"Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 20-Year-Old Who Built Multiple Viral Products
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This is one of our more crazy Startup Ideas podcast episodes. It's with Avi Schiffman, the founder of friend.com. He was all over the news for raising a few million dollars and spending most of it on buying a domain. He's got some spicy takes.
you know, if you view your work as art, you have no competition and you have no fear of failure. Like, move fast and break things, I think, is the thing I hate the most. I mean, I think maybe it works for shitty software, but like, I think, let's say, in my situation, I'm trying to build hardware, you know, I only really get like one real first impression. Any business really does. Yeah, you know, no one great ever thought they couldn't be great. You know, you really need to have instilled in yourself a deep-rooted self... You know, just, you know, you need to just believe you are the listener guide in a sense. And I think will take you further than anything you'll ever hear from someone else.
He also gives away a free startup idea in the AI space. It's highly technical. So many of you might not understand it. But for those of you who do, he gives a playbook on how to create this technical AI app that he thinks could make millions. You might not agree with everything Avi says, but it makes for a very interesting conversation and it probably will get your creative juices flowing.
We got Avi Schiffman on the pod, founder of friend.com, 22 years old, Harvard dropout. He makes a lot of noise on Twitter and places like that. So thanks for coming on, man.
For sure. Thanks, Greg. Yeah, it's cool to be on a podcast. I just talk about ideas, I guess. Big idea guy here, of course. I think I definitely have large tunnel vision. I think what I usually think about maybe more is... like why people are usually failing at their startups or why a lot of people's ideas don't work or like... Yeah, let's talk about that. Yeah, I think that a lot of... I mean, there's like a very famous maxim, right? Where like most people's startups die from suicide rather than competition. And I, you know, I really believe... I mean, let's say in my situation, right? Like I've been building this AI pendant, okay? This AI wearable pendant. For a while now, I started this company back when it's called Tab, right, in May of May of last year in 2023. And since then, there's been a gazillion, you know, large companies and random kids and idiots, everyone, all alike, all trying to build their own version of this. And
many more than half of the ones that I remember being started have all failed or, you know, you know, maybe I'm not going to be too harsh on them, although, you know, they're trying to copy me still. But, you know, they moved on to like other ideas. But, you know, if I was so worried about all those competitors, which I never once was, you know, I think that would have ruined my startup a lot more. Maybe I would have eventually, you know, killed my own startup. I think people are far too worried about that. And I think the true reason for the true true way that you get over that is if you truly have confidence in yourself, where you know that you are entirely acting off your own intuition. Um, well, I guess, you know, to, to entirely act off your own intuition, again, you really do need to be confident in your abilities as an idea guy, uh, I guess. Um, but, uh, you know, if you view your work as art, you have no competition.
And you have no fear of failure. And I think it just removes this anxiety that you have over it needing to be perfect or anything like that. Well, I mean, at the same time, like, you know, it's not perfect, maybe, in other people's eyes. I think it's perfect to your eyes, which might be a bit harder. But, you know, I think that's the way to go. I also think that Y Combinator is evil and has ruined startups. I think it's turned it into this absolute slop. And, like, move fast and break things, I think, is the thing I hate the most. I mean, I think maybe it works for shitty software. But, like, I think, let's say, in my situation, I'm trying to build hardware. You know, I only really get, like, one real first impression.
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