Although often overlooked in early accounts, Jessica Livingston played a pivotal role in shaping Y Combinator's culture and success. As co-founder, she was instrumental in the organization's day-to-day operations and, crucially, in selecting founders.[7]
In 2009, Y Combinator secured a $2 million investment led by Sequoia Capital, enabling increased annual funding for around 60 companies.[8] Sequoia further supported YC in 2010 through an $8.25 million funding round, bolstering the organization's capability to accommodate a growing number of startups.[9] Concurrently, Kirsty Nathoo joined the team, initially as an accountant, and subsequently as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2012.[10] In 2011, Yuri Milner and SV Angel offered every Y Combinator company a $150,000 convertible note investment.[11] The amount put into each company was changed to $80,000 when Start Fund was renewed.[12]
Paul Graham talking about Prototype Day at Y Combinator Summer 2009Former headquarters in Mountain View
Advisory roles were assumed by Harj Taggar and Alexis Ohanian in 2010,[13] and Paul Buchheit and Harj Taggar were named partners in November.[14]Michael Seibel joined Y Combinator as a part-time partner in January 2013 before becoming a full-time partner in 2014.[15] In September 2013, Y Combinator began funding nonprofit organizations that were accepted into the program after testing the concept with Watsi.[16]Sam Altman took part in Y Combinator's inaugural cohort in 2005 as a founder.[17] In 2014, Paul Graham appointed him as President.[18] Altman introduced a revised equity offering of $150,000 for a 7% stake.[19] Collaborations with Transcriptic and Bolt improved support for biotech and hardware startups.[20][21][non-primary source needed]
Global outreach became evident in 2016 as YC partners embarked on visits to 11 countries (Nigeria, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Israel, and India) to engage with founders and learn about international startup communities.[22] That summer, Altman returned to Y Combinator as a founder and worked on OpenAI.[23] Leadership responsibilities were delegated to Ali Rowghani and Michael Seibel for YC Continuity and YC Core programs, respectively.[24] Startup School, introduced in 2017, provided startups with online courses and personalized coaching. More than 1500 startups graduated from the program in its first year.[25]
In 2018, Y Combinator announced a new batch of startup schools. After a software glitch, all 15,000 startups that applied to the program were accepted, only to learn a few hours later that they had been rejected.[26] In response to the ensuing outcry, Y Combinator's accepted all 15,000 companies involved in the incident.[27][28] The same year, Qi Lu, a former CEO of Bing and Baidu, briefly assumed the role of CEO for YC China.[29] In November, YC announced Lu's departure and their decision to not pursue a program in China.[30] YC China later morphed into MiraclePlus, an accelerator similar to YC, with Lu once again at the helm.
Adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, Y Combinator conducted its summer 2020 batch remotely.[33] In January 2022, a revised standard deal of $500,000 was introduced, comprising $125,000 for a 7% equity stake and an additional $375,000 via an uncapped safe mechanism incorporating a Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause.[34] The summer of 2022 saw a deliberate reduction in the startup intake by 40%, from 414 companies to 250.
In January 2023, Garry Tan assumed the positions of president and CEO, succeeding Geoff Ralston.[35][36][37] Tan's leadership marked the discontinuation of the YC Continuity growth fund.[38]
YC moved its headquarters from Mountain View to San Francisco in the spring of 2023.[39] It had been considering such a move since 2019.[40]
In March 2024, Seibel stepped down as managing director.[41]
Programs
Y Combinator interviews and selects two batches of companies per year. The companies receive a total of $500,000 in seed money as well as advice and connections. The $500,000 in funding is made up of $125,000 on a post-money SAFE in return for 7% equity and $375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with a "most favored nation" ("MFN") provision (i.e.: "we get the same best terms you give anyone else in the next round").[42] Non-profits receive a $100,000 donation.[43] The program includes "office hours", where startup founders meet individually and participate in group meetings. Founders also participate in weekly meetups where guests from the Silicon Valley ecosystem (successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, etc.) speak to the founders.[citation needed]
Y Combinator's program is designed to teach founders how to market their product, refine their teams and business models, achieve product/market fit, and scale the startup into a high growth business, etc. The program ends with "Demo Day", where startups present their business and technology prototypes to potential investors.[44][non-primary source needed]
Y Combinator operates additional programs and a fund designed to support and invest in startups which have already graduated from the main accelerator program. The Series A Program, YC Post-A Program, and YC Growth Program are operated by the same team and focus on helping fast-growing YC startups, and startups raising their Series B funding of $20million to $100million.[45][46][non-primary source needed]
Y Combinator has introduced additional programs since 2015, including:
In July 2015, Y Combinator introduced the YC Fellowship Program, aimed at companies at an earlier stage than the main program.[47] The first batch of YC Fellowship included 32 companies that received an equity-free grant instead of an investment.[48] In January 2016, YC changed the program, with participating companies receiving $20k investment for a 1.5 percent equity stake. The equity stake is structured as a convertible security that converts into shares only if a company has an initial public offering (IPO), or a funding event or acquisition that values the company at $100million or more.[49] The fellowship was discontinued in 2017.[50]
In October 2015, Y Combinator introduced the now-defunct YC Continuity Fund. The fund allowed Y Combinator to make pro rata investments in their alumni companies. The program was shut down, and staff were laid off in March 2023.[51]
During 2017–2019, YC launched Startup School, the Series A program, the YC Growth program, Work at a Startup, and YC China.[52][non-primary source needed]
As of late 2023, Y Combinator had invested in over 4,000 companies,[2] most of which are for-profit, holding a combined valuation of $600 billion.[53] Non-profit organizations can also participate in the main YC program.[54] Few non-profits have been accepted in the last years, among them Watsi, Women Who Code, New Story, SIRUM, Zidisha, 80,000 Hours, and Our World in Data.[55]
Research
In October 2015, YC introduced YC Research to fund long-term fundamental research. Altman donated $10m.[56][non-primary source needed] Researchers were paid as full-time employees and can receive equity in Y Combinator.[56][57][58]
OpenAI was the first project undertaken by YC Research, and in January 2016, a second study on basic income was also announced.[59] Another project was research on new cities.[60]
The Human Advancement Research Community (HARC) project was set up in 2016 with the "mission to ensure human wisdom exceeds human power".[61][62] The project was inspired by a conversation between Altman and Alan Kay.[63] Its projects included modelling, visualizing and teaching software, as well as programming languages. Members included Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, Bret Victor, Vi Hart, and Patrick Scaglia.[64][65] HARC was shut down in 2017.[66]
Australian quantum physicist Michael Nielsen was a research fellow at YC Research from 2016 to 2019.[67]
YC Research disaffiliated with Y Combinator and was renamed to Open Research in 2020.[68][69]
Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, writer, entrepreneur and investor. His work has included the programming language Arc, the startup Viaweb, co-founding the startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, his essays, and Hacker News.
