Y Combinator 2027: Deadline, Funding and How to Apply

Y Combinator is the best-known startup accelerator in the world. It was founded in 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell, and it is now based in San Francisco. YC has funded thousands of companies, including Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, Coinbase, DoorDash and Reddit. Its standard deal is the same for every company. YC invests $500,000 on the day a company is accepted. $125,000 comes as a post-money SAFE for 7% of the company. The other $375,000 is an uncapped MFN SAFE that converts on the best terms of any SAFE issued between the batch start and the priced round. YC charges no fees. Each company also gets more than $12 million in credits and deals from partners. YC now runs four batches a year, and the program is in person in San Francisco. It invests in US, Canadian, Cayman and Singapore corporations, and companies elsewhere must restructure into one of those. YC accepts companies at every early stage. It says about 40% of each batch is just an idea, and it recommends applying as soon as you have a founding team and an idea you are excited about. Admission is highly competitive. For Winter 2024, YC selected 260 companies from more than 27,000 applications.

Each YC batch runs for three months in San Francisco. It starts with a three-day, in-person kick-off retreat. During the batch, founders attend weekly in-person events in San Francisco, including dinners with speakers, and meet YC group partners in office hours, both one-on-one and in small groups. The focus is on talking to users, shipping product and growing revenue each week. Founders also get access to Bookface, YC's internal network of alumni founders, and more than $12 million in partner credits and deals. The batch ends with Demo Day, where companies pitch to a large audience of investors. After Demo Day, companies stay part of the YC alumni network, and YC can invest in later rounds through its pro rata right.

YC looks for founding teams that can build the product themselves, which usually means at least one technical founder. It wants founders who will work on the company full time and who show fast progress, including progress since any earlier application. It accepts companies at the idea stage, which make up about 40% of each batch. YC reviews every application equally and says introductions are not needed.