How Many Y Combinator Applications Get Rejected?

On The Peel, Y Combinator gets about 80,000 applications a year. Something like 78,500 of them are mortal wounds, the rejections handed out. Between 700 and 800 companies get funded in a year, about 1%.

Asked whether 80,000 is per year, the answer is yes. A guess of 200, 250, or 300 companies per batch is met with the yearly total, between 700 and 800. The partner does not like handing the nos out, and the follow-up is please apply again. An Adventure Time meme the partner tries to post says getting rejected from Y Combinator is the first step to being accepted to Y Combinator.

Handing out the rejections keeps the partner up at night. The meme is the other half of the same point: apply again, because a rejection from Y Combinator is treated as the first step toward a later yes.