Y Combinator was started in 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell and Robert Tappan Morris.
Y Combinator pioneered a new model for funding startups. Their major innovations include funding companies in batches, giving standardized terms, and having weekly dinners that culminate in a demo day to a group of investors. The firm was originally funding startups in Cambridge, MA for their summer batch before moving both summer and winter batches to Mountain View, CA.
Y Combinator’s motto is "Make Something People Want". The program aims to focus the founders on further developing their product, team, and market, as well as refining their business model, achieving product/market fit, and scaling the startup into a high growth business.
The program culminates at Demo Day. An event where startups present their business to a selected audience of investors. As of 2016, Y Combinator had invested in ~940 companies including Dropbox, Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, Reddit, Zenefits, BuildZoom, Instacart, Twitch.tv, Machine Zone, Weebly, Paribus, and Chinese startup Raven Tech. Non-profit organizations can also participate in the main YC program.
Y Combinator also operates Hacker News, a social link sharing site where users can submit and share news. The front page consists of 30 links at a time, sorted via an algorithm that takes into account upvotes from the community. According to SimilarWeb, the site receives over 20 million visits per month.
Portfolio companies
80000 Hours
YC S15
Abacus
YC W14
Timeline
New Standard Deal - post-money SAFE
Y Combinator announced the change to the standard investment deal. YC increased their investment from $120K to $150K. The $150K investment for 7% will be made on a post-money cap SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity).
Board of Overseers announced
Included are Brian Chesky, Adora Cheung, John Collison, Patrick Collison, Drew Houston, Jessica Livingston, David Rusenko, Emmett Shear, and Sam Altman. All board members are either former YC graduates or founders.
The New Deal
Sam Altman announces a new standard YC investment of $120k for 7% equity in the company. This replaced the previous standard of $97k ($17K for 7% along with an $80k safe note converted at next raise.
Sam Altman announced as next president of Y Combinator
Taking over for Paul Graham, who had lead Y Combinator for nine years, Sam Altman is announced as the next president of Y combinator.
Alexis Ohanian joins
Previously cofounder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian joins Y Combinator as a partner and ambassador to the East.
Sequoia Capital leads $2m investment in Y Combinator managed fund
Sequoia Capital and angel investors Ron Conway, Paul Buchheit, and Aydin Senkut invest in a YC managed fund intended to increase the startups YC invests in.
Y Combinator moves to Silicon Valley year round
Previously, Y combinator had alternated between Cambridge, MA and Silicon Valley.
"Make Something People Want" motto adopted
The phrase described in Paul Graham's Be Good post is still used as the Y combinator motto.
Founded
Founded March 11, 2005, in Cambridge, MA by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell.
Funded Companies
Ginkgo Bioworks is a biotechnology company using machine learning techniques and lab automation to engineer microorganisms as a service.
Zenefits is a human resources company. It provides a digital HR platform for small and medium businesses.
Momentus is a YC Summer 2018 batch company developing the in-space rockets powered by water plasma engines and based in Santa Clara, CA
Indee Labs focuses on the development of microfluidic vortex shedding for rapidly and efficiently transfecting human primary immune cells with negligible perturbation. The team is focused on developing its core technology for short turnaround chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) development and manufacturing.
Dropbox is a file sharing and productivity startup created by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007.
A telemedicine service company that delivers oral contraceptives and various testing kits to its customers. It was founded in 2015 and has headquarters in San Francisco, California.
Brex is a credit card company that issues corporate credit cards.
A microventure capital firm and syndicate in California that focuses on seed and early stage investments.
Payroll and benefits company. It participated in the W12 cohort of Y Combinator.
Driverless truck company based in San Francisco, California.
Stripe is a financial technology company providing software that allows businesses and individuals to make and receive online payments.
OpenDoor is a real estate company based in the US.
A software company making a workplace email communication platform for remote and office work.
Coinbase is a digital asset exchange company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It operates exchanges of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Biotechnology microbial genomics company based in San Francisco
Airbnb provides an online platform for listing, searching and booking rental accommodations.
A platform that enables users to search for building contractors.
U.S-based e-learning platform teaching coding, UX, and data science.
A mobile application allowing its users access their office, building or apartment
Notable Labs is a company providing personalized drug combination testing service for cancer patients.
inDinero is a company developing software for tracking and managing for startups and small businesses.
DrChrono is a company providing EHR, Practice Management, and Revenue Cycle Management Solution APIs. It participated in the W11 cohort of Y Combinator.
Webflow is a company providing a design and hosting platform for users to create websites.
Segment is a company providing a data infrastructure for businesses.
U.S-based 3D media technology company providing worldwide end-to-end virtual media solutions.
Products
Associated investment funds
Accelerator batches
The Winter 2020 batch of companies that Y Combinator invested in.
A listing of the companies in the W19 batch
Batch of companies that participated in the Summer 2019 class of Y Combinator.
