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Really love the new site and how it highlights founders so well.

Only minor tweak I'd make is for the desktop viewport size - make it so you can also click the company names instead of needing to precisely scroll for the images to show up for that company. With notched mouse wheels it's all too easy to skip one even with a regular scroll. Or increase the scroll distance.

Also might suggest using a gradient mask to fade out the company logos as you scroll the primary text block up. Some of them get very close to the text and the one-by-one removal feels a tad distracting.

And really minor but kept finding myself trying to click the photos to see things larger. Would be nice if they could come up in a media viewer with a small caption, and let me arrow key or swipe through.

I think the items in the carousel are just too wide. There's usually some side margin showing more of the previous and next items.

I turned my phone to landscape and the scroll "sensitivity" no longer felt wrong, but then a new bug was revealed. It chooses to put focus on the right-most item in the carousel. Now the animation doesn't play for the first item.

yeah i think the scroll speed is too fast. that would fix all the issues.
> YC turns builders into formidable founders.

This is followed by a series of before and after pictures. YC offers not money but personal transformation. Their standard offer of $500,000 for 7% is not mentioned on the homepage, maybe because it would invite comparison ... when you see numbers like this your first thought is: I wonder what other accelators offer? The before and after pictures are something no other accelator can compete with.

Unless things have changed? It used to be $125,000 for 7% on a SAFE, then $375,000 which converts at your next fundraise at whatever the most favourable terms offered are. So unless you never raise more money it's certainly not $500k for 7%.
Interesting pattern to see how many IPO photos on the right are missing an original founder or two.
Whilst gaining better fashion and haircuts.
Impressive collection of embarrassingly young founder pictures :-)
A good remedy against lookism :)
Its been years since I felt urged to congratulate someone for their "webdesign", but this is really good. No boring glossy landing picture, but a distinct claim, and the the before / whoisit / after Element is unique, in a good way.
Seems that the "it's a numbers game" thesis delivered.

(I know the previous deal was different but just to get an estimate ...)

500k to each of 5,000+ startups = 2.5 billion

in exchange of

7% of 1.3 trillion = 91 billion

~36x return.

It's even better than that as they invest, on average, less than 500k and get, on average, more than 7% equity. (But they also get diluted, so, who knows).

Of note, that 1.3 trillion follows a comically long tailed distribution.

OpenAI is 500B.

Stripe+Doordash+Airbnb+Coinbase+Reddit+Scale is 400B.

The remainder is 5,000+ companies.

You dont get 7% of a company, you get 7% of outstanding sharez. So its shares held * stock price. Usually there are less stocks issued at the initial stages with more coming in later as more investors are added. I dont think YC maintains 7% across all their investments.
Looks cool, though I have to be honest that I'm not a big fan of showing only the survivor stories.
I had the same reaction. Also the new vibe feels less like “make something people want” and more like “join the pantheon.”
Yep, I would like to see the success/failure ratio. That would give me a good idea whether this VC funding fantasy is a number game, intentional success or just plain old luck.
My first thought was I'd love to see everything, from the unicorns to the mid-level success to the failures, all laid out in one big infographic.
I love that the founders are so prominently featured on this new version.
Just realizing that in more than a decade of perusing Hacker News, I may not have ever visited the homepage.
some of the design interactions are really polished. the section written with the quotes from founders is really cool. the hover effect with the before and after of the YC partners is a great touch too!
Am I the only one who thinks that the Coinbase [1] picture has been AI generated, or at least heavily AI-altered?

The movie posters behind look like garbage, and what's wrong with that Return of the Jedi poster? Why is there a random blob and a broken face at the top instead of Darth Vader?

And why is there a random Google+ logo on the left?

And why does Fred Ehrsam have a huge thumb and silky smooth legs?

[1] https://bookface-static.ycombinator.com/assets/ycdc/beforevs...

Looks good.

A minor piece of feedback, though: might be just me, not sure if anyone else has this pavlovian conditioning, but seeing the black banner/bar on top with the YC logo/color below and HN background color immediately makes me think someone passed away.

I think I was on HN for at least three years before I realized they even had a homepage. I might check this one out in the next couple of years.
Interesting to see the OG Twitter logo rather than X in the footer. Must have been an explicit choice
Clean design. I like how it puts founders front and center instead of just listing company logos.

