Y Combinator, every mention

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every year anyone Michael Copeland 9Wade Foster 8Steph Smith 8Justin Kan 7Erik Torenberg 7Anish Acharya 7Marc Andreessen 4Garry Tan 4Tom Lehman 3Matt Clifford 3

Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where Y Combinator comes up

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How Cursor Built One of AI’s Fastest-Growing Companies Aug 27, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 15:56 Martin Casado So like, Windsurf actually did this very smart thing where they went to YC, and there was a lot of YC users using it, so you kind of had this kind of whole movement on Windsurf, um, and you know, Cognition was a phenomenal company,… 2 times in the scene

Tokens Are the New Dollars | Stripe's Will Gaybrick & David George Aug 17, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 5:35 David George And then famously, part of the beauty of Stripe's growth and business model is that you captured companies like DoorDash and Instacart when they were NYC.

Garry Tan: New Rules for Founders Aug 11, 2026 · 11 mentions

Why Physical AI Is the Next Frontier | The a16z Show Jul 21, 2026 · 5 mentions

Jake Paul on Going From YouTube to Boxing to Investing | a16z ft. Anti Fund Jun 22, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 59:10 Jeff Woo So I think, and like me coming up in Silicon Valley, Stanford, Y Combinator, uh, I think we just got a lot of reps at meeting people, getting pitched things,

Building Agents at Home: Homeschooling, Parenting and More | The a16z Show Apr 13, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 1:30 Jessie Genet so I, I, I started a company, um, many years ago now, um, time, time flies, but I was a YC founder, um, you know, um, did a, did a venture backed company kind of full cycle.

The Unicorn Founder Who Delegated Everything. Dec 10, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 46:55 Erik Torenberg and so he's able to, like, I remember he was at YC, and he was talking to my, one of my friends about sort of this universal basic income company.

The Secret Marketing Strategy That Built a16z: From Zero to Legendary VC Firm Nov 26, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 6:05 Marc Andreessen Yeah, they, they, they specifically, they, they, they, and the incubators in those days went for like a 50% equity split, um, right, as contrasted to like Y Combinator, which is famously like seven percent.

Seeing The Future from AI Companions to Personal Software Nov 5, 2025 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 39:38 Eugenia Kuyda I think that, yeah, so when, um, when OpenAI started was kind of out of YC, um, it was YC research, so they were doing a few, I guess you remember, they were doing a few different research groups, one on, uh, UBI, one on AI, some other… 3 times in the scene

Is Non-Consensus Investing Overrated? Sep 4, 2025 · 2 mentions

Ben Horowitz Shares the a16z Origin Story & Plans for the Future Aug 23, 2025 · 5 mentions

  • ▶ 2:16 Erik Torenberg I've always thought of why a Combinator is another example of a product firm in the sense that you could replace a lot of the investors and they have over time. 4 times in the scene
  • ▶ 5:54 Erik Torenberg Speaking of the future of venture, will venture firms consider going public or should they consider like a YC or like you guys or firms that achieve such level of scale?

Building Cluely: The Viral AI Startup that raised $15M in 10 Weeks w/ Roy Lee Jun 25, 2025 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 23:59 Erik Torenberg Paul Graham, when he started Y Combinator, identified that technical founders were undervalued, that they were being underappreciated and people thought, oh, you know, you need to have an MBA or, and you realize, hey, it's easier to teach…
  • ▶ 33:27 Roy Lee 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, like, the product is, like, it's literally two and a half months since, since being…

Marc Andreessen Reveals His Biggest Wins and Mistakes at a16z Jun 2, 2025 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 16:51 unnamed speaker It's fascinating because, you know, 1520 years ago, things like Y Combinator were getting off the ground.
  • ▶ 31:14 unnamed speaker You know, YC is still innovating, doing,

Autonomy is no longer a moonshot—it’s a market Apr 14, 2025 · 1 mention

The Top 100 GenAI Products, Ranked and Explained Mar 26, 2025 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 0:26 Olivia Moore 95% of YC companies or something are now
  • ▶ 16:28 Olivia Moore I think Gary Tan had some tweet that, like, 95% of YC companies or something are now kind of building, using those tools.

The Future of Digital Workers Mar 20, 2025 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 16:03 Prabhav Jain 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.
  • ▶ 19:58 Prabhav Jain Imagine YC Demo Day is coming up in a month.

Why AI Voice Feels More Human Than Ever Mar 18, 2025 · 5 mentions

  • ▶ 10:14 Steph Smith One interesting stat that you guys shared was the percentage of YC companies that are now pursuing AI voice. 4 times in the scene
  • ▶ 33:40 Steph Smith Or, you know, are we seeing that, you know, all of those YC companies or other companies that we're involved with are really getting further ahead?

