Y Combinator Atlas
The map of every guest, topic, and trend across Y Combinator’s archive.
602 long-form episodes (≥5 min, Shorts excluded) · data through October 2026 · refreshed every 6 hours
How we built this▾▴
The 602 episodes counted here are every video on Y Combinator’s YouTube channel that we’ve successfully transcribed and indexed end-to-end. Each one is chunked, embedded, and searchable across the page.
- Length: Shorts (under 5 minutes) are excluded — they distort cadence and rarely carry the depth we’re measuring.
- Status: Videos still mid-pipeline (queued, transcribing, failed) are not yet counted.
- Refresh: The Atlas re-renders every 6 hours; view counts and rank-changes use the two most recent daily snapshots.
- Entities: People, companies, and tools come from a 7-step resolution pipeline (Wikidata + Google KG + transcript NLP), not just the YouTube description.
Since 2013, the Y Combinator YouTube channel has published 601 videos, totaling 371 hours of content. With an average of 5.2 videos released per month, the channel’s extensive archive features appearances by 1095 unique individuals and discussions involving 1740 distinct companies. Prominent figures such as Paul Graham, Michael Seibel, and Sam Altman frequently contribute, alongside discussions referencing influential entities like Google and Facebook. The channel’s consistent output provides a comprehensive record of its evolving focus over more than a decade.
The content’s editorial focus is heavily shaped by these recurring entities. Beyond its own operations, Y Combinator’s channel frequently explores the strategies and impact of major technology companies, including Airbnb and Uber. The discussions often revolve around the insights and experiences of its founders and leaders, with topics spanning startup development, venture capital, and technological innovation. This consistent engagement with key figures and industry giants defines the channel's thematic landscape.
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🔥 Hot right now
View gains over the last 24h, latest snapshot Oct 4.
Publishing rhythm
- Peak month
- 20Oct 2013
- Best year
- 98in 2018
- Longest streak
- 5yconsecutive
- Longest gap
- 1y 1mosilent
Topic timeline
Topic timeline — see when Y Combinator talked about anything
Type a phrase. We search every transcript chunk and plot mentions by quarter. Click a bar to see that quarter’s episodes.
Signature topics
Topics where Y Combinator dominates the conversation — ranked by share of all coverage in our corpus.
- Early Stage Startups100%
35 of 35 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Seed Funding100%
12 of 12 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Customer Feedback100%
12 of 12 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Startup Fundraising100%
10 of 10 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Co-founder Dynamics100%
9 of 9 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Founder Challenges100%
7 of 7 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Startup Founders100%
7 of 7 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Startup Sales100%
6 of 6 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Founder Mistakes100%
6 of 6 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Founder Lessons100%
6 of 6 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- MVP Development100%
5 of 5 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
- Customer Development100%
5 of 5 episodes covering this topic in our corpus come from Y Combinator.
The cast — most mentioned people
- 1
Paul GrahamYC co-founder; referenced in a mentorship moment about migrations and scalability.911mo - 2
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Michael SeibelFormer CEO of Y Combinator, who emphasized the need for rapid progress and frequent communication (daily or hourly check-ins) during the early stages of a startup.501y - 3
Steve JobsReferenced via quote about making interfaces 'lickable' (Aqua era) to illustrate intuitive UI.482mo - 4
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Mark ZuckerbergMentioned in relation to early Facebook and product design choices.412mo - 5
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Sam AltmanOpenAI co-founder; referenced in discussions about AI safety and leadership in the field.411mo - 6
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Elon Muskbusinessman and entrepreneur (born 1971)311mo - 7
Peter ThielTech investor mentioned in the context of private intelligence and the private sector's role in intelligence and influence.261mo - 8
Brian CheskyCEO of Airbnb, with whom Justin McLeod discussed company culture and the reverse-engineering of culture from mission.253mo - 9
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Dalton CaldwellAmerican businessman243y - 10
Jessica LivingstonAmerican businesswoman and writer182y - 11
Drew HoustonFounder of Dropbox, used as an example of a successful single founder who later found a co-founder.172y - 12
Ron ConwayAmerican businessman155mo - 13
Larry PageCo-founder of Google; referenced when discussing early funding and collaboration with AI developments.137y - 14
Paul BuchheitAmerican computer engineer; created Gmail132y - 15
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Bill GatesUsed as an example of wealth leverage and time investment in entrepreneurship.122mo - 16KKevin HaleInvestor from the United States127y
- 17
Patrick CollisonIrish entrepreneur121mo - 18
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Marc AndreessenCo-founder of LoudCloud and Andreessen Horowitz, described by Ovitz as an extraordinary and mesmerizing individual, deeply read and curious, who asked Ovitz to join the board of LoudCloud.117y - 19
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Jeff BezosFounder of Amazon; central in the Pegasus/Hacking discussion and extortion context.102mo - 20
