Jessica Livingston | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 (age 52–53) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Bucknell University (BA) |
Occupation(s) | Businesswoman, Writer, Venture Capitalist |
Organization | Y Combinator |
Known for | Co-founding Y Combinator, Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days |
Notable work | Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days |
Spouse | Paul Graham |
Website | foundersatwork |
Jessica Livingston (born 1971) is an American founding partner of the seed stage venture firm Y Combinator and author. [1] [2] [3] She is the wife of founding partner Paul Graham.
Livingston grew up in the Boston area. [4] In 1989, she graduated from Phillips Academy. [5] She received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in English from Bucknell University. [6]
Prior to founding Y Combinator, Livingston was vice president of marketing at Adams Harkness Financial Group. [7]
Livingston met Paul Graham, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell (the co-founders of dot-com company Viaweb) at a party in Cambridge. [4] They discussed creating a startup incubator and in 2005 the four co-founded Y Combinator. In the early days of YC, Livingston and Graham hosted weekly meals for their founders at their home near Cambridge. [8] Sam Altman (a former YC partner) credits Livingston with being essential to the transformation of Y Combinator into a startup ecosystem. [9] When Graham stepped down from his role leading Y Combinator, handing over to Altman, Livingston increased her day to day involvement, including having responsibility for the organisation's Startup School. [10]
In 2016, she took a year-long sabbatical from the incubator, to spend time with her family and consider projects and other things she wanted to pursue. [11]
In early 2007, Livingston published Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days , a collection of interviews with famous startup founders, including Steve Wozniak. [12]
In 2013, Livingston launched the Female Founders conference with the aim of inspiring more women to found startup companies. [11]
Livingston is one of the financial backers of OpenAI, a for-profit company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence. [13]
In 2023, she started co-hosting The Social Radars Podcast alongside Carolyn Levy. [14]
Livingston married Paul Graham in 2008. [15] Since late 2016, she and her family have resided in the United Kingdom. [8]
Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, writer, entrepreneur and investor. His work has included the programming language Lisp, the startup Viaweb, co-founding the startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, his essays, and Hacker News.
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