Startup Investor School Preview

The four-day course would teach startup investing in person at YC’s original Mountain View building, with a livestream and an online course. Ralston said accredited investors were welcome and hoped to broaden the diversity of angel investors. He emphasized that startup investing carries high risk and people should invest only what they can afford to lose.

The curriculum would cover angel investing’s history, portfolio allocation, convertible notes, the handshake protocol, dilution, and cap tables. Ralston said investors should meet founders and assess their belief, resilience, and determination by asking how they would handle challenges. He described the course as eight sessions across four days, enough to get started rather than master the discipline.

Ralston encouraged investors to build deal flow, take time to calibrate their judgment, and treat a new startup investment as worth zero until they have evidence otherwise. He invests when he believes in a company, while recognizing that angels usually have only a marginal role in a company’s success. He advised being rigorous, communicating a clear and kind no, and being useful to founders after investing.

Ralston said good investors should care about their investments without letting emotion replace careful judgment. He warned against trying to be the last money into a round, since founders may no longer need that investor once most of the funding is raised. He shared mistakes including investing in family, acting without enough thought, and following others into unfamiliar sectors; one early investment succeeded because he trusted a capable operator.

The course would also look at changes in startup financing, including Y Combinator and accelerators, AngelList, Kickstarter, micro VCs, and ICOs. Ralston described ICO fundraising as fast-growing but complex, with fraud risks and uncertain sustainability. He said the course would help investors understand the evolving landscape alongside fundamentals such as deal flow and portfolio decisions.