Y Combinator (YC) is a startup accelerator founded by Paul Graham based in Silicon Valley that provides seed funding, mentorship, and resources to early-stage companies. YC runs two investment cycles per year, known as "batches," during which selected startups receive an investment in exchange for a small percentage of equity. Each batch lasts for three months, during which time startups receive mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to a community of other founders, investors, and experts.
Startups that complete the program have the opportunity to pitch to a room full of investors during a Demo Day event, which is an opportunity for them to showcase their progress and raise additional funding.
Y Combinator has funded and mentored a number of successful companies such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, and many others. Their portfolio has a combined valuation of over $155 Billion. Y Combinator has been ranked as the most powerful startup accelerator in the world. Its alumni network is also an important asset for startups that have graduated from the program, as they can continue to receive support and advice from their peers and the YC team.
YC believes in a bias towards actions. They start with the customer. You should be building something FOR someone. It's ok if that first customer is yourself, just as long as what your building solves your problem. Once you have the minimum viable product (MVP) that solves a problem, get it in front of users and talk to those users, iterate on this product, get it in front of users again, repeat infinitely until you are a Billion a dollar company.
How to Start a Startup (Sam Altman, Dustin Moskovits)
see Sam Altman