What YC Won't Tell You About Building Products in 2026
I know this is click-baity, and I have deep respect for Y Combinator.
For what it’s worth, I mostly agree with Y Combinator on a lot of the startup advice they give. In this list, I’ve covered 5 points where I semi-disagree or completely disagree with YC. Mainly because a lot of their insights are not applicable in 2026 anymore.
The standard playbook for building a product needs a modern calibration. That playbook was written for a world with low competition and a slow pace of change. Today, founders operate in an environment where high-quality, venture-backed teams are solving the same problem at high velocity.
You need a new set of principles to guide your execution. Here is how we calibrate the classic advice at Tequity.
YC vs. Tequity: A Modern Playbook
Rethinking the Five Principles
1. The "Embarrassing" Launch
YC’s classic advice is to launch a product you are embarrassed by, prioritizing speed to market above all else. The goal is to get validation quickly.
In 2026, the risk of launching a poor-quality product is too high. You are likely competing with 20 other venture-backed teams.
While speed is critical, you cannot afford broken features or significantly lacking design. If early customers have a poor first impression, they are likely gone forever. We prioritize shipping the essential minimum features at high quality.
2. Filtering User Feedback
The mandate to deeply listen to every user is a trap if you are not careful. All feedback is not created equal.
If you are building a B2B SaaS for large hospital chains, but your early users are small public health facilities, their needs are misaligned with your long-term ICP.
The feedback required to eventually sell up-market is completely different. Don't let feedback from users who don't fit your target profile derail your vision. Be surgical about whose pain points you solve for.
3. Scaling Doesn't Need to Be Hard
"Do things that don't scale" is based on providing white-glove service to early adopters. This is fine for handwritten notes or a personal phone call.
But this advice should not apply to your core product infrastructure or operational systems. Today, it is easier than ever to build and design systems for scalability from day one.
Do not design customer support or onboarding processes that require high operational overhead to work. Automate the easy parts early. Time spent manually solving repeatable problems is focus taken away from building the product itself.
4. The Priority of Founder-Market Fit
Founders are often told to pivot relentlessly toward the biggest dollar opportunity. This risks misaligning the founder with the industry.
You have to spend a decade building your startup. If you pivot to an industry—say, real estate—because your voice AI found traction there, but you fundamentally hate that domain, you will burn out.
Even if the business case is strong, someone else with genuine passion will eventually step in and build a better product because their Founder-Market Fit is stronger. Pick an industry and a market you can commit your life to, not just your equity.
5. Looking Beyond the Dashboard
Focusing on North Star metrics is essential. Data should always guide your product decisions.
However, the most interesting and disruptive insights rarely come from looking at a retention curve. They come from deep conversations and empirical observation of user behavior—the things the data can't tell you.
Do not over-stress being purely data-driven. Use the metrics to track health, but scout for the qualitative insights and empirical evidence that will inform your next big pivot or feature.
