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Jun 8, 2022 · 19m · y-combinator

Y Combinator Is Back In Person · Y Combinator

Michael Seibel · 10m spoken Dalton Caldwell · 7m spoken
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Y Combinator partners Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell announce the return of in-person programming for the Summer 2022 batch while sharing actionable advice on startup trends, founder mindsets during economic downturns, and the strategic value of YC's updated $500,000 Standard Deal.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The partners hold 99.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

The partners as informed peer 8.0 Guest teaching 0.7 Guest disagreement 0.2 The partners pushing back 0.3
05100:0010:000:00–2:08 · The partners as informed peer 7/10 In-Person Events Announcement Michael Seibel outlines the logistics of transitioning YC back to an in-person model with retreats and regional meetups. The conversation is purely collaborative and informative between partners.2:08–5:02 · The partners as informed peer 8/10 Summer 2022 Batch Trends Both hosts analyze application trends and counter-cyclical founder behavior, referencing historical data from Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe during past market blips.5:02–8:01 · The partners as informed peer 8/10 Tech Relocation and San Francisco Rebound Dalton and Michael deconstruct the content marketing hype surrounding remote work and city exodus versus the reality of founders returning to San Francisco.8:01–10:22 · The partners as informed peer 8/10 Economic Downturn and Sober Analysis The hosts discuss founder reactions to YC's downturn letter, emphasizing the need for disciplined planning, assessing default alive status, and ignoring late-stage panic.10:22–15:57 · The partners as informed peer 9/10 The New YC Standard Deal They break down the strategic mechanics of the $500k standard deal. Michael briefly pushes Dalton to drop the Wall Street Bets euphemisms and speak plainly about the overheated market.15:57–17:40 · The partners as informed peer 8/10 YC Guiding Principles and Founder Alignment Michael and Dalton reflect on YC's fundamental philosophy of maximizing founder leverage and doing what they wished partners did when they were founders.0:00–2:08 · Guest teaching 0/10 In-Person Events Announcement Michael Seibel outlines the logistics of transitioning YC back to an in-person model with retreats and regional meetups. The conversation is purely collaborative and informative between partners.2:08–5:02 · Guest teaching 1/10 Summer 2022 Batch Trends Both hosts analyze application trends and counter-cyclical founder behavior, referencing historical data from Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe during past market blips.5:02–8:01 · Guest teaching 1/10 Tech Relocation and San Francisco Rebound Dalton and Michael deconstruct the content marketing hype surrounding remote work and city exodus versus the reality of founders returning to San Francisco.8:01–10:22 · Guest teaching 1/10 Economic Downturn and Sober Analysis The hosts discuss founder reactions to YC's downturn letter, emphasizing the need for disciplined planning, assessing default alive status, and ignoring late-stage panic.10:22–15:57 · Guest teaching 1/10 The New YC Standard Deal They break down the strategic mechanics of the $500k standard deal. Michael briefly pushes Dalton to drop the Wall Street Bets euphemisms and speak plainly about the overheated market.15:57–17:40 · Guest teaching 0/10 YC Guiding Principles and Founder Alignment Michael and Dalton reflect on YC's fundamental philosophy of maximizing founder leverage and doing what they wished partners did when they were founders.0:00–2:08 · Guest disagreement 0/10 In-Person Events Announcement Michael Seibel outlines the logistics of transitioning YC back to an in-person model with retreats and regional meetups. The conversation is purely collaborative and informative between partners.2:08–5:02 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Summer 2022 Batch Trends Both hosts analyze application trends and counter-cyclical founder behavior, referencing historical data from Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe during past market blips.5:02–8:01 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Tech Relocation and San Francisco Rebound Dalton and Michael deconstruct the content marketing hype surrounding remote work and city exodus versus the reality of founders returning to San Francisco.8:01–10:22 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Economic Downturn and Sober Analysis The hosts discuss founder reactions to YC's downturn letter, emphasizing the need for disciplined planning, assessing default alive status, and ignoring late-stage panic.10:22–15:57 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The New YC Standard Deal They break down the strategic mechanics of the $500k standard deal. Michael briefly pushes Dalton to drop the Wall Street Bets euphemisms and speak plainly about the overheated market.15:57–17:40 · Guest disagreement 0/10 YC Guiding Principles and Founder Alignment Michael and Dalton reflect on YC's fundamental philosophy of maximizing founder leverage and doing what they wished partners did when they were founders.0:00–2:08 · The partners pushing back 0/10 In-Person Events Announcement Michael Seibel outlines the logistics of transitioning YC back to an in-person model with retreats and regional meetups. The conversation is purely collaborative and informative between partners.2:08–5:02 · The partners pushing back 0/10 Summer 2022 Batch Trends Both hosts analyze application trends and counter-cyclical founder behavior, referencing historical data from Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe during past market blips.5:02–8:01 · The partners pushing back 0/10 Tech Relocation and San Francisco Rebound Dalton and Michael deconstruct the content marketing hype surrounding remote work and city exodus versus the reality of founders returning to San Francisco.8:01–10:22 · The partners pushing back 0/10 Economic Downturn and Sober Analysis The hosts discuss founder reactions to YC's downturn letter, emphasizing the need for disciplined planning, assessing default alive status, and ignoring late-stage panic.10:22–15:57 · The partners pushing back 2/10 The New YC Standard Deal They break down the strategic mechanics of the $500k standard deal. Michael briefly pushes Dalton to drop the Wall Street Bets euphemisms and speak plainly about the overheated market.15:57–17:40 · The partners pushing back 0/10 YC Guiding Principles and Founder Alignment Michael and Dalton reflect on YC's fundamental philosophy of maximizing founder leverage and doing what they wished partners did when they were founders.

