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2021 — YC Year in Review

by Geoff Ralston1/19/2022

In 2021, many YC founders led their companies to achieve outstanding results, and we are honored to be part of these companies’ history.

Monzo Makes Money Work For Everyone

by Nic Dardenne, Anu Hariharan12/8/2021

Scaling a startup is hard. Scaling a startup bank is even harder. Scaling a consumer-focused financial platform—that is also now the primary bank account for millions of UK consumers—in the midst of a once in a century pandemic is close to impossible.

Gusto: The People Platform for SMBs

by Anu Hariharan, Nic Dardenne8/30/2021

Historically, there has been an undeniable gap in business services in the US.There are nearly six million small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country,employing 43 million people.1 But unlike their larger counterparts, SMBs havebeen ignored by service providers, who have deemed the cost of reaching andserving them too high to warrant the effort. As a result, SMBs have been forcedto cobble together off-the-shelf products, spreadsheets, and manual work to runtheir operations.

Venture Debt 101: Basics and Approach

by Jon Levy8/26/2021

In this guide, YC Managing Director Jon Levy talks about venture debt. He covers what it is, walks through some of its benefits and risks, and gives advice on how to approach the process of taking on venture debt.

YC is CRISPR for Startups

by Geoff Ralston6/25/2021

Last week, we launched our Summer 2021 batch here at Y Combinator, the 33rdbatch since our founding in 2005. We are now funding hundreds of companies eachbatch, and I’ve been reflecting on how we work with those companies during thebatch and afterward, as they build their business.Over the years, I’ve found that there is a common misapprehension about what wedo at Y Combinator.

Brex: The Future of Business Finance and Cash Management

by Anu Hariharan, Nic Dardenne4/26/2021

When Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi joined the YC W17 batch with an ideafor a VR startup, they quickly encountered a problem. They had applied for abusiness credit card to help fund software and other expenses and were denied.Business credit is traditionally underwritten based on the founders’ FICOscores. As international founders with less than a month of credit history,their chances of getting approved were slim to none, despite having $125K in thebank.It wasn’t just them.

Convoy: The Future of Truck Freight

by Anu Hariharan1/21/2021

Online marketplaces bring efficiency to traditional sectors. They offer a betteruser experience and increase margins for participants. They can accrue hugevalue by reducing friction and aggregating supply and demand — particularlybecause they have the ability to build network effects and economies of scale.