Y Combinator’s 20-Year Journey from Incubator to an $800 Billion Powerhouse

San Francisco-based Y Combinator completed its twenty-year anniversary in March this year. What began in 2005 as an experimental idea by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell, and Robert Tappan Morris has since evolved into one of the most influential forces in the global startup ecosystem. YC has backed thousands of companies, generating over $800 billion in market value. Even as it scales—recently expanding to four batches a year from its traditional two—YC still insists on thinking like a startup, echoing Graham’s original vision. “It still runs on the original belief that a small group of passionate people can truly change the world," said Kastle CEO Rishi Choudhary, who was part of YC’s summer 2024 batch.  AIM spoke to YC alumni to understand if it