speaking balance: gold is the partners, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · the partners 99.9% · guest 0.1%0:00 · the partners 99.9% · guest 0.1%3:00 · the partners 100% · guest 0%3:00 · the partners 100% · guest 0%6:00 · the partners 99.5% · guest 0.5%6:00 · the partners 99.5% · guest 0.5%9:00 · the partners 100% · guest 0%9:00 · the partners 100% · guest 0%12:00 · the partners 99.7% · guest 0.3%12:00 · the partners 99.7% · guest 0.3%15:00 · the partners 99.9% · guest 0.1%15:00 · the partners 99.9% · guest 0.1%18:00 · the partners 99.8% · guest 0.2%18:00 · the partners 99.8% · guest 0.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:34 Dalton on outside investor annoyance

Dalton playfully calls out outside venture capitalists who get angry at YC for giving founders too much leverage and capital upfront.

 Hardest push from the partners ▶ 11:55 Demanding clear explanations without jargon

Michael directly interjects to tell Dalton to stop speaking in Wall Street Bets code and clearly articulate what market signals they observed.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:37 Historical perspective on seed round dilution

Dalton reframes modern fundraising expectations by citing how Airbnb and Dropbox raised less than a million dollars while taking heavy dilution.

 The partners hold their own ▶ 14:03 Michael breaks down standard deal dilution benefits

Michael demonstrates deep tactical knowledge by detailing how the new standard deal dropped founder seed round dilution from 20% down to under 10%.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicThe partners as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementThe partners pushing backWhy
In-Person Events Announcement 7000 Michael Seibel outlines the logistics of transitioning YC back to an in-person model with retreats and regional meetups. The conversation is purely collaborative and informative between partners.
Summer 2022 Batch Trends 8100 Both hosts analyze application trends and counter-cyclical founder behavior, referencing historical data from Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe during past market blips.
Tech Relocation and San Francisco Rebound 8100 Dalton and Michael deconstruct the content marketing hype surrounding remote work and city exodus versus the reality of founders returning to San Francisco.
Economic Downturn and Sober Analysis 8100 The hosts discuss founder reactions to YC's downturn letter, emphasizing the need for disciplined planning, assessing default alive status, and ignoring late-stage panic.
The New YC Standard Deal 9112 They break down the strategic mechanics of the $500k standard deal. Michael briefly pushes Dalton to drop the Wall Street Bets euphemisms and speak plainly about the overheated market.
YC Guiding Principles and Founder Alignment 8000 Michael and Dalton reflect on YC's fundamental philosophy of maximizing founder leverage and doing what they wished partners did when they were founders.

Statements from this episode (11)

Disclosure
Seibel: YC Summer 2022 batch will be fully in person
“For the first time since winter, 2020, this new batch, the summer 22 batch will be in person.”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 0:22
Assertion Supported
Caldwell: YC's best startups often launch during economic downturns
“Some of the best companies we've ever funded happened when either there was a full downturn or at least a blip.”
Dalton Caldwell Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 3:38
Insight
Seibel: Hype cycles harm startups by making hiring and acquisition harder
“In the middle of the hype cycle, hiring is harder. Getting access to customers is harder. Like, 17 of your competitors are gonna all get funded. Like, you know, it's weird because on the surface, the hype cycle looks good, but when you actually get into the di…”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 4:03
Opinion
Caldwell: Tech workers and founders are moving back to SF and NYC
“I think a lot of folks are moving back right now. New York too. It just seems like people are going back to the big centers because they're getting bored and lonely and feel kind of over it.”
Dalton Caldwell Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 5:46
Insight
Seibel: Founders want to join established ecosystems, not build new ones
“I think the founders I talked to, they don't want to build a startup ecosystem. They want to be a part of a startup ecosystem.”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 6:08
Opinion
Seibel: Anti-SF narratives ignore recent college graduates eager to move there
“I think that a lot of that content marketing is unfortunately written by like people our age, people with kids, people living in San Francisco for like the last two years who were generally pissy about COVID. And it was like less responding to someone who migh…”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 7:22
Insight
Caldwell: Downturns are ideal times for low-burn underdogs to attack high-burn rivals
“Cause again, for some folks, the actual move is to go on offense, right? Just like we said a moment ago where they're like, okay, I see. So this is the score. Got it. Time to go hard against my competitors who are have higher burn. Yeah. You know, like this is…”
Dalton Caldwell Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 9:01
Opinion
Seibel: VCs urged startups to burn cash to drive their own markups
“What's unfortunate is that they had just gone through this two year cycle where investors were basically screaming at them to burn and raise because investors were getting markups and they were raising new funds”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 10:20
Disclosure
Seibel: YC did not increase standard deal to compete with seed funds
“People were looking at the YC standard deal being like, oh, like YC has to compete. There's so many, New seed funds out there. And I think what's interesting is if you would kind of take it inside baseball for a second, that's really not the reason we did it a…”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 11:08
Disclosure
Seibel: YC has the budget to fund over 1,400 companies
“The fact that we have budget to fund over 1400 companies with this standard deal.”
Michael Seibel Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 13:10
Opinion
Caldwell: Outside venture capitalists get angry at YC for empowering founders
“And it's just funny how like doing that really seems to annoy investors that we're like, again, we're like giving away We're like on the wrong team a lot. They seem really mad at us.”
Dalton Caldwell Jun 8, 2022 ▶ 16:43
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