Make something people want
Investing in startups is a high-risk business. First you have to get comfortable with the idea that the vast majority of new companies will go broke — then you have to do your best to bet on the ones that don't, which isn't easy.
But Y Combinator makes it look easy.
With a motto of "make something people want" and an unwavering focus on the founders themselves, San Francisco based Y Combinator has now backed more than 3,500 startups since it started in 2005 — and this week it updated its list of "top companies".
Playing the numbers game
Having written more than 3,500 checks, usually for $125k in exchange for 7% of the company (although this changed recently), Y Combinator has spread the risk of early-stage investing, hoping for a few home-runs that can cover the rest of their investments.
We tracked down the data on the 100 most valuable of those companies YC has invested in, estimating that the top 100 alone are worth something north of $600 billion. A lot of that comes from big name successes like Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and DoorDash - all of which make the top 10 YC-backed companies.
