INTRODUCTION

People often ask us what happens at Y Combinator. Here is an overview of what happens during the YC program and the benefits you get as a YC founder. You can read more about why you should apply to YC here.

THE YC PROGRAM

YC is a three month program. We now run YC four times a year, in the winter, spring, summer, and fall. Here’s what happens during the three months of YC:

The Goal

The overall goal of YC is to help startups really take off. They arrive at YC at all different stages. Some haven’t even started working yet, and others have been launched for a year or more. But whatever stage a startup is at when they arrive, our goal is to help them to be in dramatically better shape 3 months later.

For most startups, better shape translates into two things: to have a better product with more users, and to have more options for raising money.

Startups at all stages benefit from the intensity of YC. That’s probably the best word to describe the atmosphere. For 3 months, it’s all startup, all the time. Everyone around you—us, the other founders in your batch, the alumni, the speakers, the investors—wants to help your startup succeed. In that atmosphere it’s hard not to be highly motivated. And that kind of extraordinary motivation is what one needs to do something as difficult as starting a startup.

Many founders describe the 11 weeks leading up to Demo Day as the most productive period in their lives. Though YC continues after the 3 month cycle, and the alumni community is an increasingly valuable resource, those 11 weeks are still the most important thing. You can’t make people something they’re not, but the right conditions can bring out the best in them. And since most people have way more potential than they realize, they’re often surprised by what they’re capable of.

Funding

YC invests $500,000 in every company on standard terms. Our $500K investment is made on 2 separate safes:

• We invest $125,000 on a post-money safe in return for 7% of your company (the “$125k safe”)
• We invest $375,000 on an uncapped safe with a Most Favored Nation (“MFN”) provision (the “MFN safe”)

Groups

During the batch, startups are sorted into 3 groups. Each group is led by YC partners who advise the founders in one-on-one and group office hours. Each group is split into sections (6-10 companies), so that founders get the benefit of an intimate setting within the larger batch.

Office Hours

Much of what takes place at YC happens during office hours. Partners host group office hours every two weeks and one-on-one office hours as often as founders want. What startups talk about at office hours depends on the stage of the company and where they are in the YC cycle.

Bookface

Bookface is the platform founders use to connect to one another—imagine a combination of Facebook, Quora, and LinkedIn. Each founder has a profile and can tag themselves as an expert in any topic. If you have a question, need an introduction, or want to poll for knowledge, you can post the request to the forum on Bookface. The knowledge base of the YC community is both broad and deep—the community includes founders who are the world’s foremost experts in everything from security to community building to nuclear energy.

Alumni Talks

Bookface is the platform founders use to connect to one another—imagine a combination of Facebook, Quora, and LinkedIn. Each founder has a profile and can tag themselves as an expert in any topic. If you have a question, need an introduction, or want to poll for knowledge, you can post the request to the forum on Bookface. The knowledge base of the YC community is both broad and deep—the community includes founders who are the world’s foremost experts in everything from security to community building to nuclear energy.

Public Launches

Once a startup has something built that’s ready to launch, we help founders figure out how to present it to users and the press. We prepare founders for launches on community sites like Product Hunt and Hacker News, and for their first press pitches and interviews.

First Customers

B2B and consumer companies often get their first 40-50 paying customers from the YC community. With that, you not only get first customers, you get the smartest early product feedback possible.

ADVICE

Alumni community

Today the YC alumni community is probably the most powerful community in the startup world. It’s powerful not just because of its size, but also because its members have such a strong commitment to helping one another. oday the YC alumni community is probably the most powerful community in the startup world. It’s powerful not just because of its size, but also because its members have such a strong commitment to helping one another., and founders know that if they ever come across a challenge they need help with, they not only have the partners at their disposal, they have 6,000+ domain experts they can call on.

Alumni Reunion

Each year, YC hosts a formal gathering of alumni. Exciting things happen when you bring founders together — ideas are exchanged, deals get made, problem solving happens amongst peers.

Founder Communities

Founders have access to WhatsApp groups and Bookface channels that reach specific communities. There are lists for hardware, biotech, edtech, international, women founders, Black founders, Hispanic and Latino founders, and more.

Alumni Demo Day

Active YC founders get an early look at the YC companies in each batch at Alumni Demo Day.

Deals

Each YC company receives access to discounts and free accounts for over 100 products. Some of these are highly significant, including hundreds of thousands of dollars of free hosting for each company provided by major cloud hosting companies.

BRAND

Credibility

When one company in YC does well, the whole community benefits. Because YC has such a strong track record, early adopters, investors and press are often more willing to take a look at YC founders, even if they’re first time founders.

Company Directory

YC companies are showcased in the YC Startup Directory. Our startups can be filtered and discovered by potential customers, investors, or hires.

HIRING

Work at a Startup

Work at a Startup Work at a Startup

Hacker News

HN is a news aggregator where users can find and discuss the latest news and submit content on anything that gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity. YC alumni also post engineering, product, and design jobs on HN.