Absolute Must Watch: Office Hours With Paul Graham At TC Disrupt. Y Combinator Is Boot Camp for Startups. From left: Business boot campers Sandy Spicer (Moki.tv), Qasar Younis (TalkBin), John Egan (Sendoid), Jonathan Deutsch (Tumult), Aaron Harris (Tutorspree), Laura Valverde (Beetailer), and Wei Hsu: (Hyperink)Photo: Robyn Twomey The Y Combinator offices sit at the dead center of Silicon Valley, in Mountain View, on a street called Pioneer Way.
Outside, the traffic hums along CA-z85 headed either south to Cupertino or north toward Google headquarters. Inside, the decor of the main room combines modern office (big whiteboard, bright orange noise-dampening panels) with camp dining hall (long trestle tables). Y Combinator shares space with a company called Anybots—which makes robots that can be controlled remotely—and occasionally a droid will motor through the room on a Segway-style base.
On this November day, the Terminator itself could be roaming around the main room and the young men (and the occasional woman) gathered here wouldn’t notice. Joseph Walla, HelloFaxPhoto: Robyn Twomey. Australia gets its own Y Combinator-type fund. A close-knit group of Australia’s technology startup elite has formed a new seed fund that will offer small investment rounds and up-close mentoring to local technology startups, in a similar model to famed US incubator Y Combinator.
Dubbed Startmate, the fund has been created by Homethinking founder Niki Scevak — who has also been involved in a number of other startups such as the BookmarkBox. The fund surfaced today at the Tech23 event held in Sydney, which highlights 23 up and coming companies and connects them with investors, mentors and the press. The list of those involved in the fund — contributing money and advice — reads like a who’s who of Australia’s startup sector. Former Realestate.com.au chief Simon Baker is also involved, as well as the two founders of local firm Atlassian, which recently took $60 million in funding from US VC firm Accel Partners – Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. And that’s not the whole list — there are many more entrepreneurs involved. Y Combinator (company) Y Combinator is an American seed accelerator, started in March 2005.
Y Combinator provides seed money, advice, and connections at two three-month programs per year. In exchange, they take an average of about 6% of the company's equity.[1] As of 2013, Y Combinator has funded over 500 companies in over 30 different markets.[2] In 2012, Y Combinator was named the top startup incubator and accelerator by Forbes.[3] The program consists of weekly dinners where guests come to speak to the founders.[4] The firm is named after a construct in the theory of functional programming called the "Y Combinator".[9] From its inception to 2008, one program was held in each of the US cities of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Mountain View, California. In 2009, Y Combinator partnered with Sequoia Capital and angel investors such as Ron Conway, Paul Buchheit and Aydin Senkut to further the support of the young startups with increased funding.[13]
What We Do. What We Do Y Combinator does seed funding for startups.
Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding. It pays your expenses while you're getting started. Some companies may need no more than seed funding. Others will go through several rounds. At Y Combinator, our goal is to get you through the first phase. More Than Money. Y Combinator FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions What Happens at Y Combinator?
This. How can we get funding for our startup? Apply online for our next funding cycle. We fund startups twice a year. When will the application form for the next cycle be online? Usually at least a few months before the deadline, which is usually in October for winter batches and March for summer batches. We've already been working on our startup for a while. We've funded a lot of startups like that. Don't incorporate, though, if you can avoid it. We've already taken some funding. Sure. We don't want funding, but will you give us advice? Unfortunately we can't. Can you recommend other investors who might be interested in our idea? When you refer someone to an investor, you're also recommending them, and you can't recommend people you don't know. How much do you invest? Usually $11,000 + $3000 per founder. What is the valuation cap on the convertible notes? They're uncapped. Startup Library.