Y Combinator Atlas
The map of every guest, topic, and trend across Y Combinator’s archive.
561 long-form episodes (≥5 min, Shorts excluded) · data through May 2026 · refreshed every 6 hours
How we built this▾▴
The 561 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.
The Y Combinator YouTube channel, active since 2013 and spanning through May 2026, features 561 videos totaling 341 hours of content. Averaging 5.1 videos per month, the channel frequently highlights figures such as Paul Graham, Michael Seibel, and Sam Altman, alongside discussions involving major technology companies like Google and Facebook. Its extensive library includes contributions from 1028 unique individuals and references 1630 distinct companies, reflecting a broad engagement with the startup and tech ecosystem.
The channel's editorial focus consistently revolves around the foundational principles of startup development and venture capital, often featuring insights from Y Combinator itself. Discussions frequently involve the strategies and journeys of companies like Airbnb and Uber, illustrating practical applications of entrepreneurial theory. Key topics often center on the creation and scaling of technology businesses, with recurring mentions of software platforms such as Hacker News and AWS, providing a detailed look into the tools and methodologies driving innovation in the tech industry.
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View gains over the last 24h, latest snapshot Jun 2.
Publishing rhythm
- Peak month
- 20Oct 2013
- Best year
- 98in 2018
- Longest streak
- 4y 7moconsecutive
- 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.
- Investor Relations100%
18 of 18 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.
- Founder Traits100%
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.
The cast — most mentioned people
- 1
Paul GrahamYC co-founder; referenced in a mentorship moment about migrations and scalability.854d - 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.5010mo - 3
Steve JobsReferenced via quote about making interfaces 'lickable' (Aqua era) to illustrate intuitive UI.426d - 4
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Mark ZuckerbergMentioned in relation to early Facebook and product design choices.392y - 5
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Sam AltmanOpenAI co-founder; referenced in discussions about AI safety and leadership in the field.385d - 6
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Elon Muskbusinessman and entrepreneur (born 1971)272w - 72
Brian CheskyCEO of Airbnb, with whom Justin McLeod discussed company culture and the reverse-engineering of culture from mission.242w - 81
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Dalton CaldwellAmerican businessman243y - 91
Peter ThielTech investor mentioned in the context of private intelligence and the private sector's role in intelligence and influence.231mo - 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 businessman153w - 13
Larry PageCo-founder of Google; referenced when discussing early funding and collaboration with AI developments.136y - 14
Paul BuchheitAmerican computer engineer; created Gmail131y - 15KKevin HaleInvestor from the United States127y
- 16
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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 - 17
Patrick CollisonIrish entrepreneur113y - 18
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Bill GatesUsed as an example of wealth leverage and time investment in entrepreneurship.103y - 19
Max LevchinAmerican businessman94y - 20
Sean ParkerAmerican entrepreneur, programmer and philanthropist98y - 21
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Ben HorowitzAmerican businessman88y - 22
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Jeff BezosFounder of Amazon; central in the Pegasus/Hacking discussion and extortion context.84y - 23JJeff RalstonAmerican professor of geophysics82y
- 24
Justin KanAmerican internet entrepreneur82y - 25
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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 - 26
Trevor BlackwellCanadian programmer84y - 27CCarolyn Levyresearcher72y
- 28
Fred WilsonAmerican venture capitalist and blogger77y - 29
Parker ConradAmerican technology chief executive74mo - 30
Richard FeynmanPhysicist known for the Feynman technique of learning by teaching/explaining to a layperson.77y
Companies & organizations
- 1
Y CombinatorAmerican startup accelerator2264d - 2
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GoogleAmerican multinational technology company, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.1501mo - 3
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FacebookAmerican online social media and social networking service1312y - 4
AirbnbAmerican online platform for rental accommodations1152w - 5
Uberpeer-to-peer ridesharing, food delivery, and transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California732w - 6
AppleAmerican multinational technology company based in Cupertino, California696d - 7
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StripeIrish-American payment technology company692w - 8AAmazonCompany whose efficiency cuts and severance of a deal with UPS led to significant layoffs.682w
- 9
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TwitterAmerican social networking service founded in 2006644w - 10DDropboxcloud storage and file synchronization service563w
- 11
MicrosoftAmerican multinational technology corporation417mo - 12OOpenAIOrganization referenced as the early developer of versions of ChatGPT; one of Hinton's students left OpenAI citing safety concerns.414d
- 13
LinkedInAmerican social networking website for people in professional occupations371y - 14
TwitchAmerican live-streaming platform3710mo - 15
RedditAmerican social news aggregation website and discussion portal361y - 16JJustin.tvdefunct live-streaming platform351y
- 17
TechCrunchAmerican technology news website351y - 18
GitHubhosting service for software projects using Git344w - 19
Yahooweb portal and search engine333y - 20
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YouTubeofficial channel of YouTube331y - 21
Instagramphoto and video sharing social network owned by Meta Platforms323mo - 22
PayPalAmerican worldwide online payments system298mo - 23
MITprivate university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, founded 1861276mo - 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 Mark Zuckerberg at Startup School 2012
42 total mentions since
- Oct 2013MMark Andreessen first appeared or mentioned in Balaji Srinivasan at Startup School 2013
3 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Mark Zuckerberg first appeared or mentioned in Joel Spolsky at Startup School 2012
39 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Michael Seibel first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
50 total mentions since
- Oct 2013
John Doerr first appeared or mentioned in Ron Conway at Startup School 20125 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Jessica Livingston first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
18 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Paul Graham first appeared or mentioned in Dan Siroker at Startup School 2013
85 total mentions since
- Oct 2013
Ben Silbermann first appeared or mentioned in Hiroshi Mikitani at Startup School 20124 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Elon Musk first appeared or mentioned in Dan Siroker at Startup School 2013
27 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Sergey Brin first appeared or mentioned in Balaji Srinivasan at Startup School 2013
8 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Patrick Collison first appeared or mentioned in Jessica Livingston at Startup School 2012
11 total mentions since
- Oct 2013Larry Page first appeared or mentioned in Balaji Srinivasan at Startup School 2013
13 total mentions since
Tools & products
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Frequently asked
- How many videos has Y Combinator published?
- Y Combinator has published 561 videos totalling roughly 341 hours of content, spanning October 2013 to May 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 1,028 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 1,630 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 Kickstarter 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 May 2026.
- How often does Y Combinator publish?
- Y Combinator averages 5.1 videos per month across its publishing history, peaking at 20 videos in October 2013.