ycombinator demo day What to Expect and How to Prepare

Ycombinator Demo Day is a high-energy event where startups showcase their products and ideas to investors and industry experts. It's a critical milestone for many startups.

As a startup founder, you can expect a packed schedule with multiple demos, pitches, and networking opportunities. Each demo typically lasts about 3 minutes, allowing you to quickly convey your value proposition.

You'll have a chance to meet with investors, get feedback, and potentially secure funding. Make the most of this opportunity by being prepared and confident.

To prepare, review your pitch and demo materials thoroughly, and practice your delivery to ensure you stay within the time limit.

To make a lasting impression on YC Demo Day, you need to tailor your demo to your audience's needs. Research the investors and strategic partners who will be in attendance to understand their focus, stage of startups they typically invest in, and specific challenges or opportunities they're looking to address.

A well-crafted demo can bring your story to life and give investors a tangible sense of your startup's potential. Focus on the core value proposition and the most compelling elements of your product, and keep your demo concise and contextual.

David Hsu's pitch for Retool is a great example of a tailored demo. He showcased how quickly and cost-effectively their platform could build internal tools by highlighting how Retool built a custom sales forecasting tool for a 75,000-person company in just 20 minutes.

To truly engage your audience, you need to weave a narrative that puts your startup's journey and potential into context. Paint a vivid picture of the challenge your target customers face, and use real-world examples and data points to illustrate the scope and urgency of the problem.

Brian Armstrong's pitch for Coinbase is a beautiful example of effective storytelling. He framed Coinbase as a solution to a global problem: the inability to send money instantly and without fees. He used the powerful analogy that Coinbase was growing faster than PayPal did in its early days, immediately contextualizing the company's potential.

Your demo day pitch should be more than just a recitation of facts and figures. It should inspire investors to see your startup as a compelling opportunity. Highlight the milestones you've achieved and the traction you've gained, and demonstrate progress and validation.

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Shiz Aoki's pitch for BioRender is another standout example of effective storytelling. She told the story of how BioRender was solving a critical problem in scientific communication by highlighting that BioRender was already appearing in top scientific journals and that one journal was even requiring scientists to use the software.

To make the most of demo day, remember that context is key. Understand your audience, tell a compelling story, and demonstrate your unique value proposition. The most successful demos are those that go beyond simply showcasing features, and tell a story that addresses specific pain points and clearly demonstrates the unique value proposition of the product or service.

A compelling pitch is more than just a recitation of facts and figures. It's a narrative that puts your startup's journey and potential into context, focusing on the "why" – the problem you're solving, the market opportunity, and the unique value you offer.

Use real-world examples and data points to illustrate the scope and urgency of the problem, and introduce your solution as the hero of the story. This is what Brian Armstrong did with his pitch for Coinbase, framing it as a solution to a global problem: the inability to send money instantly and without fees.

Highlight the milestones you've achieved and the traction you've gained, such as user growth, revenue, or partnerships. This demonstrates progress and validation, making investors see your startup as a compelling opportunity.

Here are the key elements to include in your pitch:

Crafting a compelling pitch is all about understanding your audience and tailoring your message to resonate with them. Research the investors who will be in attendance and understand their investment theses, portfolio companies, and recent funding trends.

To create a strong business pitch, entrepreneurs should focus on clearly defining the problem and their solution, ensuring it resonates with their audience. This was evident in Tony Xu's pitch for DoorDash at YC Demo Day, where he highlighted the market opportunity by showcasing that DoorDash was targeting suburbs where 70% of the US population lives.

Use specific, impressive metrics to demonstrate traction and validate your business model. DoorDash effectively did this by sharing data on their delivery times, week-over-week growth, and annualized sales for restaurants. This use of hard data is crucial in building credibility with investors and proving that the business is not just a concept but a working model with demonstrable success.

Clearly articulate your competitive advantages and what sets you apart in the market. DoorDash highlighted their unique position as the only company managing both logistics and merchant partnerships. This differentiation is critical in a crowded market, helping to set DoorDash apart from potential competitors.

To create a strong business pitch, consider the following key elements:

By incorporating these elements into your pitch, you'll be well on your way to crafting a compelling pitch that resonates with your audience and showcases your business's potential.

Product Hunt is a platform where invited members share their takes on new, interesting products, similar to Reddit. It's generating interest ahead of Demo Day as companies look for new ways to market their products online.

If you're attending a pitch event, you might feel bombarded by all the pitches, but look for key points like impressive user metrics. Try to capture how every company relieves a consumer pain point and write it down immediately.

