With one week till the January kickoff of Y Combinator’s winter 2024 startup batch, there’s a hush within the prestigious accelerator program’s cavernous new San Francisco headquarters.
The one sound, except for regular rain streaking the home windows, is the muffled labor of two YC companions in a makeshift subterranean kitchen, the place they’re training a rooster and dumplings recipe to serve to a gaggle of incoming founders. Like hundreds of hopefuls earlier than them, these founders could have 12 weeks to dash towards product-market match and notch the type of development metrics that wow buyers on Demo Day, laying the muse for unicorn standing and attainable Silicon Valley glory—no strain. The mild aroma of garlic drifts upward.
Garry Tan, a YC alum (summer season 2008) who was named president and CEO simply over a yr in the past, enters a glass-enclosed assembly room at one finish of the banquet corridor–measurement house, a former shipyard powerhouse. On X, previously generally known as Twitter, Tan is understood for his swaggering techno-optimism and sharp-elbowed politics (San Francisco’s lefty institution is a frequent goal). However in particular person, his voice invokes ASMR vibes. Solely the latent vitality in his posture, as he sits ahead in his seat, hints on the depth of his on-line persona.