How YC actually works

The deal

$125,000 for 7% on a post-money SAFE, plus an uncapped $375,000 SAFE on a most-favoured-nation basis that converts at your next priced round. Total $500,000. The 7% is fixed — it does not scale with how well you are already doing.

The programme

Three months in the Bay Area, group office hours with a partner assigned to your batch, weekly meetups, Bookface (the internal founder network), and Demo Day at the end. Batches now run four times a year.

What it is really for

The money is not the point at these sums. The batch is a forcing function on weekly growth, and the alumni network plus the YC name is what actually moves your fundraise — warm intros to investors who already trust the filter.

How the process runs

• Written application — a form plus a one-minute founder video. No warm intro required and none helps; it is read cold.
• Interview — roughly ten minutes, fast and interrupt-heavy. Partners are testing whether you know your own business at depth, not whether you can pitch.
• Decision — usually the same day or within a few days.
• Reapplying is normal — a meaningful share of accepted companies were rejected at least once before.

What partners filter for

• Founders over idea — YC funds people who ship. Evidence you built and launched something beats a better slide.
• Clarity — if you cannot say what you do in one plain sentence, that reads as unclear thinking.
• Real usage — any users at all, talked about specifically, outrank projections.
• Founder-market fit — why you, specifically, for this problem.

Deeper numbers on who gets in — schools, prior employers and experience across the 2026 batches.