acecreamu

Thank you!

OP here, I feel the information in my article got outdated too quickly, so wanted to quickly revisit my statements with respect to the current experience (as of 2025):

- 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.

Need more episodes of this series

They are all legit, but serve different purposes (early vs late stage). I would recommend starting from syndicates or investing with friends, so you have someone to guide you in the first steps.

Sounds like something a HN moderator would ask to identify spammers

Then you will be even more surprised to see another AI Recommendations in the most recent batch

I wrote the original article before we even thought about it, if it helps.

Don't try to blame others, see what works for you and where you can improve. Some people can make other run for them and send donations without even trying. It's not about them or cruel word. Your problems are about you, and you need to either solve them or to switch to something that works for you, or you will be suffering the rest of life.

Yes sir, slise.xyz - new market, new team, much larger and more painful problem to tackle. Lessons learned.

double that, most of the people in the e-commmerce don't have any idea what is YC

The uncomfortable truth is that YC is a highly competitive program, the best teams invest a lot into preparation to get there. If you have nothing and need 150k to start your company, than you have better ways to find it, than the most prestigious accelerator in the world.

The dilution at that point would be unbearable