Y Combinator Is Back In Person

TL;DR

Y Combinator announced the summer 2022 batch will be the first in-person cohort since winter 2020, with a Sonoma retreat, weekly San Francisco meetups, software-facilitated one-on-one coffees, and an end-of-batch celebration. Founders are becoming more technical, more strategic (going on offense during a downturn), and moving back to large tech hubs like San Francisco and New York.

Key insights

• Founders who are not making fear-based decisions are more excited to apply to YC during a downturn because it feels “rebellious” or strategic; historically, Stripe, Airbnb, and Dropbox were founded du
• The hype cycle makes hiring and customer access harder for founders; a downturn can be a time to go on offense (e.g., lower Facebook ad prices, less competition from overfunded rivals).
• Despite content marketing suggesting founders were leaving San Francisco, many are quietly moving back; end-of-batch surveys showed almost unanimous desire for in-person Bay Area components.