

Ask YC: What's the Y Combinator review and decision process like? - malandrew

I was curious to know more about how the YCombinator partners review all the applications they receive? Does every partner read every application? Do you review them together or separately? What kind of discussions do you have about each application? Do you talk more about the people or the idea? How is consensus reached to decide to fund a company or not? etc.
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pg
No. Separately. None except about the borderline cases. Mostly the people, but
about the idea if it's either very bad or very good. We know one another so
well that most of the time we just have to look at one another; if there's
debate it's about whether the founders seem relentlessly resourceful.

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malandrew
Since all partners don't read all the apps, about how many applications does
each partner read and each application gets read by how many partners on
average?

Two more questions that are unrelated by don't merit their own thread:

There's a focus now on the maker of MinoMonsters because he's the youngest
entrepreneur you've funded. Who's the oldest entrepreneur you guys have
funded?

Have you ever funded entrepreneurs that are related? (e.g. parent/child,
siblings, etc.)

~~~
pg
The numbers vary depending on people's circumstances. I think last time I read
about 800. We all read all the top ones.

I'm not sure who's the oldest. There have been a few in their 40s, but I don't
remember their exact ages. I know we've funded people with kids older than the
youngest people we've funded.

We've funded brothers, cousins, and married couples.

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citizenkeys
Here's a good place for you to find answers:
<http://paulgraham.com/articles.html>

You can also find information here: <http://ycuniverse.com/>

~~~
mindcrime
And also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2310110>

