Today, Y Combinator is a household name in Silicon Valley. It is not only the most successful startup incubator, but also a hybrid venture firm that redefined the rules of the game. It's funded companies like Dropbox, Stripe, Weebly, Airbnb, Cruise and Doordash, Coinbase and Flexport, Weblow, Docker, Plangird, Zapier, Twitch and thousands more. Whatever you do in life, you are most likely using at least one Y Combinator backed company every day. How is it possible that a firm that did not even exist 15 years ago is now responsible for countless runaway success? To answer this question, lets take a look into the past.
Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, is a philosopher, mathematician, programmer and an investor. By now, there is no question that Y Combinator is a success and Paul Graham a genius, but back in 2009 it was not at all clear. Today, we take a look into history, into this wonderful interview Paul Graham did with @Econtalker about his vision and early successes. Most startups that grow massive had never planned it this way, interestingly enough, same applies to Y Combinator.