Apply to YC Summer 2021

by Lindsay Amos3/15/2021

The deadline to apply to the Y Combinator Summer 2021 batch is Friday, March 19 at 8pm PT. Due to COVID-19, Summer 2021 will be the third batch in a row to be fully remote.

We occasionally get questions about what a remote batch is like. Our 2020 Year in Review is helpful here, and I thought I’d include some quotes from when I asked founders from Summer 2020 (our first all remote batch) about their experience.

“Remote was super helpful, especially due to immigration reasons. Was cool meeting batch-mates over video. Special shout out to the MarketForce team in Kenya :).” — Dipo Areoye (Icon)

“We would not have applied should YC have been in person for S20. We were running a UK-regulated fintech at the time so it would have been very disruptive for us to move into a time zone which is 8 hours away from all our customers. YC being remote meant that we could stay close to customers while getting all the benefits of Office Hours, the talks, sharing metrics, etc. For founders based outside of the Bay Area / US like us, who plan to remain based outside of the Bay Area, remote can actually be a big plus. Plus, thanks to YC in large part, the US is now one of our largest markets.” — Jamie Parker (Heron Data)

“We were able to keep building our hardware product and working in the lab while doing YC, which probably would have been almost impossible if we had to go to SF for the summer.” — Michael Dubrovsky (SiPhox)

“One point of initial worry was about the participation of investors during the remote YC Demo Day. But we realized that it turned out as a huge advantage, because now we had 2K+ investors logging in remotely from different parts of the world to listen to our pitches. Hence, we were able to talk to way more potential investors than what we had anticipated. Second point of worry was networking with batchmates and building long-term bonds. I think it turned out fine and I am still close to a few companies from my batch. The group office hours and post demo day fundraising got us closer. And I don’t think we missed out on it.” — Saurabh Nangia (Mesh)

(A common misconception about YC is that founders do a lot of socializing during the batch. This has never been the case because founders are way too busy. The friendships tend to happen afterwards, either in small self-organized groups or at alumni events.)

“At the end of the day, we saw the remote thing as an opportunity to focus more on the business.” — Manav Kohli (PolyOps)

YC is a three-month opportunity to concentrate on your startup, alongside others who are doing the same, with access to the best resources to unblock you. If you have any more questions, I’d check out this page or you can email the admissions team at apply@ycombinator.com.

Apply to YC Summer 2021.

Categories

Admissions

Author

  • Lindsay Amos

    Lindsay Amos is the Senior Director of Communications at Y Combinator. In 2010, she was one of the first 30 employees at Square and the company’s first comms hire.