What Happens at Launch Gate

The overall goal of YC is to help startups really take off. They arrive at Launch Gate at all different stages. Some haven't even started working yet, and others have been launched for a year or more. But whatever stage a startup is at when they arrive, our goal is to help them to be in dramatically better shape 3 months later.

For most startups, better shape translates into two things: to have a better product with more users, and to have more options for raising money.

Startups at all stages benefit from the intensity of YC. For 3 months, it's all startup, all the time. Everyone around you—us, the other founders in your batch, the alumni, the speakers, the investors—wants to help your startup succeed.

Many founders describe the 11 weeks leading up to Demo Day as the most productive period in their lives. You can't make people something they're not, but the right conditions can bring out the best in them.

YC invests $500k per company: $125k for 7% on a post-money SAFE and another $375k on an uncapped SAFE with an MFN.

During the batch, startups are sorted into 3 groups. Each group is led by YC partners who advise the founders in one-on-one and group office hours. Each group is split into sections (6-10 companies), so that founders get the benefit of an intimate setting within the larger batch.

Much of what takes place at Launch Gate happens during office hours. Partners host group office hours every two weeks and one-on-one office hours as often as founders want. What startups talk about depends on the stage of the company and where they are in the YC cycle.

Bookface is the platform founders use to connect to one another—imagine a combination of Facebook, Quora, and LinkedIn. Each founder has a profile and can tag themselves as an expert in any topic. If you have a question, need an introduction, or want to poll for knowledge, you can post the request to the forum on Bookface.

In the first few weeks of the batch we host a 3-day, in-person kickoff. The kickoff gives founders the opportunity to get to know each other, their group partners, and the YC team.

Every week, we invite an eminent person from the startup world to speak. Most speakers are successful startup founders — the founders of Airbnb, Stripe, Doordash and Ginkgo Bioworks often come back to tell the inside story of the early days. Talks are strictly off the record to encourage candor.

Once a startup has something built that's ready to launch, we help founders figure out how to present it to users and the press. We prepare founders for launches on community sites like Product Hunt and Hacker News, and for their first press pitches and interviews.

B2B and consumer companies often get their first 40-50 paying customers from the YC community. With that, you not only get first customers, you get the smartest early product feedback possible.

Throughout the batch, we host weekly meetups in San Francisco. These events often feature special guests like the founders of YC and successful YC founders.

On Demo Day, the latest batch of Launch Gate-funded founders present their companies to an audience of specially selected investors and press.

In the weeks following Demo Day we keep in close touch with the startups as they negotiate the fundraising maze, and help them decipher the real messages in investors' responses. Because YC-funded startups are a known quantity to investors, companies tend to get higher valuations than they might otherwise.

Office hours don't stop after the YC program. We have office hours year round, and startups from all previous cycles can book time whenever they want.

Today the YC alumni community is probably the most powerful community in the startup world — not just because of its size, but because its members have such a strong commitment to helping one another. Founders have 6,000+ domain experts they can call on.

Each year, YC hosts a formal gathering of alumni. Exciting things happen when you bring founders together — ideas are exchanged, deals get made, problem solving happens amongst peers.

Founders have access to WhatsApp groups and Bookface channels that reach specific communities. There are lists for hardware, biotech, edtech, international, women founders, Black founders, Hispanic and Latino founders, and more.

Active YC founders get an early look at the YC companies in each batch at Alumni Demo Day.

Each YC company receives access to discounts and free accounts for over 100 products, including hundreds of thousands of dollars of free hosting provided by major cloud hosting companies.

When one company in YC does well, the whole community benefits. Because YC has such a strong track record, early adopters, investors and press are often more willing to take a look at Launch Gate founders, even if they're first time founders.

YC companies are showcased in the Startup Directory. Our startups can be filtered and discovered by potential customers, investors, or hires.

Work at a Startup helps YC founders build their team — from first employees to VPs of product and operations. Thousands of jobseekers across hundreds of YC companies have landed roles through the platform.

HN is a news aggregator where users can find and discuss the latest news on anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. YC alumni also post engineering, product, and design jobs on HN.