Jon Yoo’s startup wasn’t working. He pivoted mid-YC, spent five brutal weeks without signing a single customer, and then—right after raising his seed round—his co-founder left.
Most startups die right there.
Instead, Jon figured out how to land massive customers like FiveTran and Snowflake. He grew from $500K to $2M ARR in 6 months.
Why you should listen:
•Navigating a founder breakup – What happens when co-founders split and how to handle it.
•The real YC experience – What worked, what didn’t, and how they pivoted mid-program.
•Landing major customers – How they got big logos like Snowflake.
•Fundraising insights – What really matters to investors at the seed and Series A stages.
•Why startups need forcing functions – The tactics that drove fast product development.
•How to know if you have product-market fit – The signals John saw at Sugar.
•Burn rate discipline – Why they raised millions but barely spent it.
Keywords
entrepreneurship, startups, investment banking, Salesforce, Y Combinator, founder dynamics, product market fit, scaling, cloud marketplaces, business strategy, fundraising, startup, YC demo day, customer acquisition, product-market fit, founder dynamics, early stage startup, team building, scaling, challenges
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:07:55) The Origin of Suger
(00:13:30) Going All In
(00:19:08) The first 10 customers
(00:24:20) The Hardest Pain Point
(00:30:29) Becoming Profitable
(00:37:05) Celebrate The Small Wins
(00:39:56) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:42:27) A Piece of Advice
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