Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

I loved YC and can't recommend it enough. But if you're going to start a company, please consider working at another company first, even if briefly. (And make it a company you respect and want to emulate.)

The amount of wheels you won't have to reinvent if you work at another company are astronomical. From engineering practices to sales to management, there's a lot you don't want to innovate on. Starting a company is really hard, and it's even harder if you've never seen first-hand how a functional company works. Your future employees will thank you.

We announced something today at YC called Early Decision, specifically for students. It's a relatively small change, but we thought people might be interested to hear the thinking behind it, even if you don't happen to be a student graduating this year.

A year ago, YC went from running 2 batches / year to 4 batches / year. We did this because we wanted to give founders more flexibility to do YC at the right time for them. It seems to have worked - a lot of founders have told us that they were only able to do YC because the new schedule fit their timeline.

Early Decision was driven by the same motivation. We talked to a lot of college students, and we learned that most graduating seniors interview for their after-graduation job in the fall of their senior year. For the ones who are interested in doing their own startup, this creates a bit of a dilemma. If they don't interview for jobs in the fall in order to apply to YC later, they're risking that they might be left without any options.

We created Early Decision so that they can apply to YC at the same time they're doing recruiting for regular jobs, the fall of their senior year. If they get into YC, they can confidently turn out their other job offers without worrying they'll be left without anything.

Note: this isn't really a new idea. We've quietly done this from time to time since 2018, but we didn't create a dedicated flow in the application software for it, so most people didn't realize it was an option. Hopefully by productizing and popularizing it, we'll make it easier for college seniors to start companies.

This is basically ensuring YC starts to get more absolute top graduates. Entrepreneurship is more and more seen as the default path for top people in the USA. All other career paths are for people that want to take the risk of ending up in a 50 year assembly line. This is probably good for society

If you want to get rich by 30, you basically have to start a startup or get into a top small hedge fund out of undergrad.

I made this mistake. I love where I've wound up, but I would have gotten there much more quickly and with a lot less heartache if I'd worked as part of an existing company before starting my own.

> if you've never seen first-hand how a functional company works.

You can go an entire career without seeing how a functional company works.

If you want to get rich by 30, you basically have to start a startup or get into a top small hedge fund out of undergrad.

Let me make this simple for you: you will not get rich by 30.

I know, I know...there are examples! And yes, there are, but statistically, they won't be you. You're playing the lottery, only it's a lottery that steals your youth and gives you psychological problems.

If your only goal is to get rich, then don't do a startup. You have to have some more fundamental reason, or the agony will beat you.

How many YC founders end up rich before 30? Or even at all? I think it’s likely a highly valuable experience running a business experiment someone else will fund (not to mention connections you wouldn’t otherwise make), but the odds of actual, liquid wealth from the experience and time spent are very low.

Entrepreneurship isn’t getting showered with millions for doing nothing other than being accepted as a part of the blessed elite and access to an infinite spigot of free money when all other sources have been dammed off and diverted to the ever shrinking minority of ever increasing ultra-wealth.

I made this mistake. I love where I've wound up, but I would have gotten there much more quickly and with a lot less heartache if I'd worked as part of an existing company before starting my own.

Does YC ever intend to revisit doing remote batches again?

There's many founders in the country who are just as driven and motivated, but have real-world situations that cannot allow uprooting themselves for several months, two very common ones:

- new parents

- disabled family members, or are themselves physically disabled

The discourse on Hacker News has frequently chastised companies demanding RTO, and some of the companies in your portfolio are remote-first (or remote-only), why does YC make the same kind of RTO demand with batches?

> if you've never seen first-hand how a functional company works.

You can go an entire career without seeing how a functional company works.

Great, then at least you can see what you don't like! (But really, I intentionally said a company you want to emulate, because I do agree – no point in taking this advice if you go to a bad company)

Let me make this simple for you: you will not get rich by 30.

If your only goal is to get rich, then don't do a startup. You have to have some more fundamental reason, or the agony will beat you.

