[nostrademons]

It occurred to me that this shifts YC incentives from the early-stage to the late stage. They're not as incentivized to get great valuations at demo day, but they're more incentivized to continue assisting startups throughout their lifetime.

Whether this is good or bad for a founder depends on what they're using YC for. It may remove the immediate valuation "pop" from the calculus: right now, YC is almost worth it regardless of what they do because whatever equity they take ends up coming out of future investors' shares through the the valuation pop, and that effect may disappear. OTOH, it also means that YC can be expected to help provide advice and introductions throughout later rounds as well, as they maintain their financial incentive all the way up to $250M.

It seems to fit with YC's stated mission of trying to build more sustainable, world-changing businesses, along with other actions they've taken like experimenting with late-stage funding and taking on more partners with operational experience.