I applied to Y Combinator without knowing that being a single non-technical founder might be a disadvantage, and I'm glad I did because it changed the trajectory of my life and business.

The initial audience for Product Hunt was built through years of writing and engaging with the tech community, which helped when launching the platform.

After being encouraged by founders like Drew Houston and Sam Altman, I applied to Y Combinator, despite my initial hesitation about giving up equity.

My co-founders are excellent at judging technical ideas, but I'm the one who assesses character, which has been crucial for Y Combinator's success.

I found Y Combinator because I was on Reddit during graduate school, where I discovered Paul Graham's essays that inspired me to pursue starting a company, despite the prevailing belief that the web was over after the dot-com crash.

When I applied to Y Combinator, I didn't have high hopes, but I believed in my idea and was invited for an interview, which was a turning point for me.

I co-founded Y Combinator, the first startup accelerator, which began with a hypothesis about what people wanted, and it turned out they did want it, leading us to fund over 1,800 startups valued at over a hundred billion dollars.

Despite not having a technical co-founder, I was able to raise our seed round because I had passion, a market, and proof of concept.

At Y Combinator, I approached the team and said I needed a technology team to build something in-house, and they helped me tremendously.