Y Combinator
also referred to as: yc
includes Y Combinator Continuity Fund
15 statements across 4 episodes · 11 bullish · 1 bearish · 4 people on the record · first statement Jan 28, 2010 by Brian Chesky · said 136 times in 11 episodes since 2010 · across every show →
Mentions by year, the whole family
brought up most by Andrew Warner (87), Garry Tan (18), Brian Chesky (14), Steve Huffman (12), Noah Kagan (3), Evgeny Matze (1), David Shim (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2026 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2025 52 mentions in 4 episodes 13 per episode
2014 15 mentions in 1 episode
2010 65 mentions in 3 episodes 22 per episode
- #216 How Clever Entrepreneurs Turned 3 Air Mattresses Into Airbnb, The Site That Makes Any Home A Bed And Breakfast – with Brian and Joe
- #400 Reddit Founder: “I Wish I Still Owned Reddit Now” – with Steve Huffman
- #214 How To Produce Like A Linchpin By Understanding Your Lizard Brain – with Seth Godin
- every mention in 2010, scene by scene →
Everything said about Y Combinator, oldest first
Jan 28, 2010 positive
Chesky: Founders with existing products get the most value from YC
“My advice is for people to have already kind of figured out, like, so they already have something going. They've already kind of struggled through an idea and figured it out. I think those are the people that are at the best advantage. And then Paul Graham can…”
Jan 28, 2010 positive
Chesky: Paul Graham doubted Airbnb's idea but praised founders' resourcefulness
“It, the long story short is we ended up getting in Y Combinator, and I remember on the interview, he brought the cereal, and, you know, Paul Graham said, I remember him saying, like, he wasn't entirely sure of the idea. He said, well, it sounds different, but …”
Jan 28, 2010 positive
Chesky: Making 100 people love a product is the hardest startup hurdle
“And the other idea, and this is actually something that Paul Buckeye is one of the speakers at Wycombe as well, he said,
He said, make something that a hundred people love.
And it may take a year, it may take two years for a hundred people to love it, but that…”
Jan 28, 2010 negative
Jan 28, 2010 positive
Oct 20, 2010 positive
Huffman: Paul Graham is an exceptional product thinker lacking social filters
“Paul is, I think he's an exceptionally good product guy. He has a really good eye for what's useful and what isn't. And he's also completely stateless and has no social filter. So it helps that you can go to this guy who will just be like, this is stupid. And …”
Oct 20, 2010 positive
Apr 9, 2014 positive
Livingston remains fully engaged at Y Combinator as Sam Altman assumes leadership
“Ah, a lot of people ask me that, even though my name was not in the announcement as taking a step back. But no, I'm just as engaged as I've always been, and in fact, ah, with Sam on board doing a lot of the administrative things that I Used to do. I'm excited …”
Apr 9, 2014
Livingston: Founders must pivot if users do not return
“I think so. You don't, you wouldn't believe how married founders get to their idea, and it's easy to go into denial on, you know, whether people actually use it, cause like that's the proof, right? If no one is, is coming back to your site, then there's someth…”
Oct 17, 2025 positive
Oct 17, 2025 positive
Tan: Founders Worry Prematurely About Market Size Ceilings
“I think a lot of founders are worried about that early, but my sense is maybe it's premature worry because embedded in that is also the case text pivot that, you know, they got users and an understanding and a useful corpus of data All of which turned into a t…”
Oct 17, 2025 bullish
Oct 17, 2025 neutral
Oct 17, 2025 positive
Oct 17, 2025
Tan: 18-to-22-year-old founders at YC are up over 100% year-over-year
“Well, even at YC, like, we are seeing the rate of 18 to twenty-two-year-olds at YC is up by more than a hundred percent year on year. The rate of twenty-two-year-olds to twenty-five-year-olds is up about 20%. And then the rate of 25 to thirty-year-olds is actu…”