Product Hunt allows users to comment, upvote, or downvote listed products, giving you a sense of what's popular and what's not. I've spotted on the site tons of products, whose creators I know personally, which is a good sign to me.

If you want to make a good impression, try to meet entrepreneurs whose companies you're interested in. Put a star by the companies whose entrepreneurs you'd actually like to meet, and enjoy yourself and have fun along the way.

Building relationships and maintaining momentum after demo day is crucial for securing funding. Many successful YC founders demonstrated a keen understanding of this, such as Finbarr Taylor of Shogun, who maintained relationships with investors even after their initial Demo Day.

It's essential to follow up with investors and strategic partners, prioritizing those who expressed interest and have a potential fit with your startup. Crafting personalized follow-up messages that reference specific points from your conversations and reiterate your value proposition can help build trust and momentum.

By being responsive and thorough in your communication, you'll demonstrate your professionalism and commitment to the fundraising process. This can include sending additional materials that investors requested, such as your pitch deck, financial projections, or product roadmap.

Building relationships with investors is crucial after demo day. It's not just about delivering a great pitch and demo, but also about maintaining momentum and trust in the days and weeks that follow.

Start by making a list of investors and strategic partners you want to follow up with, prioritizing those who showed interest and potential fit with your startup.

Craft personalized follow-up messages that reference specific points from your conversations and reiterate your value proposition. This shows you're responsive and committed to the fundraising process.

Don't underestimate the power of persistence and iteration - fundraising is rarely a one-and-done process. You may need multiple meetings and due diligence before securing funding.

The 30 Days 100 Demos Challenge highlighted the importance of follow-up and relationship building. Many successful YC founders demonstrated a keen understanding of this, including Finbarr Taylor of Shogun, who maintained relationships with investors after demo day and showcased their growth from $80,000 to over $100,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

AI tools are playing a vital role in the development and deployment of AI applications. Many startups in the W24 batch are leveraging AI tools to build and refine their products.

Quivr provides an open source RAG framework to deploy chat assistants. This framework is designed to make it easier for developers to create and deploy chatbots.

Trieve provides infrastructure for search teams that combines search language models with fine-tuning tools. This allows search teams to fine-tune their language models for better results.

The W24 batch saw a significant number of companies working on generative AI retrieval, evaluation, and deployment. This indicates a growing need for infrastructure to support the development and deployment of AI applications.

Here are some examples of AI tools from the W24 batch:

Ycombinator Demo Day is a significant event in the startup ecosystem, and one of the key industries that have benefited from this event is fintech.

Fintech startups have received a significant amount of funding and attention from investors, with many of them showcasing innovative solutions to financial problems.

One notable example is Stripe, a payment processing company that was founded by Patrick and John Collison and received a $3.5 million investment from YC in 2010.

Healthtech is an exciting industry vertical that's making waves. It's one of the largest at YC W24, with founders tackling a range of areas, from behavioral health to life science research.

Arini, for example, provides an AI receptionist for dentists to answer calls and schedule appointments. This can be a huge time-saver for dental practices, freeing up staff to focus on more important tasks.

Behavioral health is another key area, with Attunement offering a remote monitoring platform. This can help patients receive the support they need from the comfort of their own homes.

AI is also being used in drug discovery, with Junction Bioscience providing an AI platform that translates physical atom movements into chemical code. This can speed up the discovery process and lead to new treatments.

In the home health sector, Andy AI provides clinical documentation for home health nurses. This can help ensure that patient records are accurate and up-to-date.

Here's a breakdown of some of the healthtech companies mentioned:

These are just a few examples of the many innovative healthtech companies out there. By leveraging AI and other technologies, they're helping to improve healthcare outcomes and make a real difference in people's lives.

FinTech was a major industry vertical for YC W24, with companies focusing on innovative solutions for financial institutions and investment firms.

Taiki, for instance, provides an API to extract forms and data from financial and payroll providers, making it easier to manage tax documents.

Greenboard is another notable company, dubbed the "Rippling for financial compliance and operations", which helps streamline financial compliance and operations.

Shiboleth automates consumer lending compliance for financial institutions, making it a game-changer for those in the industry.

Here's a breakdown of some of the key FinTech companies from YC W24:

YC Demo Day was a blast, and if you missed it, don't worry - 247 companies pitched their startups as part of the spring batch.

This year's batch had a whopping 86 AI startups, and an impressive 187 companies mentioned AI in their pitches.

The majority of these companies are building in key areas like SaaS, Dev tools, Fintech, Infrastructure, Healthcare, and APIs.

Here are some specific areas where you'll find a bulk of these companies:

YC is known for being a tastemaker for downstream investors, and their demo day is a great way to see which companies are worth keeping an eye on.