Gustaf Alströmer, former Product Lead for Growth at Airbnb, and Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma discuss growth.

As I made my way to the bus that would take all Y Combinator founders to our next YC event, I was surprised at how excited I felt. The sensation in my stomach reminded me of what it was like to go to class on the first day of high school. Having started companies of our own, it was the first time Steven and I had felt that in a long time.

Right after our bus took off, our fellow YC founders started bombarding Steven, Quantstamp’s co-founder and CTO, and I with questions about crypto. We spoke to them for a bit but after a few minutes, Steven and I couldn’t resist the urge to pull out our laptops and start working. As the custodians of a blockchain network under development, there is always so much work to be done and we had to take advantage of every moment.

When we arrived at YC, we started group office hours. In office hours, founders share the challenges they are facing and provide each other with great feedback. Office hours are moderated by former CEOs of high-growth companies, so we receive feedback from some of the most successful business leaders in the world. I wish I could share more details, but we promised to follow Vegas Rules. What is said in office hours stays in office hours.

After office hours, Sam Altman, the President of Y Combinator, gave a presentation. He discussed several military quotes and applied these quotes to running a successful business. One particular part of his presentation stood out to me:

Make a long term commitment to yourself and to each other.

He connected this idea to the tendency of businesses to focus on short term goals in order to please institutional investors and acquire funding. Sam recommended that we align our every action to fit our long term goals and to make smart decisions that trade short term discomfort for long term gain. This made me recognize that I believe Quantstamp is particularly well positioned to focus on our long term goals.

Some CEOs from traditional companies make it their full time job to appeal to traditional investors in order to receive funding. Quantstamp is relatively fortunate, given the success of our recent offering, in that we can dedicate more of our time to developing a protocol that has the potential to enhance the security and future of blockchain technology.

During the dinner, Steven sat next to a group of founders. The topic of the conversation switched to the earthquake, which happened the previous night. After a while, the person he talked to got up in from of the room, and started giving a speech. It turned out he was sitting next to Drew Houston, the CEO of Dropbox. Drew gave an inspirational speech about his experiences at Dropbox, growing the company to more than 1000 employees. A key takeaway from his speech at the dinner was that companies face a different set of challenges during each phase of its growth and that it’s smart to plan ahead for the next stage.

More on our experiences at Y Combinator coming this Sunday Jan 21st.