Y Combinator

also referred to as: yc

18 statements across 12 episodes · 9 bullish · 1 bearish · 12 people on the record · first statement Jan 2, 2019 by Tom Lehman · said 121 times in 44 episodes since 2017 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Michael Copeland (9), Wade Foster (8), Steph Smith (8), Justin Kan (7), Erik Torenberg (7), Anish Acharya (7), Marc Andreessen (4), Garry Tan (4)

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08152017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
002.57.55152017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 21 mentions in 6 episodes 4 per episode
2025 27 mentions in 12 episodes 2 per episode
2024 13 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
2023 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2022 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2020 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 46 mentions in 15 episodes 3 per episode
2018 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2017 1 mention in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Y Combinator, oldest first

Jan 2, 2019
Insight
Lehman: External experts and investors cannot solve a startup's hardest problems
“Whenever we had a hard problem and we went into a meeting with a lawyer or an investor or a YC partner or some kind of expert thinking, this is the meeting where someone's going to tell us like what to do. And it's so great that we have access to this. It just…”
Tom Lehman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 20:21 a16z Podcast | Guiding Startup Culture -- The Genius ISMs
Jan 2, 2019 negative
Insight
Silicon Valley accelerator models fail in emerging markets like Iran
“We haven't tried to copy Techstars or Y Combinator company to here, which we believe that doesn't work in, in such markets.”
Mohsen Malayeri Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 14:33 a16z Podcast | Is Entrepreneurship a Universal Language?
Jan 2, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Brett Hagler: New Story funded 100 homes in 91 days during YC
“We have funded now a 131 homes. During YC, we did this campaign we said, let's pick a crazy goal during YC, and so we said, we're going to try to fund a hundred homes in a hundred days, and, you know, we launched this campaign, and we got fortunate, and we did…”
Brett Hagler Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 15:55 a16z Podcast | Using Social Tools to Build Homes for Those Most in Need
Jan 10, 2019 positive
Opinion
Coolican: Y Combinator replaces higher education's professional networking role
“You're seeing things like, you know, YC, which is incredibly valuable as a networking place. And people talk about YC as kind of like startup graduate school, right? And, you know, you're seeing places like that have Add an incredible amount of value providing…”
D'Arcy Coolican Jan 10, 2019 ▶ 9:59 What's Next for Education Startups
Feb 16, 2023 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Masad: YC startup Fig built its initial product entirely on Replit
“FIG is this command line autocomplete tool that this YC startup, I think it was like YC-twenty or something like that, or YC-twenty-one. And it's used by tens of thousands of engineers And then the original product was entirely built on, on Replit.”
Amjad Masad Feb 16, 2023 ▶ 8:50 The 1000x Developer with Amjad Masad
Dec 11, 2024
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zapier had 1,000 paying beta users when Y Combinator finally accepted them
“This time around, I think the time we applied, we'd had a thousand people that had paid for access to the beta, 10,000 people on a launch list.”
Wade Foster Dec 11, 2024 ▶ 4:25 How Zapier Became Profitable in 3 Years and Scaled to $5B with Wade Foster
Dec 11, 2024
Assertion Supported
Y Combinator rejected Zapier's first application in 2011
“So we go ahead and apply. Straight rejected.”
Wade Foster Dec 11, 2024 ▶ 3:51 How Zapier Became Profitable in 3 Years and Scaled to $5B with Wade Foster
Mar 18, 2025 bullish
Assertion Supported
Moore: Up to 25% of recent YC startups build with AI voice
“So in recent YC cohorts, upwards of 20, 25% of companies are building with AI voice, which is really exciting.”
Olivia Moore Mar 18, 2025 ▶ 10:38 Why AI Voice Feels More Human Than Ever
Mar 20, 2025
Disclosure
Jain: 11x was a customer for a large percentage of YC startups
“If you went to, like, the last, like, YC demo day, you probably saw ElevenX as a customer for such a large percentage of those companies.”
Prabhav Jain Mar 20, 2025 ▶ 16:03 The Future of Digital Workers
Jun 25, 2025 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Roy Lee: Cluely generates more revenue than the latest YC batch
“We wrote our first lines of code 10 weeks ago. We're, like, earlier than the latest YC batch of companies, yet we're, like, generating probably more revenue than every single one of them, and, like, the product is, like, it's literally two and a half months si…”
Roy Lee Jun 25, 2025 ▶ 33:25 Building Cluely: The Viral AI Startup that raised $15M in 10 Weeks w/ Roy Lee
Aug 23, 2025 positive
Opinion
Horowitz: Y Combinator is a16z's closest spiritual analog
“I think they're probably, you know, the closest analog to us. Kind of spiritually.”
Ben Horowitz Aug 23, 2025 ▶ 2:25 Ben Horowitz Shares the a16z Origin Story & Plans for the Future
Aug 23, 2025 bullish
Insight
Horowitz says Paul Graham's Y Combinator succeeded by requiring founder-owned ideas
“And I thought Paul's genius was the ideas weren't his. And that's was the difference between an incubator and an accelerator. And that I think, you know, just proved to be the right model. And the reason it's the right model is because whoever's building the c…”
Ben Horowitz Aug 23, 2025 ▶ 17:49 Ben Horowitz Shares the a16z Origin Story & Plans for the Future
Nov 26, 2025
Assertion Supported
1990s tech incubators took 50% equity compared to Y Combinator's 7%
“The incubators in those days went for like a 50% equity split right, as contrasted to like Y Combinator, which is famously like seven percent.”
Marc Andreessen Nov 26, 2025 ▶ 6:05 The Secret Marketing Strategy That Built a16z: From Zero to Legendary VC Firm
Aug 11, 2026
Disclosure
Tan: YC advice prompt was reduced 90% in Claude before open-sourcing
“And then I actually had to go into Claude and I said, reduce this by 90%. Reduce the strength and intensity of this prompt by 90%. And then I open sourced that. Cause some of it's like, you gotta come and, you know, do YC.”
Garry Tan Aug 11, 2026 ▶ 17:57 Garry Tan: New Rules for Founders
Aug 11, 2026
Insight
Tan: Founders should avoid following the crowd when sectors are declared dead
“And then you shouldn't follow what the crowd is saying, right? Like, at that moment, people said the web was dead, but that was sort of the perfect time to work on web and social and things like that and, you know, I didn't do it.”
Garry Tan Aug 11, 2026 ▶ 2:44 Garry Tan: New Rules for Founders
Aug 11, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Tan: Y Combinator funded Clawvisor, which built an agent-only bug reporting API
“There's a, API company that we funded called Clawvisor, and they released a bug report endpoint that is not for humans to use. It's for agents who use their software to use”
Garry Tan Aug 11, 2026 ▶ 37:41 Garry Tan: New Rules for Founders
Aug 11, 2026 bullish
Insight
Tan: Startups use AI to compress six-month product releases into days
“Like you could release something in a day or two that would have taken like six months. And if you could like multiply that out across, like the thing is like probably an org like Microsoft can't. But, like, a startup can. And every startup must.”
Garry Tan Aug 11, 2026 ▶ 36:37 Garry Tan: New Rules for Founders
Aug 11, 2026 neutral
Insight
Garry Tan: Existing institutions are constrained by human working memory limits
“And so the whole world, like all business, all things that people rely on, government especially is basically still built on a world that is predicated by human beings, limited human beings that can only keep seven plus or minus two things in their head.”
Garry Tan Aug 11, 2026 ▶ 31:30 Garry Tan: New Rules for Founders
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