Early Photos of Y Combinator

http://www.ycombinator.com/yc05.html

by pg • 15 years ago

368 69 15 years ago

dirkdeman• 15 years ago

Priceless! It also puts a human perspective to Y Combinator. I get sweaty palms just by thinking of applying (although I will - again) this year, let alone actually making it. These pics show me you're actually humans instead of, well, deities. It makes me a bit less anxious of applying, if only a little bit.

mef• 15 years ago

Love the beer cups in HN orange.

oguz• 15 years ago

This is amazing. I also believe that YC should have own it's own story with pictures like this, for every batch.

ayanb• 15 years ago

"It will never work" is such a killer name for a possible cult classic on Investing and Entrepreneurship.

rbanffy3• 15 years ago

Dammit! itllneverwork.com and itwillneverwork.com are both taken :-(

daeken• 15 years ago

goingtofail.com isn't registered. (Yes, I know it's not the same name, but I thought it was a good one)

simonbrown• 15 years ago

willneverwork.com is available.

pg4• 15 years ago

Here's a clearer shot. Anyone who wants is free to use it for motivational posters or whatever: http://ycombinator.com/images/itwillneverwork.jpg

staunch2• 15 years ago

http://i.imgur.com/Ktufl.jpg

Got him on my wall staring down at me now. More intimidating than I thought. I feel the urge to yell back at him.

ga0bi• 15 years ago

can't believe this was about 6 years ago. congrats on all the success!

pkamb2• 15 years ago

I love the 12-inch Powerbook G4s.

mpc• 15 years ago

Glad to see that someone else thinks this too. I really loved these machines.

pkamb2• 15 years ago

The 4:3 screen is what makes them special I think. Wish the new Airs had that option!

brackin• 15 years ago

Amazing to see this, thanks for posting. Exciting to see how much they've grown through hard work and to see how much their vision expanded.

YC is now regarded as the harvard of tech startups. It's great that YC's original vision to put founders first is still instilled in YC today, even further than then as they have more resources and alumni.

jl• 15 years ago

Wow. It seems like so long ago yet I remember every moment of these photos. Especially the one taken the night we decided to start YC (we actually didn't come up with the name till later on). I think that was a tear of joy/excitement in my eye.

_ouxp• 15 years ago

I seem to remember that, at the time, one of the partners was unnamed on the website. Was that you, or someone else?

pg4• 15 years ago

That was Jessica. She hadn't quit her previous job yet.

ryanb• 15 years ago

Everyone looks so young. Sam Altman looks exactly the same. (he still looks super young)

iamwil2• 15 years ago

Perhaps a 'where are they now' would be interesting for the other guys in the batch.

allantyoung• 15 years ago

Jessica - you always look like the happiest person in the world. It is infectious.

coffeemug• 15 years ago

YC is incredible. If you're on the fence about applying - do it! The worst thing that can happen is that you'll go through an incredibly exciting process of applying, get a polite rejection, and reapply the next time around. The best thing that can happen is that it will change your perspective and your life in a very fundamental way. If you look at it that way, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

nicksergeant2• 15 years ago

I wanted to apply just for the experience this season, but there's absolutely no way I could move to SF. I started filling out the app, but don't want to waste their time if there's no way I can attend.

limedaring• 15 years ago

Even if it's only 3 months? I know of a lot of people from NYC/elsewhere that fly in for three months then move back after YC finishes.

samstokes2• 15 years ago

About a quarter of the founders in the Summer 2010 batch weren't even US residents, but we thought it was worth moving to the Bay Area for the three months of YC.

Interestingly (and anecdotally) I think more people came from abroad than from the East Coast.

nicholasjbs• 15 years ago

These pictures are a testament to how much you can get done in six years of work. They're also a great reminder that YC was itself once a startup.

earbitscom• 15 years ago

YC is definitely still a startup. Otherwise, they would have replaced that frickin' chili by now.

rbanffy3• 15 years ago

Lovely. Thanks for sharing them. :-)

I remember reading about YC as it started, hooked I was to paulgraham.com's essays. A link to "Beating the Averages" I forwarded by mail is what made a couple friends of mine who had just started a company decide to build sites with Zope and Plone instead of more mundane technologies. It had a deep impact on the Brazilian Python community.

abbottry• 15 years ago

This is awesome. I love that its only a few pictures, with descriptions. The stories behind YC and all of its companies (and co-founders) are incredible.