I live in NYC, I have met alot of very rich startup founders. But not only that, lots of people making 50k a month from a startup they built post YC, raised no VC, and have no boss.

Its an outdated take to think people arent doing this

Does YC ever intend to revisit doing remote batches again?

There's many founders in the country who are just as driven and motivated, but have real-world situations that cannot allow uprooting themselves for several months, two very common ones:

- new parents

- disabled family members, or are themselves physically disabled

People in those situations can and should start companies without an accelerator (or at least without this one). The joke around the SF scene is that even a founder with a boy/girlfriend is a sign of a startup doomed to fail, and YC doesn't seem particularly invested in changing that culture.

I live in NYC, I have met alot of very rich startup founders. But not only that, lots of people making 50k a month from a startup they built post YC, raised no VC, and have no boss.

Its an outdated take to think people arent doing this

Alot of them do, not only that, they build skills that help them start their next company. Many of which are bootstrapped and profitable. This whole idea that startups are a complete lottery ticket is not only false, its increasingly less false, more money is being made now in startups than ever

its still better than these people fighting over promotions in finance

Sure. Google "selection bias". You aren't meeting the 10,000 who failed.

I also live in NYC. I lived in SF, during possibly the all-time greatest period of wealth creation in the last 50 years. I knew billionaires when they couldn't afford bar tabs.

I'm still telling you the truth. Every one of those people who succeeded went through hell and back, and even then there was no guarantee that there was a reward at the end of the hell.

its still better than these people fighting over promotions in finance

Sure. Google "selection bias". You aren't meeting the 10,000 who failed.

I also live in NYC. I lived in SF, during possibly the all-time greatest period of wealth creation in the last 50 years. I knew billionaires when they couldn't afford bar tabs.

I'm still telling you the truth. Every one of those people who succeeded went through hell and back, and even then there was no guarantee that there was a reward at the end of the hell.

Based on public exit and liquidity event information, startups still remain a lottery ticket for most. 90% of startups fail entirely, for example. YC startups have more longevity, and more get to a Series A then non YC startups, but the best batches based on performance have been between 2009 and 2013.

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/pulling-back-the-curtain-...

Apply now, do YC after you graduate. For students who want to finish school before doing YC. Get funded the moment you're accepted.

Early Decision for Students

Sneha and Anushka, founders of Spur (S24), applied in Fall 2023 for the S24 batch using Early Decision. This allowed them to graduate in May 2024 and then do YC. They've since raised $4.5M from top investors for their AI-powered QA testing tools.

How Early Decision Works

Early Decision lets you apply to YC while you're still in school and reserve your spot in a future batch. For example, you apply in Fall of this year, for a spot in the summer batch of the following year. You submit the same YC application as if you were applying for the upcoming batch. If you're accepted, we'll fund you immediately and hold your place for after you graduate.

Is It for You?

This program is designed for students who want to finish their degree before starting a company. If you're considering working on your own startup after graduation, Early Decision makes it easy to lock in your spot.

Even if you're not completely sure yet if you want to do a startup, you should still apply. There is no downside.

Also, if you're not in your final year, you can still apply for Early Decision. You'll be able to finish the school year you're currently in, and then either join a later batch or decide to drop out and start sooner.

The Timeline

The most common path is students applying in the fall of their final year and joining the summer batch after graduating in Spring. But you can apply for any batch in the future within reason. The application and interview process is the same as if you were applying for the upcoming batch. Once you're accepted, YC funds you right away and confirms your future batch.

How to Apply

When you fill out your YC application, you'll see a question asking which batch you want to apply for. Simply select "A batch after Winter 2026" to indicate you're applying for Early Decision, and tell us which batch you'd like to be considered for.

Early Decision batch selection in YC application

The batch preference question in the YC application

Why We Created Early Decision

Many students want to finish their degree or complete more of their education before starting a company. Also we know that many students spend a lot of time in Fall or during their final year applying for jobs or internships. Early Decision gives students another option: apply to YC and bet on yourself.

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