The Launch Pad

Journalist Randall Stross was given access to Y Combinator's summer 2011 batch and follows its founders through three months of building startups in Silicon Valley. The investment firm funds dozens of new companies twice a year under Paul Graham and his partners, and Graham's advice is to make something people want. Of 2,089 teams that applied that summer, 64 were accepted and funded; most founders were young male programmers. Stross watches them work around the clock on products from a site that teaches programming to one for rap lyrics, with some dropping their first idea midway. The program ends at Demo Day, when founders pitch to several hundred angel investors and venture capitalists. Dropbox and Airbnb are earlier alumni.

Freelance software engineer Scott Johnson listed it among the case studies of product building and company founding he suggests for anyone considering a career in high tech.