

Ask PG: Can Y Combinator do 1000 startups a year? - dave1619

So, the State of the Union speech just passed and I'm wondering if innovation and entrepreneurship is the way for the U.S. to grow it's way out of this slow economy.  So, Paul here's a question:<p>If the U.S. government was willing to give an innovation/entrepreneurship grant to Y Combinator (of course this is all hypothetical) of a significant amount, then how many startups could Y Combinator theoretically fund per year?  And could it make a significant impact on the U.S. economy?
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pg
We're not limited by money. The limit is the number of good applicants. We've
always funded between 2.5 and 3.5% of groups that apply-- not as a conscious
plan, but it has always worked out that way. So we've grown as the applicant
pool has.

I don't know how we'd have to change to fund 1000 startups a year. We don't
think that far ahead. It would be premature design. But we could grow another
2 or 3x without dramatic changes.

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il
I think past a certain point, each additional startup funded would decrease
the value of YC to founders as more and more startups have to compete for a
finite amount of pg's time and investor dollars.

I suppose the solution is bringing on more partners and building the YC brand
to attract more angels. But I can't imagine that scaling to 1000 startups.

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pg
The question is, where is that point? We're already past where I would have
put it if I had to guess when we started, and the startups are doing better
than ever.

