Y Combinator Atlas
The map of every guest, topic, and trend across Y Combinator’s archive.
584 long-form episodes (≥5 min, Shorts excluded) · data through July 2026 · refreshed every 6 hours
How we built this▾▴
The 584 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, established in 2013, currently hosts 584 videos totaling 357 hours of content, with an average publishing rate of 5.2 videos per month through July 2026. Analysis of its extensive library reveals 1054 unique individuals and 1682 distinct companies featured across its programming. Prominently appearing figures include Paul Graham, Michael Seibel, and Sam Altman, alongside discussions involving industry giants such as Y Combinator itself and Google.
The channel’s editorial focus is clearly defined by its consistent engagement with a broad spectrum of startup and technology-related themes, evidenced by 1742 unique topics. This content frequently features insights from founders and leaders, covering the lifecycle of startups, technological innovation, and entrepreneurial strategies. The recurring presence of individuals like Paul Graham and Michael Seibel, combined with frequent mentions of companies such as Y Combinator and Google, underscores its role as a key resource for understanding the venture capital and tech ecosystem.
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View gains over the last 4d, latest snapshot Aug 1.
Publishing rhythm
- Peak month
- 20Oct 2013
- Best year
- 98in 2018
- Longest streak
- 4y 9moconsecutive
- 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.
- 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.
The cast — most mentioned people
- 1
Paul GrahamYC co-founder; referenced in a mentorship moment about migrations and scalability.881d - 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.454d - 4
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Mark ZuckerbergMentioned in relation to early Facebook and product design choices.411w - 5
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Sam AltmanOpenAI co-founder; referenced in discussions about AI safety and leadership in the field.401w - 6
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Elon Muskbusinessman and entrepreneur (born 1971)292w - 7
Brian CheskyCEO of Airbnb, with whom Justin McLeod discussed company culture and the reverse-engineering of culture from mission.251mo - 8
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Dalton CaldwellAmerican businessman243y - 9
Peter ThielTech investor mentioned in the context of private intelligence and the private sector's role in intelligence and influence.241mo - 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 businessman153mo - 13
Larry PageCo-founder of Google; referenced when discussing early funding and collaboration with AI developments.137y - 14
Paul BuchheitAmerican computer engineer; created Gmail131y - 153
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Bill GatesUsed as an example of wealth leverage and time investment in entrepreneurship.124d - 161KKevin HaleInvestor from the United States127y
- 171
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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 - 181
Patrick CollisonIrish entrepreneur113y - 191
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Jeff BezosFounder of Amazon; central in the Pegasus/Hacking discussion and extortion context.104d - 201
Sean ParkerAmerican entrepreneur, programmer and philanthropist101mo - 21
Max LevchinAmerican businessman94y - 225
Trevor BlackwellCanadian programmer93d - 231
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Ben HorowitzAmerican businessman88y - 246GGary TanSingaporean swimmer (1973-)81w
- 252JJeff RalstonAmerican professor of geophysics82y
- 262
Justin KanAmerican internet entrepreneur82y - 272
Parker ConradAmerican technology chief executive81mo - 282
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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 - 291CCarolyn Levyresearcher72y
- 301
Fred WilsonAmerican venture capitalist and blogger78y
Companies & organizations
- 1
Y CombinatorAmerican startup accelerator2364d - 2
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GoogleAmerican multinational technology company, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.1571d - 3
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FacebookAmerican online social media and social networking service1341w - 4
AirbnbAmerican online platform for rental accommodations1171mo - 5
Uberpeer-to-peer ridesharing, food delivery, and transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California754d - 6AAmazonCompany whose efficiency cuts and severance of a deal with UPS led to significant layoffs.724d
- 7
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StripeIrish-American payment technology company721d - 8
AppleAmerican multinational technology company based in Cupertino, California703d - 9
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TwitterAmerican social networking service founded in 2006643mo - 10DDropboxcloud storage and file synchronization service563mo
- 11OOpenAIOrganization referenced as the early developer of versions of ChatGPT; one of Hinton's students left OpenAI citing safety concerns.511d
- 12
MicrosoftAmerican multinational technology corporation434d - 13
LinkedInAmerican social networking website for people in professional occupations371y - 141
RedditAmerican social news aggregation website and discussion portal371w - 151
TwitchAmerican live-streaming platform3712mo - 16
GitHubhosting service for software projects using Git351mo - 17JJustin.tvdefunct live-streaming platform351y
- 18
TechCrunchAmerican technology news website352y - 191
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YouTubeofficial channel of YouTube342w - 201
Yahooweb portal and search engine333y - 21
Instagramphoto and video sharing social network owned by Meta Platforms325mo - 221
MITprivate university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, founded 1861303d - 231
PayPalAmerican worldwide online payments system301w - 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
45 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
41 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
88 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
29 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 584 videos totalling roughly 357 hours of content, spanning October 2013 to July 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 1,054 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 1,682 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 July 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.