The earliest stage of the silicon valley receives a high reinforcement from artificial intelligence.
Startup Accelerator Y Combinator – known for support Airbnb,, Droplet And Stripe – this week held its annual demonstration in San Francisco, where the founders put their startups in the auditorium of potential investors of risky capital.
Y CEP Director Garry Garry Tan told CNBC that this group grows much faster than past cohorts and with real income. For the last nine months, the entire YC Company series has grown 10% a week, he said.
“These are not just companies number one or two companies – the whole series is growing from 10% of the week,” said Tan, who is also Y Combinator Alum. “This has never happened before a venture at an early stage.”
This growth is thanks to the jumps of artificial intelligence, Tan said.
The app developers can now switch or automate more repetitive tasks and can generate a new code using large language models. Tan called it “Vibe Coding”, a expression for the release of the model to take a wheel and generate software. In some cases, AI can code entire applications.
Ai’s ability to subsidize otherwise hard work loads have made it possible for these companies to build with fewer people. About a quarter of the current YC startup, 95% of their code wrote AI, Tan said.
“That sounds a little scary, but on the other hand, what does it mean for the founders is that you don’t need a team of 50 or 100 engineers,” Tan said, adding that companies reach as much as $ 10 million in revenue with teams of less than 10 people. “You don’t have to increase so much. Capital goes much longer.”
Growth for all costs for all the costs of the Silicon Valley during the zero kamat era went “out the window,” Tan said, pointing to the renewed focus on profitability. This focus on the bottom line also refers to the Megacap Tech Company. Google,, Target and Amazon They went through more circles of release and withdrew to employment.
Although it shook some engineers, Tan described it as an opportunity.
It is easier to build a startup, and top people in technology do not have to prove their value by going into work in major technological companies, he said.
“There are a lot of anxiety on the labor market, especially from young software engineers,” Tan said. “Maybe this engineer who couldn’t get a job in a target or Google who can actually build a solo job earning $ 10 million or $ 100 million a year with ten people – it’s such a powerful moment in the software.”
About 80% of the YC companies that introduced themselves this week were focused on AI, with a handful of robotics and startup semiconductor. This group of companies has been able to prove earlier commercial use than previous generations, Tan said.
“There is a ton of hype, but what is unique at the moment is that people actually get a commercial confirmation,” he said. “If you are an investor on demo day, you will be able to call the right customer, and that person will say,” Yes, we use the software every day. “
The Y Combinator founded Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell in 2005. The company invests $ 500,000 in Startaps in exchange for a share in capital. These founders then enter a three -month program at San Francisco headquarters and receive guidelines from partners and alumni YC. Demo day is a way to attract additional capital.
The company has funded more than 5,3,000 companies, which he says is worth more than $ 800 billion. Over a dozen of them is public, and more than 100 values are estimated at $ 1 billion or more. More than 15,000 companies apply to enter the accelerator, with about 1% acceptance rate.
Several of these risk capital incubators have emerged over the past decade, and more capital has moved to early stages. Despite the competition, Tan claimed that the Y Combinator had an advantage thanks to its strong network. He pointed to the number of highly respected portfolio companies that increased and withdrew on the idea of specializing incubators to operate.
“About 20 to 30% of the companies during the YC has changed its idea and sometimes their industry completely. And if you end up with an incubator that is very specialized, you may not be able to change into the thing you should have,” Tan said. “We think the network effects and the benefits of the YC have become only braver.”
