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How Universities Should Prepare Founders

paulgraham.com · 2,920 words · saved by 4 readers

August 2026 How should universities prepare students to start startups? Y Combinator is in the perfect position to answer this question, because we get them next. We're like grad school. And because YC has had 20 years to refine its model of what a promising founder looks like, you probably won't find a better target. What do the YC partners look for? It's surprisingly simple. They want people who are good at building things and have a habit of doing it. The hard part of startups is product: knowing what to build, and being able to build it. And that kind of knowledge comes from studying computer science or mechanical engineering or molecular biology, not management or finance. [1] So the way to prepare undergraduates to become successful founders is not to give them some new curriculum focused on "entrepreneurship". It's to do what universities already do best — to teach them computer science and mechanical engineering and molecular biology. [2] Indeed, preparing students

August 2026 How should universities prepare students to start startups? Y Combinator is in the perfect position to answer this question, because we get them next. We're like grad school. And because YC has had 20 years to refine its model of what a promising founder looks like, you probably won't find a better target. What do the YC partners look for? It's surprisingly simple. They want people who are good at building things and have a habit of doing it. The hard part of startups is product: knowing what to build, and being able to build it. And that kind of knowledge comes from studying…

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