Are accelerator and fellowship programs valuable for early-stage founders?

Kyle Harrison · published Oct 21, 2022

There is nothing like YC, and its compounding advantage is not going away.

No firm compounds the way YC does because it is so expansive and involved across so many aspects, bringing people in through many different routes.

25:54 20VC: Why 75% of Active Investors Will Disappear in the Next Few Years, The Death of "So So" Venture Firms is Coming, The Rise of Blackstone of Venture Firms and What That Does To Venture Returns, How the World of LPs is Broken and more with Kyle Harrison

Kevin Hartz · published Jul 22, 2024

Y Combinator still has the ideal venture model and keeps producing incredible companies despite the valley repeatedly declaring it has jumped the shark

Year after year the classes keep producing incredible companies

56:28 20VC: How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet | Investing Lessons from Roelof Botha & Peter Thiel | Why VC is Less Collaborative Than Ever and Great Companies Are Being Destroyed by Too Much Cash with Kevin Hartz @ A*

Max Junestrand · published Aug 15, 2025

Doing YC was worth it for them because it put an unknown Swedish company into the global spotlight

They were a Swedish company by nobodies and YC gave them global visibility, which they exploited fully

Scope: their case as a non-US, unknown startup

27:24 20VC: 15 Term Sheets in 7 Days and Choosing Benchmark | Harvey vs Legora: Who Wins Legal and How to Play When You Have $600M Less Funding | Are AI Models Plateauing Today | Building a 9-9-6 Culture From Stockholm with Max Junestrand

Harry Stebbings · published Dec 15, 2025

Y Combinator is the single biggest buy in venture and has won internationally

Essentially every great European company is a YC company

Scope: framed as his own recent change of mind

53:41 20VC: a16z's David George on How $BN Funds Can 5×, Do Margins & Revenue Matter in AI & the Most Controversial Bet at a16z

Pat Grady · published Jul 8, 2024

ARC has been a wild success on the dimension that founders like it, evidenced by an NPS of 100 in the last batch, thousands of applications, referrals, and strong founders later showing up at Series A and B.

Only two things matter for such a program: whether founders like it and whether it makes money for LPs; the first is an overwhelming success

38:26 Founder satisfaction metrics like nps validate a fellowship program though lp returns remain unproven

Max Junestrand · published Aug 15, 2025

To compete globally a startup has to be known in the US, and YC is what put them on that map

Being in YC is the only reason they were introduced to and raised from Benchmark

28:32 Us visibility via yc is necessary for global fundraising access

Kyle Harrison · published Oct 21, 2022

Y Combinator has built a generational community, but nobody in venture — including YC — has cracked staying relevant in a founder's life on an ongoing basis rather than as a one-and-done program

Programs are something you're in and then out of, remembered as fond memories; an actual relationship requires continuing to be relevant to someone over time

20:51 No accelerator including yc has cracked staying relevant to founders beyond the program

Harry Stebbings · published Oct 21, 2022

YC halving its batch size and bringing Gary Tan back is the biggest sign of strength from YC, and it has reconcentrated power that the unbundling of accelerators had splattered.

25:32 Yc halving batch size and recentralizing leadership under gary tan signals strength

Dan Siroker · published May 15, 2024

Second-time founders should still do YC — he regrets skipping it out of pride, since YC keeps delivering value through things like Work at a Startup and office hours

He thought he didn't need it, but YC's ongoing resources help even experienced founders, and Gary Tan's recent reinvention of YC is impressive

65:29 Second time founders should still do yc for ongoing resources not just batch status

Josh Browder · published May 18, 2026

The Thiel Fellowship works because it is non-transactional — the money is a prize given to the individual with no strings, so recipients can spend it on anything from organ research to investing in other fellows

33:50 Non transactional no strings programs work best

Josh Browder · published May 18, 2026

For a middling company, joining an accelerator can be net negative because you are competing for attention and being compared against the batch's top companies

Attention inside a cohort is zero-sum; being the top company is kingmaking, but being average invites unfavorable comparison

37:03 Net negative for any company that is not batch top

Paul Graham · published Sep 2022

YC is better understood as specialization than as apprenticeship, which is why even experienced founders can benefit from it.

The partners' encyclopedic knowledge of startup problems and the founders' domain depth have different shapes, and neither would be worth the other acquiring; like an experienced athlete with a coach.

source Yc partner specialization complements founder domain depth benefiting even experienced founders

Paul Graham · published Sep 2022

Calling YC a 'bootcamp' is a mischaracterization: it is intense like one but structurally the opposite, since each startup works on its own specific needs rather than everyone doing the same thing.

Bootcamps standardize; YC individualizes through partner conversations about each startup's needs.

source Yc is individualized per startup not standardized bootcamp training

Paul Graham · published Oct 2006

Y Combinator, though it thinks of itself as an investor, is in effect a service that advises people whether or not to quit their day jobs — and it backs its judgments with money.

Seen from the founder's side, that is the judgment YC is making, and unlike other advisors YC bets money on its conclusions.

source Ycs real function is advising and betting money on whether founders should quit their day jobs

Paul Graham · published Mar 2008

What YC actually does is get startups launched straight — removing distractions, sorting cofounder tensions and paperwork, and choosing focus — rather than funding them.

Like launching planes, startups have to be set up properly or you're just launching projectiles.

source Ycs real function is launching startups properly not supplying money