Sean ParkerAmerican entrepreneur, programmer and philanthropist103mo - 21GGary TanSingaporean swimmer (1973-)92mo
- 22
Max LevchinAmerican businessman94y - 23
Trevor BlackwellCanadian programmer92mo - 24
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Ben HorowitzAmerican businessman88y - 25JJeff RalstonAmerican professor of geophysics82y
- 26
Justin KanAmerican internet entrepreneur82y - 27
Parker ConradAmerican technology chief executive84mo - 28
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Sergey BrinCo-founder of Google, mentioned as having called a personal 'code red' to focus on existential threats to Google's search franchise.88y - 29CCarolyn Levyresearcher72y
- 30
Fred WilsonAmerican venture capitalist and blogger78y
Companies & organizations
- 1
Y CombinatorAmerican startup accelerator2461w - 2
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GoogleAmerican multinational technology company, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.1632d - 3
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FacebookAmerican online social media and social networking service1362mo - 4
AirbnbAmerican online platform for rental accommodations1173mo - 5
Uberpeer-to-peer ridesharing, food delivery, and transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California752mo - 6
AppleAmerican multinational technology company based in Cupertino, California744w - 71
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StripeIrish-American payment technology company732w - 81AAmazonCompany whose efficiency cuts and severance of a deal with UPS led to significant layoffs.722mo
- 9
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TwitterAmerican social networking service founded in 2006652mo - 10OOpenAIOrganization referenced as the early developer of versions of ChatGPT; one of Hinton's students left OpenAI citing safety concerns.584w
- 11DDropboxcloud storage and file synchronization service565mo
- 12
MicrosoftAmerican multinational technology corporation461mo - 13
RedditAmerican social news aggregation website and discussion portal394w - 142
GitHubhosting service for software projects using Git374w - 151
LinkedInAmerican social networking website for people in professional occupations372y - 161
TwitchAmerican live-streaming platform371y - 17JJustin.tvdefunct live-streaming platform352y
- 18
TechCrunchAmerican technology news website352y - 19
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YouTubeofficial channel of YouTube343mo - 20
Yahooweb portal and search engine333y - 21
Instagramphoto and video sharing social network owned by Meta Platforms327mo - 22
MITprivate university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, founded 1861312mo - 23
PayPalAmerican worldwide online payments system302mo - 24SSequoia CapitalA venture capital firm mentioned as an example of a firm with a strong brand built on successful investments, which helps in securing future deals.273y
Debut episodes
First time each frequent person appeared or was mentioned on Y Combinator, oldest first.
- Oct 2013Steve Jobs first appeared or mentioned in Chris Dixon at Startup School 2013
48 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Michael Seibel first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
50 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Elon Musk first appeared or mentioned in Dan Siroker at Startup School 2013
31 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Brian Chesky first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
25 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Drew Houston first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
17 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Jessica Livingston first appeared or mentioned in Ben Silbermann at Startup School 2012
18 total mentions since
- Oct 2013DDavid Lee first appeared or mentioned in Ron Conway at Startup School 2012
5 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Paul Graham first appeared or mentioned in Dan Siroker at Startup School 2013
91 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Mark Zuckerberg first appeared or mentioned in Ron Conway at Startup School 2012
41 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Patrick Collison first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
12 total mentions since
- Oct 2013
Steve Wozniak first appeared or mentioned in Chris Dixon at Startup School 20136 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Bill Gates first appeared or mentioned in Balaji Srinivasan at Startup School 2013
12 total mentions since
Tools & products
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Frequently asked
- How many videos has Y Combinator published?
- Y Combinator has published 602 videos totalling roughly 372 hours of content, spanning October 2013 to October 2026.
- Who appears most often on Y Combinator?
- The most frequently mentioned people on Y Combinator are Paul Graham, Michael Seibel, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman — based on 1,097 unique people detected across the channel's transcripts.
- What companies does Y Combinator discuss most?
- The companies and organisations mentioned most often on Y Combinator are Y Combinator, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber — drawn from 1,743 unique companies referenced across the archive.
- What tools and products come up most on Y Combinator?
- Y Combinator most often discusses Hacker News, Slack, AWS, iPhone, and ChatGPT when it comes to tools, platforms, and products.
- When did Y Combinator start posting on YouTube?
- Y Combinator's earliest video covered by Summify dates to October 2013, with the most recent published in October 2026.
- How often does Y Combinator publish?
- Y Combinator averages 5.2 videos per month across its publishing history, peaking at 20 videos in October 2013.