The Next Y Combinator Class Will Be 80 Strong

Ultimately, the real test of YC is in the quality of the startups that emerge from the program. I've been investing in YC companies since the second batch (W06), and I can easily say that the most recent batch was not only the largest ever, but also the best. Perhaps some of the social elements are lost with the size increases (not all of the founder know each other anymore), but the actual value of the program seems to be increasing due to our greater experience and the increased reach of our network. Quite often during office hours, founders will come to me with a seemingly difficult question and I can refer them to a YC company from an earlier batch that can help them out tremendously, sometimes just with advice, but often by providing the exact solution they need, or by becoming their first customer.<p>Obviously some portion of the gain in quality is due to YC attracting more high quality startups, but that is not the whole of it. I've watched these startups from Day 1 to Demo Day and the progress and improvements made are incredible.

An interesting infographic would be to plot the number of applicants and class size for YC over the years. I bet the applications are increasing at an increasing rate, last time they had 50% increase, soon it will be 100%, with all the publicity around YC.<p>I don't quite buy the scalability argument, in the end there's a natural upper limit on the YC class size and I think they're fast approaching it. There are a very small number of partners and there's only one pg. After that point, say a class size of 100 (~200 people) things will get impersonal and YC will inevitably start to converge to other incubators.<p>Large class sizes also inflate the alumni network, one of the best aspects (the best?) of YC. Up to a certain size, network utility increases with size; after that there are just too many people with too few hubs to connect them.<p>I think at the end, they just will have to fix the class size to a certain number, which will then make the acceptance ratios insanely small (currently 2%)

They can't even remember all their names. Not sure how they can guide all these companies properly. Time will tell. It'll be interesting to watch none the less.<p>Bubble?

At some point there will be another layer to YC from successful exits in previous batches.<p>Already the number of partners is growing, and as more YC companies exit successfully you will probably see more of that, remembering your roots and who helped you up would be a powerful motivator into completing the cycle.<p>If YC can somehow manage to maintain communications through for instance multiple tiers with bypasses if needed it could get very big.<p>Every brushfire starts with a spark!

It's only a matter of time now until we'll have the YC mafia ;)