Did they not "coerce" you? earlier I was in McD [market st sf] literally reading your blog post midway when it went missing. are you finally captured too?
thought my browser had a bug, but No the post is gone!
So much for transparency YC... simply getting from bad to worse.
@OP you should have updated the blog post with an "2025 Update" box featured at the top as per Internet custom, instead of pulling the whole damn thing down.
> don't censure bad [..] YC are the ones who teach how important is negative feedback for improvement
? what about:
> there was this feeling in the air that they want to cram everyone into their framework, and any attempts to go beyond the framework are quickly suppressed
Listen to your younger self. Is suppressing and self-censorship now the new normal?
- I feel the in-person thing makes and breaks the YC magic, people who go through in-person cohorts feel much more connected to their batchmates and partners
- The batches got significantly leaner = more attention to each individual company
- Selling inside YC is a thing again (specifically for AI companies), since everyone around is doing AI and isn't lacking money YC companies basically buy from each other and get to 1M ARR together
- The investment premium is there, with YC startups getting avg cap of 25M comparing to 15M for non-YC startups of similar stage (even with greater traction)
- Bonus: the alumni events and off-site experiences became a nice addition, even for the previous cohorts
Overall, I feel we experienced YC at its lowest, and it's not fair to use it as a reference point. There are still challenges with dilution (MFN) and the alumni experience (you basically lose most of the access), but they definitely listened to the feedback and have made positive changes that founders can already feel.