Justin Kan is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He was also the co-founder and former CEO of law-tech company Atrium before it was shut down in March 2020. In 2021, he launched NFT marketplace Fractal, which was renamed to Stash in 2024.
Jessica Livingston is an American investor, writer, and podcaster. She is best known for being a founding partner of the seed stage venture firm Y Combinator. She is the wife of founding partner Paul Graham.
Samuel Harris Altman is an American entrepreneur and investor best known as the chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019. He is also the Chairman of clean energy companies Oklo Inc. and Helion Energy. Altman is considered to be one of the leading figures of the AI boom. He dropped out of Stanford University after two years and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, raising more than $30million in venture capital. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, and was its president from 2014 to 2019.
Hacker News (HN) is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. It is run by the investment fund and startup incubator Y Combinator. In general, content that can be submitted is defined as "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
Lu Qi is a Chinese-American software executive and engineer who is the head of MiraclePlus, a startup incubator in China. Previously, Lu was the head of Y Combinator's China until it was shut down. He was formerly the chief operating officer of Baidu until he stepped down in May, 2018. He has served as the executive vice president of Microsoft, leading development of Bing, Skype, and Microsoft Office, and software engineer and manager for Yahoo!'s search technology division.
Startup accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components, and (sometimes) culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. While traditional business incubators are often government-funded, generally take no equity, and rarely provide funding, accelerators can be either privately or publicly funded and cover a wide range of industries. Unlike business incubators, the application process for seed accelerators is open to anyone, but is highly competitive. There are specific accelerators, such as corporate accelerators, which are often subsidiaries or programs of larger corporations that act like seed accelerators.
Science Exchange is a cloud-based software company offering an R&D marketplace to buy and sell scientific services. The marketplace gives life sciences companies access to the outsourced research they need and the platform fully automates R&D outsourcing from source to pay. Commercial contract research organizations (CROs) and academic core facilities can sell their products and services directly through the marketplace.
PlanGrid is a construction productivity software designed for onsite construction workers. PlanGrid digitises blueprints. It features version control and collaboration tools such as field markups, progress photos and issues tracking.
The Muse is a New York City-based online career platform founded in 2011 by Kathryn Minshew, Alexandra Cavoulacos, and Melissa McCreery.
StartX is a non-profit startup accelerator and founder community associated with Stanford University.
Daniel Gross is an Israeli-American businessperson who co-founded Cue, led artificial intelligence efforts at Apple, served as a partner at Y Combinator, and is a notable technology investor in companies like Uber, Instacart, Figma, GitHub, Airtable, Rippling, CoreWeave, Character.ai, Perplexity.ai, and others.
Entrepreneur First is an international talent investor, which supports individuals in building technology companies. Founded in 2011 by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck, the company has offices in Toronto, London, Berlin, Paris, Singapore, Bangalore and San Francisco.
Founders Pledge is a London-based charitable initiative, where entrepreneurs commit to donate a portion of their personal proceeds to charity when they sell their business. The mission of Founders Pledge is to "empower entrepreneurs to do immense good".
Qasar Younis is a Pakistani American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, and the CEO of Applied Intuition, a technology company that is building advanced software and infrastructure tools for self-driving vehicles. Prior to Applied Intuition, he was the COO of Y Combinator during Sam Altman’s tenure as President. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Talkbin.
Verbling is an online language learning platform that pairs individuals with language teachers via video chat. The company was created at Y Combinator in 2011. In 2015, Verbling raised $2.7 million in series A round funding. Funders have included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, SV Angel, Sam Altman, and Joshua Schachter.
Superside, formerly Konsus, is a subscription design service that provides design at scale for enterprises and scale-ups.
Platzi is a Latin American educational platform.
Felix Manford is a Ghanaian business executive. He is the co-founder and CEO of Tendo, a Ghanaian e-commerce company founded in 2021, operates in Africa with a strong base in Ghana and Nigeria. Prior to this, Felix had served at Goldman Sachs UK working in the Global Investment Research division in UK, in 2018.
↑ Graham, Paul (February 21, 2014). "Sam Altman for President". Y Combinator. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
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