TrevorBurnham• 15 years ago

So, where in Cambridge was the original YC office?

pg4• 15 years ago

135 Garden St. It was perfect.

asmithmd1• 15 years ago

http://www.trulia.com/property/3032935568-135-Garden-St-Camb...

redrory• 15 years ago

We want more photos.

kn0thing4• 15 years ago

Ask and yee shall receive: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100151188843156...

aculver• 15 years ago

Who are the folks/companies in the picture at the bottom? I feel like I might recognize some of them, but they're much younger.

trobertson• 15 years ago

According to yclist.com (which is both unofficial and outdated), that first batch was Reddit, Infogami, Kiko, Loopt, ClickFacts, and Firecrawl.

jedc• 15 years ago

Also Simmery and Memamp. According to my notes, Infogami ended up merging with Reddit as well as one persome from Memamp. Firecrawl became TextPayMe which was acquired by Amazon. Kiko sold on eBay after Google Calendar launched. Details here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkkhSN3vaY4jdF9...

tbrooks• 15 years ago

A subversive looking Alexis that is...

redthrowaway• 15 years ago

And still by far the tallest person in the room. The man is a giant.

kn0thing4• 15 years ago

Fee-fi-fo-fum...

kn0thing4• 15 years ago

Subversive? Who me?... I think I still have that TMNT shirt.

staunch2• 15 years ago

Been a fan since it was announced. Glad it has worked out so well.

stevenj• 15 years ago

Small typo in the last photo's description:

"This is a missing a few people..."

pg4• 15 years ago

Fixed; thanks.

Jun83• 15 years ago

It is unbelievably amazing that YC went from literally a gleam in jl's (and pg's) eye to something that is a clear leader in not only incubators but entrepreneurial thought as well. A case of clearly superior vision getting its due. Such vision to success proportionality is not so common, I think.

bambax• 15 years ago

> Such vision to success proportionality is not so common, I think

I'm not sure of what you mean, but I would argue that vision is everything, and that vision well executed has to bring success.

When we say that execution is hard, we really mean that execution that implements a vision is hard. Execution without vision is really easy (it's entropy).

Vision is harder, because it's not just an idea (a wish), but a deep insight into the future and how to get there.

Those pictures of young YC remind me of Burano — an island next to Venice that stayed in a kind of "pristine" state: Venice before Venice.

Jun83• 15 years ago

You're somewhat right, vision is crucial. However, it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success, that's what I meant. Classic (somewhat cliche) example is the early Xerox vision, but I see this everyday youthful energy and vision (and I'm not talking about myself :-) being squashed by various factors in large corporations. In startups the vision to success black box is simpler, but is by no means a linear relationship.

davidw• 15 years ago

> A case of clearly superior vision getting its due

PG & Company have clearly done a "bang up job", as they say in the UK, but... is it genuinely a 'vision'? I don't know them and their plans well enough to say, but it seems that there is some hill climbing going on there too. "Of course what we decided to start was a lot less ambitious than YC is now."

Jun83• 15 years ago

I think the operational details naturally were arrived at by hill climbing (or descent), as you suggest. However, I suggest that you read pg's early essays, most of the basic vision that went into YC, the no-nonsense "make something that people want" approach is there. That's why YC was successful, if they didn't start from such an initial condition they would have been just another incubator and there are hundreds of them.

sama• 15 years ago

wow. justin looks like he's going to mess somebody up. and i wore that exact same shirt this weekend.

iamwil2• 15 years ago

If anything Justin looks even bigger now--like he can twist heads off baby seals.

philwelch2• 15 years ago

I want to know who the "VoIP Offensive Linemen" are. Actually, a lot of the nicknames on that board are pretty funny, and for the most part would make great band names.

2005applicant4• 15 years ago

Haha one of the lineman is me, although I was only 6' 250 lbs at the time. A co-founder also was one. He was about 6'3 280 lbs. The third co-founder was actually a running back and wrestler, so he was only 5'8 165 lbs or so.

angilly2• 15 years ago

6'5 dude. And in 2005... yeah I was easily still pushing 275. :)

philwelch2• 15 years ago

Wait, so you guys actually were linemen? That's even better!

angilly2• 15 years ago

Wow. I was one of them. That's hilarious.

2005applicant4• 15 years ago

We even ate pizza and beer after the interview. Haha.

wherearethey• 15 years ago

Where are the black people?

tomjen3• 15 years ago

They are out eating fried chicken.

Seriously, ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.

erikb• 15 years ago

The last paragraph feels like a zen koan. Is a "good investor" not one that finds start-ups which will succeed (and thus make him money)? How do you try to be a "good investor" without trying to find start-ups which will succeed? How far away am I from enlightment?

brlewis• 15 years ago

Five hours and no comments about Snapjoy and Posterous enabling this story to be told. This illustrates how effective technology is often invisible.

2005applicant4• 15 years ago

I will own up to being in one of the groups listed on the whiteboard.

I am pretty sure we were described as "VOIP OFFENSIVE LINEMAN". Or at least I hope that is what was written behind to describe us.

Me and a co-founder were rather large and were actual offensive lineman. The third co-founder was a running back.

We weren't selected (rightfully so). Maybe we should have bulked up the running back before the interview. :)

bobbles• 15 years ago

Does anyone know the people in the last picture? Would be cool to match the people to products still up and running

jbgregg• 15 years ago

Thank you, Paul. I love this trip down memory lane.

Early Photos of Y Combinator

Related Stories