Y Combinator
Startup accelerator in Money & business
Recommended for its founder network, funding that lets founders pay themselves, and fast application process; critics say its prestige has faded and its network favors insiders.
Recommended for its founder network, funding that lets founders pay themselves, and fast application process; critics say its prestige has faded and its network favors insiders.
47 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 27
- approval share
- 43%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Large network of founders and mentors
“A massive network of people you can draw on that surpasses literally anything you could build yourself.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Is YC worth it anymore?” “try to get into an accelerator like YC, who can make lots of customer intros in the early days”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Marketing for Founders” “Access to bookface network (secret network for YC founders and mentors).”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Is YC worth it anymore?” Strong track record and impact
“YC is pretty good at what it does, it still has a very high false negative rate”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Is applying to Y Combinator worth it if you aren't an insider?” “Judging by its impact, YC is one of the greatest companies of all time.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Y Combinator website no longer lists Canada as a country it invests in” “how great it is as an accelerator as well”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Guests ejected mid-stay from bankrupt hotel chain Sonder” Urgency and clear, hard goals
“Y Combinator really opened my eyes to how helpful setting clear and hard to reach goals is.”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “Founder of GitLab battles cancer by founding companies” “the sense of urgency is so infectious among founders”
Comment from 24 Jan 2026 in “Tao Te Ching – Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Political and ethical concerns
“the leading figures of it seemed to have decided that fascism is a better alternative to any kind of regulation on their activities”
Comment from 2 May 2026 in “America's Expanding Domestic Surveillance” “YCombinator is a criminal mafia organisation, guilty of racketeering, and illegal market collaboration and manipulation”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 on Hacker News “Y Combinator has a vested stake, they want to encourage a maximalist Flock-centric police force.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Flock used >100 times to track veteran who recorded traffic stop” - Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Theranos-Style Fraud Has Become the Norm”
- Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory”
- Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Judge denies request to exempt Flock footage from Public Records Act”
Prestige has faded
“Today, YC is like Harvard: an institution whose approval confers prestige”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Surplus, an Incubator for Public Good” “Late Soviet Paul Graham exists as the lobbyist for Garry Tan Y-Combinator, which isn't even really prestigious anymore.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “How to Earn a Billion Dollars” “Whatever ship the supposed prestige was on sailed a long time ago, then sank.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Tips for Landing a YC Internship?”
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I get the general impression that applying without knowing someone or being an advantaged class means it will be a complete waste of time”
“YC is pretty good at what it does, it still has a very high false negative rate”
“It is not the best game if your goal is to build a company.”
“YC takes the least amount of time to apply among most VC.”
“Y Combinator and Paul Graham glorified this kind of fake it until you make it bullshit.”
“YC just throws money in the hopes one company is a unicorn.”
“Y Combinator has a vested stake, they want to encourage a maximalist Flock-centric police force.”
“It wants them persuadable, overconfident and desperate to sign up to space camp.”
“Whatever ship the supposed prestige was on sailed a long time ago, then sank.”
“Per Graham's own definition, the founding to Y Combinator.”
“Today, YC is like Harvard: an institution whose approval confers prestige”
“YC also provides founders with the funds to pay themselves while they start their company.”
“YC has coached them in business practices and philosophy”
“Late Soviet Paul Graham exists as the lobbyist for Garry Tan Y-Combinator, which isn't even really prestigious anymore.”
“it’s almost impossible to sustain a criticism of the accelerator because they make so many little investments”
“the leading figures of it seemed to have decided that fascism is a better alternative to any kind of regulation on their activities”
“YC became a lot less enticing to me under Gary's leadership.”
“Y Combinator really opened my eyes to how helpful setting clear and hard to reach goals is.”
“try to get into an accelerator like YC, who can make lots of customer intros in the early days”
“something like YCombinator (or any other seed, angel, vc) is a way to get on that path”
“I'd recommend applying to YCombinator, if you're old enough for their program.”
“YC is a bad brand and their companies get an automatic no from me.”
“YC acts different and glad they helped make something happen”
“YC has always been about cashing in on the latest grift, and nothing more.”
“YCombinator is a criminal mafia organisation, guilty of racketeering, and illegal market collaboration and manipulation”
“They stopped following their own advice "do things that don't scale"”
“I like how YC has now focused on AI in government!”
“people on HN did love it from what I could tell”
“So more like you are giving a large chunk of equity for a lot of investment over many years to build a unicorn, unless you fail.”
“Access to bookface network (secret network for YC founders and mentors).”
“A massive network of people you can draw on that surpasses literally anything you could build yourself.”
“Judging by its impact, YC is one of the greatest companies of all time.”
“Presumably it continues to support them the same way it supports 386 companies headquartered in Europe”
“it's disappointing that YC no longer supports Canadian companies”
“the sense of urgency is so infectious among founders”
“a large portion of YC founders chose to do YC as a checkbox on their resume”
“New YC page looks great – but it just doesn't feel "yc" to me.”
“doesn't look like a particularly virtuous trajectory to me”
“how great it is as an accelerator as well”
“Why shouldn't Y-Combinator be a force for evil like the rest of them?”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.