Hard to believe: YC started with just $200k...
The story 🍿👇
In 2005, raising money for a startup was a messy game.
There were:
↳ no standard deals
↳ no structured programs
↳ just hopeful founders convincing wealthy relatives or local investors to take a chance
Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston saw the problem firsthand.
One night, after dinner in Harvard Square, they had a simple thought:
đź’ˇ What if early-stage funding worked differently?
They decided to test an idea.
Paul put in $100k of his own money. Jessica left her job search to run it.
They brought in Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell, who each added $50k.
Total fund: $200k.
The goal? Invest in startups as a batch, not one by one.
At first, it was just a summer experiment.
They figured students on break had little to lose — so why not?
It turned out to be a very good bet.
Their first group of startups? Reddit, Twitch, and a young Sam Altman.
What started as a niche idea soon became the blueprint for early-stage funding.
YC wasn’t taken seriously at first.
Now?
They’ve:
↳ funded over 4,000 startups
↳ reshaped venture capital
↳ helped build companies worth over $600 billion
All from a $200k experiment.
Impressive. No?
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đź‘‹ Don't know me? I'm J.Y! I've been building things and making money online since 2017, and I share my entrepreneurial journey here on LinkedIn.