user avatar
Gustaf Alströmer
Y Combinator
@gustaf
general partner @ycombinator. previously product @airbnb
San Francisco
ycombinator.com
Joined July 2006
5,375
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35.3K
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  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Feb 13, 2025
    After 8 years helping founders at YC, it seems clear that being a remote, solo founder is extremely hard. Those founders almost never lack skill or ability - it's the opposite. But when things are hard, no one else is there to bring them up and back on track.
    416K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Mar 30, 2022
    Apple AirPods are so unreliable we don't allow them at YC demo day anymore. #1 source of audio issues.
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Nov 14, 2025
    Two and a half months ago our son was born. Being a parent is really hard but also the best thing in the world.
    315K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Aug 18, 2023
    Pitch-deck advice: I don't think I have ever seen a fundraising deck getting better by using a designer to design it. The same goes for using fancy tools like Figma, Keynote, Pitch.com, or Canva. At @ycombinator we recommend people to use Google Slides and keep it
    839K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Jun 2, 2020
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Oct 22, 2025
    One lesson I've learned during my career: Meta/Facebook is not a trustworthy platform partner. It's honestly hard to remember how many things they have offered developers since the first F8 in 2008 that they have since taken away: An Infinite number of feed algorithms,
    user avatar
    OpenAI
    @OpenAI
    Oct 22, 2025
    Meta changed its policies so 1-800-ChatGPT won't work on WhatsApp after Jan 15, 2026. Luckily we have an app, website, and browser you can use instead to access ChatGPT.
    393K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Jun 23, 2020
    I'm sad and frustrated to read about the temporary ban of the H1b program. I came here on an H1b and almost every immigrant friend I know did so too. We didn't steal jobs from Americans. The job market is simply not a zero sum game.
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Dec 4, 2021
    People who haven't been founders don't know how hard it is. It's really, really hard. The pandemic made the job more lonely, more uncertain, and added another layer of stress and in many cases personal loss. Many founders have lost family members and employees over the last year
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    May 12, 2025
    San Francisco is so beautiful.
    120K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Sep 23, 2023
    This is Akshit Bansal and Raghav Arora, the founders of Statiq. They are the largest EV-charging network in India and did @ycombinator in S20. Their scale is astonishing. They have 7,000 chargers, most of them level 3 chargers (Tesla as comparison have 50,000 superchargers
    219K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Jan 28, 2019
    We often tell founders they can't outsmart investors in negotiations. Investors are pro's and founders are not. This information disadvantage also applies to Series A and is one reason why @ycombinator is launching A Standard and Clean Series A Term Sheet
    ycombinator.com
    A Standard and Clean Series A Term Sheet | Y Combinator
    We’ve noticed a common problem: founders don’t know what “good” looks like in a term sheet. This makes sense, because it is often, literally, the first time in their careers that they’ve seen one....
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Jul 26, 2022
    I continuously get amazed at how wrong many startups think about equity. I think it's mostly sloppiness or short-term thinking. The US ecosystem gets this, but Europe, SEA, and LATAM have some catch-up to do.
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Sep 30, 2023
    Colorado is absolutely stunning. I honestly had no idea how beautiful it is.
    96K
  • user avatar
    Gustaf Alströmer
    Y Combinator
    @gustaf
    Oct 13, 2023
    Today is the deadline to apply for Y Combinator. ycombinator.com/apply. 17 years ago, I was sitting with my co-founders Marie and Pelle (and later Michael) in our freezing New York apartment crafting our YC application. The first sentence of our application still makes sense
    325K