Paul Graham: Should you move to Silicon Valley?

Paul Graham: Should you move to Silicon Valley?

Author: Y Combinator May 13, 2026 Duration: 21:57

Paul Graham is a co-founder of Y Combinator. He's funded and mentored companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, DoorDash, and thousands of others through YC, and is one of the most influential voices in the startup world.


In this talk at our YC | Stockholm event last month, Paul walks through why ambitious founders should move to Silicon Valley at least briefly, what makes it uniquely valuable — from serendipitous meetings and faster investor decisions to a deeply embedded pay-it-forward culture — and why returning home afterward may be one of the most powerful things a founder can do to help their local ecosystem, using Stockholm as a case study for what it would take to become the Silicon Valley of Europe.


Behind every successful startup is a story, and the Y Combinator Startup Podcast is where those stories are told in full. This isn't about polished theory; it's the raw, practical conversation happening between founders who have been in the trenches and the Y Combinator partners who advise them. You'll hear directly from people who have navigated the chaotic journey from a flicker of an idea to building a company that scales, discussing not just their victories but, more importantly, the hard lessons and tactical decisions that aren't found in any textbook. Each episode feels like a candid office-hours session, stripping away the hype to focus on the real work of making something people actually want. For anyone curious about the mechanics of building a technology company-the early uncertainties, the pivotal moments, and the relentless focus on execution-this podcast offers an unfiltered look at the craft. Tune in for genuine insights from the frontlines, where the focus remains squarely on the art and science of building things that matter.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Y Combinator Startup Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Tokenmaxxing: How Top Builders Use AI To Do The Work Of 400 Engineers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:29
We're entering a new era of software where a single person, working with AI agents, can build products that previously required entire teams.In this episode of Lightcone, the hosts break down the rise of AI coding agents…
Beyond Bigger Models: Recursion As The Next Scaling Law In AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:52
A 7-million parameter model outperforming models a thousand times its size on tasks like ARC Prize. That's what recursive reasoning unlocks.In this episode of Decoded, YC's Ankit Gupta and Francois Chaubard break down tw…
How to Build the Future: Demis Hassabis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:56
Demis Hassabis has had one of the most extraordinary careers in tech. He started as a chess prodigy and video game designer at 17 before getting a PhD in neuroscience and going on to found DeepMind. His lab cracked Go, s…
The $9B Startup That Wants to Create a Billion New Developers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:11
Replit is the leading no-code app builder for consumers and enterprise, letting anyone with an idea build real, deployed software using natural language. The company just raised a $400 million Series D at a $9 billion va…
The Playbook For Building An AI Native Company [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:27
AI isn't just making teams more productive. It's changing how companies should be built.In this episode of Startup School, YC Partner Diana Hu explains what it means to build an AI-native company, where AI isn't just a t…
Stripe Head of Design Katie Dill Breaks Down Their New Website [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:36
Even the most successful websites eventually need a redesign. Take Stripe for example. After six years with the same homepage, they recently unveiled a brand new site that reflects how the fintech giant has evolved over…
The GPT Moment for Robotics Is Here [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:26
Physical Intelligence is building a foundation model that can control any robot to do any task — what the team describes as the GPT-1 moment for robotics.The company's cross-embodiment approach trains across many differe…
This Startup Wants To Catch Cancer Before It Spreads [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:49
1 in 11 babies born in America this year will be screened by a genetic test that didn't exist a decade ago.Biotech startup BillionToOne turned a simple but radical idea—detecting rare fragments of fetal DNA in a mother's…
This Startup Secretly Detects Fraud For Fortune 500s [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:23
In this episode of Founder Firesides, YC Managing Partner Jared Friedman talks to Karine Mellata, co-founder of Variance (W23), who is coming out of stealth and announcing their $21 million Series A. Variance builds purp…
How François Chollet Is Building A New Path To AGI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:23
François Chollet has spent years asking a different question than most of the AI world. Instead of scaling what already works, he’s trying to understand what intelligence actually is—and how to build it from first princi…