Meet the Hosts

Jessica Livingston is one of the founders of Y Combinator, the first startup accelerator, which since 2005 has funded over 4000 companies.  It was there that she got the nickname "the social radar" for her insights into the characters of successful founders. She is also the author of one of the best selling books about startups, Founders at Work.  She lives in England with her husband and two sons, and enjoys writing about startups whenever she can find time.

Carolynn Levy is Managing Director, Chief Legal Officer and head of the People Operations team at Y Combinator. During her 25-year legal career, Carolynn has helped thousands of startup founders with legal and business issues. She is known for creating the Safe, an open-sourced financing document that simplified investing in early stage companies. 

Carolynn got her BA from UCLA and her JD from University of San Francisco. She joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati right after law school and stayed for 14 years, doing corporate and securities and M&A work. She lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband and is almost an empty-nester.  She loves her two chihuahua rescues more than could be considered normal.