Four Years Later, YC Hasn't Changed
Revisiting my "How Expensive is YC?" Post
Four and a half years ago, I wrote a post that I believe got me blacklisted from YC called “How Expensive Is Y Combinator?” To this day, it is the most viewed post I’ve ever written. The 1,000 ft view is that the thing that makes YC expensive is not its concrete equity terms, but how it meets many founders very early in their careers and forces them to give up their optionality before they even know what they are doing with their professional life. I’m revisiting this post because I found an example on Twitter backing up my thesis that I wanted to highlight.
This is a guy who got into YC in 2024, realized the VC path wasn’t for him, then quit the startup to do what he actually wants to do. Find the original post here.
In his comments, he also added this context, which is the key point to focus on.
I don’t know this person. We have never met. There is probably context I don’t have on this situation. But all I see are the words in front of me. And it looks to me like this guy is reinforcing my post beautifully. YC is in the business of pattern-matching founders who have the chance to build a generational company, whether or not they truly want to. This guy paid the price for a bit but was enlightened enough to get off the track.
How many people are like this guy but actually raise a ton of money and get reasonable traction? It’s not so easy to get off the VC train then.
When I wrote my post, there were very few alternatives to YC. YC was kind of the only front door to Silicon Valley. Today, I think there are more than a few good options for founders who don’t want to go from zero to 100 if they aren’t sold on building a VC-backed company… yet. Here are a few I like.
Founders Inc. – I perceive Founders Inc. to have a walk-before-run model. They don’t fund you out of the gate. There are month-long building seasons and an IRL space to get a feel for the program before committing at an equity level.
ODF – ODF is a week-long intro to SF, and I don’t believe they take any equity at all.
South Park Commons - A firm, but has a massive community arm where there are events and ways to get closer to the brand without diving from 0 to 100.
The Residency- This is a massive hacker house network around the world, with light accountability baked in as well. Investing in residents is an option, but not the default model.
Mat Capital - An ecosystem with three layers: community, advising, investing. Allows you to dip your toe in before jumping into the deep end.
YC has an incentive, but it doesn’t have an incentive to be 100% thoughtful with you about it. If you are an ambitious 22-year-old, they are not going to sit down with you for 30 minutes and talk you through the pros and cons of raising venture capital. Maybe slow your roll and make sure this is something you really want to do before going down this path.
Jonathan’s story above is one public example. I know there are hundreds of private ones. Be careful out there.