Y Combinator: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (How to Start a Startup 2014: 5)", hN recommends it as a serious, influential talk on market size and monopoly, though some commenters criticize its philosophy as endorsing anti-competitive goals.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2025lectureHN recommends it as a serious, influential talk on market size and monopoly, though some commenters criticize its philosophy as endorsing anti-competitive goals.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2014–2016talkHN recommends it as an excellent speech from Watsi's founder, especially on keeping a nonprofit aligned with the people it serves.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2022talkHN recommends it as a strong founder talk that shows how formidable and practical Young is, with advice delivered through a beaver metaphor.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2022–2024lectureHN commenters point to it as practical YC advice on iterating on a product and talking to users.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2025interviewOffered as a more down-to-earth Musk interview with better questions than most, and cited for his stated concerns about concentrated AI power.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2024–2025lectureRecommended as a compact, practical summary of enterprise SaaS sales for technical founders.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2020talkRecommended as the single Startup School video worth watching, a short and dense talk on what makes a startup work; one commenter dismisses it as platitudes.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2025talkCommenters recommend the whole talk as practical, tactical advice for early customer acquisition and outbound sales.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2014–2016talkHN recalls it as a well-liked talk from a respected founder, cited on startup ambition and on how few servers StackOverflow needed.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2013–2020interviewHN points to it as a look at what YC office hours are like and as an early glimpse of Flexport and CodeCombat pitching.
- 3 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2020lectureRecommended to technical founders who need a practical introduction to B2B and enterprise sales.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2018–2020interviewHN mostly cites it for specific Graham remarks, such as advice to find a paying customer and a recent interview about Viaweb.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2024interviewHN points founders to YC's content like this for practical startup advice on product-market fit.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2025talkHN mostly cites it as a source for Karpathy's framing of programming in English and his generate-then-verify workflow, with a few critics finding it hype.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2013–2020talkHN commenters link it as the original talk so people can judge it directly instead of through press retellings.
- 2 HN recommenders 1 months 2023commentaryLinked in threads about YC culture and big tech burnout, as YC partners themselves acknowledging the trend.
- cited 8× 0 months 2014–2025interviewHN mines it for WhatsApp facts, such as pricing used to slow growth, a 7-8 person backend team and late hiring of customer service.
Questions
Which Y Combinator video does Hacker News recommend most?
Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (How to Start a Startup 2014: 5): recommended in 5 different months by 5 HN users between 2017 and 2025.
Is this every Y Combinator video?
No. Only videos that at least three different HN users linked, in at least three different months, with at least a sentence of their own commentary. That filter is what makes the list useful.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.