Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung Discuss Startup School

TL;DR

Startup School is a free, 10-week online course (MOOC) for early‑stage founders worldwide, offering two tracks: audit (live lectures + notes) or full participation (weekly advisor group meetings, community forum, exclusive deals, eligibility for a $10,000 equity‑free grant to 100 companies).

Key insights

• The $10,000 grant is an experiment to attract founders and incentivize course completion, with the hope that the capital helps promising startups that did not get into YC survive and become viable.
• Advisors are YC founders who volunteer their time (unpaid) to facilitate group discussions; they do not dictate actions but help the group solve tactical problems collectively.
• Startup School achieved a 56% completion rate last year, far above the typical 5% standard for MOOCs, attributed to the community and advisor structure.