I’ve been investing in YC demo day companies for 16 years now as an angel, an LP and a VC. And I’ve been fortunate enough to have been invested during what many considered to be golden era for returns. We’ve invested $4 million so far into YC‘s summer 26 batch. These YC startups are stunningly underpriced. (Relative to future value) Keep this post. Happy to return back in the future with the receipts. I feel so lucky to be able to invest into the current golden era.

Most people don't understand how uniquely powerful YC software is and why it matters so much for founders. It's not a fundraising CRM so that you don't have to buy their own CRM. It's a fundraising CRM that allows each YC founder's experience with a given investor be tracked, anonymized, and shared with other founders so that founders can spend more time with great investors that are likely to invest and less time with less-good investors who are less likely to invest. It's a not a custom built calendar-booking link so that you don't have to buy a calendar-booking app. It's a calendar booking app that imports YC data to help the founders understand the sort order they should meet with investors, based on their likelihood to invest based on many different factors. For instance, some investors are an 8/10 for value-add but write checks without social signal. Other investors are a 10/10 but never enter a round early. Sequence them accordingly. These innovations are not just technology. They are thoughtfully solving problems YC cares a ton about...AND they are examples of how YC startups should build features for their own customers.

I am very supportive of everyone doing these types of split price rounds, at all stages. You should absolutely reward the investors that are willing to write the check without waiting to see who else is in the round. Venture is filled with maybe 5% of true independent thinkers, who write the check without hanging around the hoop. We get a dollar waited average of 1.5x step up on all our investments. Just from this dynamic.