Y-Combinator is the world's most prestigious startup incubator. One of the most important parts of Y-Combinator is Founders Dinner, which happens every two weeks. At Founders Dinner, Y-Combinator founders can talk to each other about what they're going through.
Founders Dinner gives you a place to talk about work with non-coworkers. Imagine you're starting an AI B2B SAAS to faciliate insurance payments in the medical billing industry. Most people don't consider such things interesting. But at Founders Dinner, you have peers who do find that sort of thing interesting.
More importantly, you have accoutability. When Founders Dinner is coming up, you know that your peers are going to ask you what you got done in the last two weeks, and you'll be embarassed if you don't have anything to share. Founders Dinner makes you work hard, but not via carrots or sticks. It just creates a social environment where working hard on ambitious projects is the norm. Conforming to social normals doesn't take any effort. Deviating from social norms takes effort. Founder's Dinner not something you drag yourself to. It's something you look forward to because you get to hang out with awesome people doing awesome things. I love hanging out with awesome people doing awesome things! Founders Dinner is a hack to get you do the thing you always wanted to do (if that thing is run a tech startup).
A while ago, I wanted to make YouTube videos. I noticed that I kept talking about making YouTube videos, but never actually making and publishing them, so I created my own Y-Combinator. I called two of my friends and explained my plan to them.
Rowan and Josh did not know each other at the time. They met each other at the first meeting of Accountability Club. Every two weeks, usually on a Tuesday or Thursday evening after work, Rowan and Josh would come over to my apartment. Each Accountability Club meeting followed the same agenda.
In the first month of Accountability Club, we all accomplished more progress towards our objectives than in the previous six months before Accountability Club. Josh created a website for artists. It never got a lot of users, but the important thing was that Josh was rediscovering his love for interviewing users and building products accordingly. Josh was iterating. Eventually he realized that Yet Another Social Network for Artists probably wouldn't be the next unicorn startup. He pivoted to AI B2B SAAS faciliating insurance payments in the medical billing industry.
Rowan worked on his photography hustle for a while, but Josh was being so awesome with his AI B2B SAAS faciliating insurance payments in the medical billing industry, that Rowan abandoned photography entirely and joined Josh's startup.[1]
Meanwhile, I was publishing YouTube videos at a steady pace of 1 video every two weeks, which was a quantum leap higher than my previous 0 videos every two weeks.
After several months of this, we didn't need Accoutability Club anymore. I had moved on from YouTube videos into dealing with personal insight-related stuff. Rowan had a pleasant creative job working for Josh. The final nail in the coffin happened when Josh obtained angel investment. Investors breathing down his neck was more than enough accountability for Josh. Accountability Club was declared a success and formally disbanded.
The three of us still like hanging out, so now we just watch Beast Games 2 together, instead. My business associate Josh says this is called being "friends".
[1] This isn't unusual Accountability Clubs function a singles event for startup founders. It usually results in ⅓ of participants joining the most successful endeavor. Want a cofounder for your next startup? Recruit the most awesome and ambitious people you can find into your Accountability Club. This story is about my second Accountability Club. My first Accountability Club was where Josh and I got to know each other. ↩