Y Combinator

In April 2025, former Y Combinator president Geoff Ralston launched the Safe Artificial Intelligence Fund (SAIF), specifically seeking startups that enhance AI safety, security, and responsible deployment. The fund writes $100,000 checks as SAFE notes with a $10M cap. Ralston explicitly stated he would not back fully autonomous weapons, saying 'There are certainly uses of AI which would (will) be unsafe: using the technology to create bioweapons, to manage conventional weapons without a human in the loop.' Additionally, YC has funded 152+ open source startups including Ollama (105K+ GitHub stars).

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham publicly shared anti-DEI sentiments in 2024, questioning whether diversity funding metrics were excessive. Under CEO Garry Tan's leadership, YC has not emphasized diversity as a priority. Diversity metrics showed declining representation: the Summer 2022 batch had only 15% women founders (down from 17.9% prior cohort) and only 7% Black founders. As of 2025, only 11% of YC founders are women overall.

Y Combinator has funded over 4,000 startups since 2005 through its accelerator model, providing standardized $500K funding deals, mentorship, and Demo Day access. The Winter 2024 cohort selected 260 companies from over 27,000 applications (0.9% acceptance rate), with the cohort raising over $100M in aggregate post-Demo Day. The program significantly lowered barriers to entry for first-time founders, enabling small teams and solo founders to build venture-scale companies, particularly with new AI tools reducing team size requirements.

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan has spent over $450,000 on local San Francisco political campaigns since 2015, including $100,000 to recall progressive DA Chesa Boudin in 2022, $54,500 to GrowSF (a pro-growth political group where he served as board member), $20,000 to recall school board members, and donations opposing progressive supervisors like Dean Preston. In late 2024, Tan shifted focus to Washington DC, aligning with Trump administration tech advisory efforts and engaging with Heritage Foundation representatives.

On January 27, 2024, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan posted on X/Twitter at 12:25 AM wishing seven San Francisco Board of Supervisors members would 'die slow motherfuckers,' targeting progressive supervisors Dean Preston, Connie Chan, Aaron Peskin, Shamann Walton, Myrna Melgar, Hillary Ronen, and Ahsha Safai. The post led to threatening letters sent to supervisors' homes, multiple police reports filed, and widespread condemnation. Tan later apologized, claiming the post referenced a Tupac Shakur song 'Hit Em Up,' but acknowledged it 'wasn't a good call.'