| OP here, I feel the information in my article got outdated too quickly, so wanted to quickly revisit my statements with respect to the current experience (as of 2025): - I feel the in-person thing makes and breaks the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. |
Did they not "coerce" you to do that? Some disclaimers is needed - could you tell us that they did not led you to take it down?
earlier in the day I was in McD [market st sf] literally reading your blog post midway, refresh and the whole thing is gone darn! Did you got captured too?
I 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 a "2025 Update" textbox as per interwebs custom, instead of pulling the whole damn thing down. https://archive.is/cgKRF:
> don't censure bad [..] YC are the ones who teach how important is negative feedback for improvement
Seriously?
What about:
> pushing everyone through the same pipeline [....] everyone needs to follow their simple framework, not try to shine too much, not try to choose the right words, wash off all the makeup, put on a gray uniform
> 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 self censorship now the new normal?
I seriously wonder how many of such dissenting posts have already been clean-scrubbed off the internet
> internal forum called Bookface, but it serves more as an abstract omniscient brain
looks like its real usefulness is to "cover their own reputational risks", to track dissenters and mob against them. Beware!