Everything you need to know about Y-Combinator

What is Y Combinator

For those who don’t know, Y Combinator (Also known as YC) is considered the world’s most successful startup accelerator.

Y Combinator is an American startup accelerator that specializes in providing seed funding for new companies. It is one of the best resources for new entrepreneurs trying to establish a new business. The company has helped thousands of new startups acquire the necessary funding to get their projects off the ground. 

Source- Google

What is seed funding? 

Y Combinator provides seed funding for startups. Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding. It pays your expenses while you’re getting started. For more than 15 years, Y Combinator has been the seed money start-up accelerator that has made success possible for a whole bunch of companies to reach their full potential – more on that later.

Source- Google

Who is using Y Combinator?

For many founders, Y Combinator is a coveted milestone on the entrepreneurial road. The accelerator has helped create 60,000 jobs, has 125 companies valued at over $150 million, and has facilitated top exits totaling more than $300 billion. Airbnb, DoorDash, Coinbase, Stripe, Cruise, Dropbox, Coinbase, Reddit, and Gitlab that used Y-combinator as the accelerator and seed money source they needed to really take off.

Source- Google

Selection process

Unsurprisingly, the program has a strict selection process — with rumors claiming that less than 5% of startups are accepted. Twice a year, YC invests in a large batch of startups and takes a percentage of ownership in those companies. They interview and select 2 batches of companies per year in 3-month cycles – January through to March, and June through to August. It’s an intense screening process where the product or service being offered, the business model, future plans, and everything in between are discussed with the start-up company applying.

Source- Google

Benefits 

When the 3-month program is over, you become alumni and still get access to tons of resources, an incredible alumni network, mentorship from some of the most successful people in Silicon Valley, and more. It’s the connections that are made through Y-Combinator, that are the most attractive beneficial side effect of having them seed a start-up. Weekly dinners are held where titans of industry, in particular the Big 4 down in Silicon Valley, are asked to be guest speakers to share their wisdom.

Each cycle culminates in Demo Day, where the startups present their ideas to an audience made up of many of the world’s foremost start-up investors – giving them the opportunity to land the angel investor of a lifetime.