We typically don’t make changes to our internal org structure public unless significant – and Michael Seibel’s impact as a leader at YC has been significant. Earlier today Michael shared an update with the YC community, outlining a shift to his role within YC moving forward.

After 8 years as the Managing Director/CEO of the YC accelerator, I’ve decided now is the right time to hand over my leadership responsibilities.  Effective at the end of the w24 batch, I will return to my original role of YC Group Partner and will be able to once again devote all of my time to inspiring, investing, and mentoring early-stage YC startups.  I’ve always thought of Y Combinator as the last place I will ever work and I’m excited to spend the next 10+ years as a YC Group Partner.

When I joined YC in 2014, I thought I was transitioning from the management role I had as a startup founder to a job where most of my time would be spent doing office hours with YC founders. My goal was to raise a family and give back to the most important institution in my professional life - Y Combinator.

Two years into the job, the challenges involved in growing and improving YC were too exciting to ignore, and I was happy to become one of many leaders in the organization.  During the past 8 years the entire team at YC was responsible for so much:

-  Funding 3000+ startups, including 30+ unicorns (and counting)
- Funding founders from 90+ countries around the world
- Funding 1000 companies with underrepresented founders (women, Hispanic, Black)
- Demo Days that now produce nearly half a billion dollars of funding per batch
- 10x increase in YC applications
- Recruiting 8 current YC Group Partners and 20+ current and former Visiting YC Group Partners
- Transforming YC into an entirely remote experience during COVID
- Returning to an entirely new in-person program with new offices in San Francisco
- Investing $500k in each YC startup with our new standard deal
- A YC Deals database featuring over $1m of free credits and discounts per YC startup
- An investor database with reviews of thousands of VC firms
- Powerful alumni directory to connect all 10,000 YC alumni
- An expanded user manual with over 350 articles of advice on startups
- Work at a Startup, a hiring platform exclusively for YC startups
- A platform for launching YC startups and public websites for every YC company
- A large library of startup content available for all future YC founders on Youtube

Over the 2023 winter holidays, I reflected that between my startups and YC, I have been in management roles for the past 17 years.  I realized that working with the companies in my group was providing me with even more excitement than helping to plan and execute the YC batch.  After investing in over 800 companies I have much more perspective on how to select and help founders.  I find myself most drawn to the challenges they face building companies during this new wave of AI.

As a result, in January I approached Garry Tan about transitioning out of my leadership role.  After running 16 YC batches, I told him I am ready to hand over my responsibilities to our amazing team of 14 Group Partners who will divide the batch into 4 groups and take on the challenge of programming and customizing the batch for each group of companies they’ve funded.  I explained that returning to the job of YC Group Partner will motivate and excite me for the next 10+ years.  After he got over his surprise and I broke down my reasoning - he agreed.

I'm looking forward to spending more time in office hours, and I’m excited to see all the great companies that will be built over the next 10+ years.

Best,
Michael Seibel
YC Group Partner
YC Founder: w07, w12

Michael has always stepped up to lead when YC has needed him to and we are grateful he wants to spend the next many years with YC.  

– Garry Tan