Yesterday my co-founder and I attended YC’s Open Office Hours. Fortunately we had watched the “How to Start a Startup” series, so we knew in advance how to concisely introduce our company and also set an appropriate goal for the meeting. Every second counts in a 20 minute meeting with a YC-partner.

In under 1 minute we defined the product, market size, and traction to date.

In under 1 minute we introduced the team. It takes discipline to not promote your past successes and the degrees you earned. Instead we just stated all the founders are highly technical with a good sense for design, and we have known each other for years.

We then simply proposed 3 or 4 opportunities and then kept quiet. Our target talk-to-listen ratio was 1:5. We kept the single minded goal to obtain advice on strategy and direction.

At the very least this series is a kernel that should eventually produce your company’s unique culture. I hope it resonates with you as it did with our team.

Thanks YC!