One suggestion: adding a quick filter by batch year or industry would make it easier to browse. Sometimes I want to see what's new in a specific space like AI or dev tools.

The "Be in the room with …" image hover effects triggering the video are neat.
Is there a way to see all the inactive companies? Some have great names and addresses. I wonder if there's a way to efficiently use them - even keeping all the paperwork intact.. like buying a shell company and saving a lot of the overheads and registering/signups.

Brands are resurrected in fashion all the time with new designers, CEOs and owners while keeping the name, heritage (codes/motifs/archive,) goodwill and stores intact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentino_(fashion_house) is 70% owned by the Qatari royal family.

You could even have the ex-founders sit on a steering committee or advisory board for the switcheroo mob who could be their new bosses.

With all the unemployment around, startup musical chairs could be a solution. Isn't founders' equity the only valuable thing left in the startup world? No chance in getting rich as an employee - and with AI, who is/will not be replaceable? Also, finding the right people from the get-go is another significant challenge, and users of course.

Why don't those inactive companies share their failure stories to find some value-add? It's 2026: they could be mere hours away from an IPO horizon :)

the "Be in the room with..." hover videos are cool but seem AI-generated.
I noticed a photo of the Kalshi founders on the new homepage. I remember when Kalshi launched I thought it was so bad, and that those founders must be the very bottom of their class... they're billionaires now!
If you feature a quote from someone, prominently, on a prominent website, you might check in with them to make sure they don't have any issues with the usage.

(I do sense artifice. Possibly wrongly.)

The carousel is way too fast to be able to read the texts. I’ve made the same mistake as a developer when I already know each text by heart, but actual users can’t read them fast enough.
This looks good. Almost makes me want to apply...but nah. Maybe, idk.
Impressive! Seeing all the before and after photos is a nice touch. With regards to the actual web page, white text on light background (partners part) makes it nice easily readable.
There’s something that bothers me about reducing achievement to stock price and exit valuations. Yet, it is sobering to witness the machinery laid bare.

The whole aesthetic of startup success—those triumphant IPO bell-ringing moments—celebrates money, not wisdom or authentic progress. I’m aware this is the dominant framework, but that doesn’t make it feel less hollow. Welcome to Heartbreak.

Crazy talented people. Crazy good products. I really like the redesign, I am a bit old now, but I can see how inspiring it might be for people coming into tech.
> A formidable founder is one who seems like they’ll get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way.

This is rather dark actually. True, too. Props to Y Combinator for not trying to sugarcoat things!

Why can't the hackernews home page look like that?
There's a homepage? Kidding aside, it looks like a good landing page highlighting the top success stories and the purpose of YC.
This new site owes a lot to Index Ventures. The whole thing seems heavily inspired by the beautiful Index site.
Visiting HN brings me back when to when I just started my career as a entrepreneur, I look forward to the nostalgic design it has. Have been familiar w/ YC's & HN design since 2008.

New YC page looks great – but it just doesn't feel "yc" to me.

Great history, hopefully some of these successful founders will stay in the loop here for all us up and comings.
Love the emphasis on people behind successful companies and humble beginnings that all of them have!
The main quote is cropped on Firefox. It reads:

YC turns builders

nto formidable founders

And a little dirt next to founders.

The company features on the front page was a great opportunity to point out their positive impacts on the world. Instead, they focus on $BBB. Nice new site though.
It's a nice website. I still despise ycombinator. They make a hell of a forum though!
Redo the co-founder match sub-site next!

That thing hasn't been updated in years, and could really use some love. If they don't want to do it themselves, just open source the sub-site and I'm sure a bunch of tech founders will happily do it for them (if only to be able to say they contributed to YC itself).

what are the demographics, educational attainment, and avg net worth of prior yc founders, id like to see what unconventional bets look like.
The implication that OpenAI is a YC company in the same sense as the other listed companies is somewhere between misleading and dishonest. Even more distasteful to show founding teams for all the others, then just Sam for OpenAI.
“A formidable founder is one who seems like they’ll get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way.”

Yeah, especially laws and regulations.