Who Will Own the Internet? a16z’s Chris Dixon on AI and Crypto Feb 20, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 31:27 Chris Dixon Yeah, it's like a thing you do, like, you know, in places like Y Combinator and other places have done a good job of this.

How Zapier Became Profitable in 3 Years and Scaled to $5B with Wade Foster Dec 11, 2024 · 9 mentions

  • ▶ 3:24 Wade Foster So September, 2011 is when it starts, um, right after, um, YC had its, like, fall applications. 8 times in the scene
  • ▶ 4:50 Seema Amble So let's back up to the, the, I guess the time between, uh, launching Zapier and getting it, uh, getting it to YC.

How Gusto Used Customer Input to Scale Growth with Tomer London Dec 5, 2024 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 4:25 Tomer London Uh, we were also part of the Y Combinator incubator program, and obviously we went to every single batch mate multiple times until they agreed to, um, you know, to try us out as their, as their payroll provider.
  • ▶ 7:15 Tomer London So, you know, organically we were a part of this incubator program in YC, um, and companies all around us were all in California.
  • ▶ 8:42 Seema Amble I, the YC batches, uh, is a great, you know, obviously, um, initial, initial customer set.

The Future of Health Insurance in a Work Remote World Nov 14, 2024 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 4:38 Adam Beckman And so on Thatch Now, we've got, you know, companies ranging from funded tech startups, Y Combinator AI companies,

Launching a New Category with Modern Treasury's Dimitri Dadiomov Dec 12, 2023 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 4:10 Dimitri Dadiomov Left and started Modern Treasure, went through Y Combinator, and that was, that was the origin story.
  • ▶ 8:26 Dimitri Dadiomov So when we, uh, ended, uh, when we wrapped up YC, we still were not live with our first client.

The 1000x Developer with Amjad Masad Feb 16, 2023 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 8:55 Amjad Masad For example, 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.

The Factory of the Future with Chris Power Nov 18, 2022 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 1:01:06 Chris Power The really short version is like Stripe doesn't get to sell to AT&T until they sell to a bunch of white combination startups.

AI and the Creator Economy with Karen X Cheng Nov 9, 2022 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 3:07 Steph Smith I happened to stumble upon a video with Paul Graham and Sam Altman from 2013 YC office hours. 3 times in the scene

"Crypto Startup School" Documentary Oct 9, 2020 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 24:29 unnamed speaker Like it's hard to imagine going and pitching a Y Combinator or something and saying, um, we don't use the internet.
  • ▶ 28:36 Tope Alabi She has no idea what a white combinator is.

How to Raise Money from a Venture Investor Jun 14, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 11:03 Scott Cooper Uh, you'll hear this term if you've been in the YC world of something called a safe, which is basically just a fancy way of saying it's, it's a piece of debt that ultimately converts into equity at some, you know, predetermined price in…

10+1 Lessons from Serial Entrepreneur Justin Kan May 17, 2019 · 9 mentions

  • ▶ 4:17 Justin Kan Uh, and then, uh, more recently, I'd been a partner at Y Combinator for a couple years, and then, uh, incubated a few companies.
  • ▶ 5:36 Andrew Chen Um, I'm really fascinated by, you know, your movement from going from YC and an incubator where you can maybe kind of dip into a lot of little things versus kind of putting all your eggs in one basket and trying to like start a company… 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 27:35 Justin Kan So those people, Paul Graham, great example, founder of Y Combinator, Paul Buhay, who is like a partner of Y Combinator, but the inventor of Gmail inside of Google. 4 times in the scene
  • ▶ 36:42 Justin Kan You know, that's kind of a YC ethos. 2 times in the scene

a16z Podcast | Capitalizing on an Autonomous Vehicle Future Feb 26, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 0:15 Sonal Chokshi We also share some clarity on what levels of autonomy means there, including touching on regulatory aspects, and also discuss, quite frankly, capitalism, what cars mean nationalistically, and what it'll take to bridge the worlds of Silicon…

What's Next for Education Startups Jan 10, 2019 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 9:59 D'Arcy Coolican You're seeing things like, you know, YC, which is incredibly valuable as a networking place. 3 times in the scene

a16z Podcast | Building Crypto, from Vision to Reality Jan 2, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 31:33 Brian Armstrong Which would eventually become Coinbase, and then I applied to Y Combinator, and that's what gave me the confidence to, like, quit my job and say, alright, I'm actually gonna do this, maybe I'm not crazy.

