Yc Advisor Agent Skill

YC Advisor

Overview

This skill provides access to Y Combinator's comprehensive library of 443 startup resources - essays, podcast transcripts, and video transcripts from YC partners, successful founders, and industry experts.

How to Use This Skill (Tiered Retrieval)

Key Principle: Use quick-index for discovery, but ALWAYS load full source content before answering.

Step 1: Understand Context (for broad questions)

For broad questions, clarify the user's context:

• Stage: Pre-idea | Idea | Building MVP | Launched | Scaling
• Type: B2B | Consumer | Hardware | AI/ML | Marketplace
• Role: Technical founder | Non-technical | Solo | With co-founder(s)

Step 2: Discovery

• Load references/quick-index.md to scan available resources (~500 lines, grouped by topic)
• Identify 3-5 most relevant resources based on the question (line counts help estimate size)
• Check references/learning-paths.md if user is on a founder journey
• Check references/frameworks/ for decision questions - use glob references/frameworks/*.md to list files, then read specific ones
• For deeper search, use grep on references/summaries.md (too large to load fully)

Step 3: Deep Dive

• Find files using the code - use glob pattern references/{CODE}-*.md
• Example: For code DZ, use glob references/DZ-*.md to find the file
• WARNING: NEVER read index.yaml - it exceeds token limits (64K tokens)
• Load the FULL content of top 2-3 resources
• Read completely - do not skim
• Extract key insights, quotes, and actionable advice

Step 4: Synthesize Answer

• Combine insights from multiple sources
• Quote directly from source material when valuable
• Always cite author and title for each point
• Acknowledge tradeoffs and contradictions between sources
• Never answer from summaries alone - always load full source content

Topic Categories

The library covers these main areas (use for initial filtering):

• Getting Started: Should you start? Startup ideas, order of operations, student founders
• Co-founders: Finding, relationships, equity splitting, technical vs non-technical
• Product: MVP, product-market fit, design, building for users
• Fundraising: Seed, Series A, investor pitching, SAFEs, term sheets
• Growth & Metrics: Growth strategies, KPIs, conversion, retention
• Customers & Sales: Talking to users, first customers, pricing, enterprise sales
• Hiring & Team: First hires, engineering teams, equity, management
• Culture & Leadership: Building culture, CEO evolution, board management
• Common Mistakes: Startup killers, financial health, when to quit
• Pivoting & Launching: Pivot strategies, launch timing, press
• Scaling: Later stage advice, unicorn characteristics
• Mindset: Resourcefulness, handling rejection, goal setting
• AI Startups: AI opportunity, moats, vertical agents, vibe coding
• Founder Interviews: Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Reddit, Twitch, DoorDash
• Specialized: Hardware, biotech, dev tools, crypto, location
• Joining Startups: Choosing a startup, stages, equity
• YC Application: Application tips, process, YC effect
• Legal: Startup mechanics, terms, agreements

Usage Guidelines

For Complex Decisions

Questions like "Should I start my own startup or co-found with someone?":

• Load quick-index.md to identify relevant resources
• Read 3-5 full source files covering different perspectives
• Synthesize across sources - look for consensus and contradictions
• Present balanced view acknowledging tradeoffs
• Cite specific authors and titles
• Ask clarifying questions about user's specific situation

For Factual Questions

Questions like "What are the most common mistakes that kill startups?":

• Use quick-index.md to find the most authoritative source
• Load and read the full source file
• Present comprehensively - don't over-summarize
• Cite the source

For Learning Journeys

When users want to learn systematically:

• Check references/learning-paths.md for curated sequences
• Guide them through resources in order
• Summarize key takeaways at each step

Resources

references/quick-index.md (Primary Discovery)

Lightweight index (~500 lines) grouped by topic. Each entry shows:

• Code, title, author, type, line count, founder stage
• Use this first - small enough to load fully
• Use glob pattern references/{CODE}-*.md to find files by code

references/summaries.md (Deep Search)

Detailed summaries with content previews (~4300 lines). Too large to load fully.

• Use grep to search for specific keywords
• Provides more context than quick-index when needed

references/index.yaml (Maintenance Only - DO NOT READ)

Structured metadata for all resources. Too large for runtime use (64K tokens).

Used only by maintenance scripts. For filename lookups, use quick-index.md instead.

references/learning-paths.md

Curated resource sequences for common founder journeys:

• First-time founder path
• AI startup path
• Fundraising path
• And more...

references/frameworks/ (Use glob to list, NOT Read)

Decision frameworks for common questions. Use glob references/frameworks/*.md to list files.

Available frameworks:

• should-i-start-a-startup.md
• solo-vs-cofounder.md
• bootstrap-vs-raise.md
• when-to-pivot.md
• when-to-quit.md
• technical-cofounder-needed.md

references/*.md

The 443 full-content source files. Each follows this structure:

# [Title]

**Author:** [Author Name]
**Type:** [Essay|Podcast|Video]
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/[CODE]-[slug]

---

[Full content - essays, transcripts]

File naming: [CODE]-[descriptive-name].md (e.g., 8z-how-to-get-startup-ideas.md)