Ep 10: Gustaf Alstromer, Partner at Y Combinator

In this episode, I interview Gustaf Alstromer, Partner at Y Combinator and former Product Lead of Growth at AirBnB. Prior to AirBnB, he led Growth at Voxer and was the Co-Founder and CEO of Heysan (YC W07), which was acquired by Good Technology in 2009.

In October of 2018, YC published a Request for Startups that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which YC President Sam Altman described as “the most elaborate RFS we have put out.”

Gustaf is one of the partners at YC that spends a portion of their time working with these companies that are focused on addressing climate change.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Gustaf’s background in consumer tech working at AirBnB and Voxer


• Where Gustaf spends most of his time at YC


• The background and reason for YC’s carbon removal focused Request for Startups (RFS)


• Why YC decided to focus specifically on carbon removal


• Gustaf’s view on the similarities and differences between “traditional” YC companies vs climate focused companies


• A few of the climate focused companies YC has invested in


• What YC looks for in climate focused companies

I learned a lot about the YC model from talking with Gustaf and I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

• Gustafs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustafalstromer/


• Gustaf’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/gustaf


• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/


• YC’s Carbon RFS: https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/#carbon


• YC’s Carbon specific website: carbon.ycombinator.com


• Pachama: https://www.pachama.com/


• Watsi: https://watsi.org/


• ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/


• Tarjimly: https://www.tarjim.ly/en


• Vote.Org: https://www.vote.org/


• Good Food Institute: https://www.gfi.org/

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant