch friends model in ~1 week. Transition: 4 weeks manual, then pair with friends/family.
Eric warning: Manual calls and friends software are different businesses; risk splitting focus (do one all-in). Decide: Keep $20/mo calls or pivot to free/$5 + enlist crew.
Plan: Existing 15 pair with buddy (both sign up/pay?). Talked to first 10; cool product, works well. Launching now.
Goal: Launch new product by March 1st; 15 new users (total 30: 15 old + 15 new). Easier acquisition (no calls, lower price?).
High barrier: Users must bring friend, both pay.
Eric advice: Ensure users visualize value (hit goal with friends' help). Competitors: Facebook/messenger groups.
Start manual: Talk to friends/family with problems; drive to house, sit on couch, onboard in-person (don't assume self-start). Apply manual call learnings to kickstart app. Progress to phone/YouTube/website onboarding.
Goal: 30 users, launch app. Tweet update.
Taste of YC partner office hours.
Kept advice general for audience applicability.
Two-week goals: Standard in YC; check progress next meeting (even failures teach).
Hope useful; may repeat next week (many companies in Startup School).
Keep Y Combinator in your library
Save the videos and channels worth coming back to, and find them again in one place.