a16z Podcast | Earned Secrets Jan 2, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 10:59 Ben Horowitz You know, I think Paul Graham did a Y Combinator study a while back, and he said, like, two is the ideal number of founders, and you could see where that would help in that it's a psychologically

a16z Podcast | Revenge of the Algorithms (Over Data)... Go! No? Jan 2, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 37:14 Frank Chen Yeah, for people who are interested, I'd highly recommend Andre Kaparthi's YC talk on this, the, you can search for it, it's on Google Slides, and he, the whole talk is basically about where will artificial general intelligence come from,…

a16z Podcast | From Jobs to Flying Cars Jan 2, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 28:13 Dan Primack That's interesting, I mean, but it's going beyond some of the, quote, the righteous issue, not quite maybe the differential calculus, but we were talking back, say, Jessica Livingston, who helped found Y Combinator, she wrote a

a16z Podcast | The Art of the Regulatory Hack Jan 2, 2019 · 1 mention

a16z Podcast | Disruption in Business... and Life Jan 2, 2019 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 5:47 Derek Anderson Some of them have stayed there, and some of them have gone upstream, and then you have people like the incubator, so like YC, who started at, at the really, I mean, when you talk about disruption, that model, I mean, they started with… 2 times in the scene

a16z Podcast | Hall of Fame Football Meets Venture Capital Jan 2, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 9:53 Joe Montana One guy who built, uh, sold, started and sold his company to Google, went back to Harvard Business School, finished there, but his, he basically ran the, uh, Google My Business for a while, and his co-founder now is the COO of, uh, Y…

a16z Podcast | Building Tech Startups in a Place Where Tech Isn’t Everything Jan 2, 2019 · 5 mentions

  • ▶ 3:06 Michelle You We started in 2007, and actually we got our start at Y Combinator and then transplanted over here afterwards, and when we first started, it was so difficult to hire for that exact reason.
  • ▶ 7:47 Sonal Chokshi Is that one of the, I mean, not to, um, you know, the, the analog that I think of is Y Combinator in
  • ▶ 8:10 Matt Clifford Um, so the, the comparison we would, the way we would always differentiate is, ah, you know, we think Y Combinator in particular is done a, you know, truly phenomenal job and huge fans of what they've achieved. 3 times in the scene

a16z Podcast | Using Social Tools to Build Homes for Those Most in Need Jan 2, 2019 · 13 mentions

  • ▶ 6:33 Michael Copeland Before New Story sort of happened, you went through Y Combinator, YC. 8 times in the scene
  • ▶ 13:05 Michael Copeland And then a follow-up question around that is like, then, you know, you, you came through Y Combinator, you're in the startup world.
  • ▶ 15:59 Brett Hagler During YC, we did this campaign, um, we said, let's pick a crazy goal, um, 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, uh, we got, we got… 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 23:18 Alexandria Lafci And so, you know, one of the tenants that we kind of knew of before YC, but it's definitely preached throughout YC, is this do, do things that don't scale, right?

a16z Podcast | Is Entrepreneurship a Universal Language? Jan 2, 2019 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 14:13 Chris Schroeder Are you talking about, like, uh, Y Combinator and 500 startups, or? 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 19:03 Chris Schroeder And I mean, a little secret I think about them even in America is that maybe with the exception of Y Combinator, maybe 500 startups, a lot of them in the States, um, have had a mixed batting average in all.

a16z Podcast | Guiding Startup Culture -- The Genius ISMs Jan 2, 2019 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 19:46 Tom Lehman The other side of it is just an experience that, that we had, like, particularly in Y Combinator, which was just, we get to Y Combinator, and, you know, frankly, I personally, at least, was totally starstruck, you know, like Paul Graham in… 3 times in the scene

Company Building in Crypto: A Conversation between Brian Armstrong and Chris Dixon Dec 21, 2018 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 4:03 Brian Armstrong That would eventually become Coinbase on nights and weekends, and, um, I applied to Y Combinator.
  • ▶ 30:56 Chris Dixon Uh, talking about Y Combinator, Paul Graham was in Boston, my company was in Boston, and I pitched him, I'd read his anti-spam blog post, and I was trying, I had this whole idea to use like hashcash, it's funny, these same characters…
  • ▶ 39:23 Brian Armstrong Or is it, um, like, in a more global sense, like, my identity is, I'm a global citizen, and I have this online identity, and maybe I, maybe I feel a stronger sense of identity with, like, this Facebook group, or, like, you know, Y…

10 Years Too Early: On a Tech Career, Business, and Investing Aug 3, 2018 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 30:02 unnamed speaker We like to joke, maybe we should start Z Combinator, which is to take every Y Combinator founder that failed and just give them money, right?

Jason Mars Jul 28, 2017 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 17:58 unnamed speaker So BankJoy is a Y Combinator-backed startup that is providing APIs to banks and credit unions.
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