HackerTube.dev

Lecture 1 - How to Start a Startup (Sam Altman, Dustin Moskovitz)

YC Root Access · 5.6M views · 2014-09-23 · 43:53

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

The opening lecture of the How to Start a Startup course at Stanford, with Sam Altman covering ideas and products and Dustin Moskovitz discussing why to start a startup.

On Hacker News

HN commenters recommend the series as timeless startup advice from strong speakers, and cite specific points from Altman and Moskovitz.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2014–2024

Topics

Search by tags

What people said

dgelks · 2023-01 · Strong recommendation

[VIDEO] - How to Start a Startup 2014 by YC & Stanford Amazing set of speakers and pretty timeless advice for starting a startup

Read the original HN comment ↗
karolsputo · 2021-04 · Strong recommendation

Dustin Moskovitz presented that point in the invaluable How to start a startup series - [VIDEO] A good resource when deciding on your future ambitions

Read the original HN comment ↗
robertelder · 2016-08 · Recommendation

This lecture series specifically talks about the different problems faced at various stages of scaling, and it includes a lot of reputable people who have actually done it: [LINK] The YC series is of course good too: [VIDEO] I'm not actually qualified to answer your question, but it sounds like you haven't discovered a bottleneck in your business yet, and until you do, you probably shouldn't hire any employees.

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by YC Root Access, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Matches the configured criteria
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources