Y Combinator Early Access Network

ttosh about 3 hours ago 34 commentsRead Article on events.ycombinator.com

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Discussion (34 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

avaer•about 2 hours ago

It's been obvious for years that AI will bifurcate society even more between the haves and have nots, contrary to "democratizing AI" niceties espoused by big AI CEOs.

It was less obvious that access will be further gated by an Old Boy Network. I guess the frontier model whitelists of yestermonth were a portent.

pj_mukh•about 1 hour ago

YCombinator has its biases, but I don't know of many other investment firms that have a university style, "application" process. It's almost always, warm-intros you need.

This Early access network is just an intro system once you get through the Application process (like Universities having a job fair).

avaer•about 1 hour ago

TBF YC has always said the value is in the network.

What's interesting (alarming?) is them formalizing exclusion of access to technology via the network. It's explicitly ossifying an access control system over what used to be handshakes.

pj_mukh•about 1 hour ago

I don’t understand, Ycombinator company list is public information list, go buy from any one of them anytime?

AFAICT, this is mostly a way for YC companies to get warm intros into potential customers. Almost exactly like a job fair at a university but for software contracts instead of jobs.

ModernMech•about 1 hour ago

Pretty much every incubator I've seen has an open application process.

pj_mukh•about 1 hour ago

I mean now..yes. Not in 2008.

random3•about 2 hours ago

Nature has shown variety wins over inbreeding, I don't see how AI will change this

mitxela•about 2 hours ago

Inbreeding won all human societies until about 1900 and will win all human societies from now on.

ViktorRay•about 3 hours ago

Wonder if people going to this will have the same infamous sense of arrogance and entitlement that is common to Y combinator folks?

Source:

https://x.com/mcuban/status/692595120969875456

dgellow•19 minutes ago

This type of group is exactly what develop that feeling of entitlement and arrogance. It would be very surprising if that’s not the case.

That being said, all the ex YC people I interacted with in person have been awesome. But there is definitely a YC entitled group

Den_VR•about 2 hours ago

How could that possibly happen to a hand-picked group of YC's enterprise-AI founders?!

nostrebored•about 2 hours ago

Having been through YC, there's certainly some of this, but the overwhelming majority of founders were pretty down to earth. People generally just want to solve hard problems.

walrus01•about 2 hours ago

Mark Cuban posting about a sense of arrogance and entitlement is certainly something. There's a reason behind the character of HBO Silicon Valley's Russ Hanneman...

[spiderman pointing at spiderman.gif]

Grosvenor•about 2 hours ago

I thought Chris Sacca was the inspiration for Russ Hanneman.

The beard, the shirts, the sexual assault allegations. The three nannies suing him - one for no good reason!

walrus01•about 1 hour ago

Sacca was not doing anything like 'radio on the internet' in the 1994-2000 dotcom 1.0 boom era...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast.com

jzelinskie•16 minutes ago

This is interesting, but I think most enterprise AI buyers probably aren't looking to buy from the current batch; they're just too volatile at that stage. This does seem like an opportunity for cross-pollination where early start-ups get to test their product signals and enterprises get to see what's on the cutting edge.

This seems more beneficial to the founders because the the enterprises could instead just choose to do some research on the start-ups. It's not like the start-ups are keeping their knowledge quiet because for them to survive they need to convince everybody what their doing is meaningful.

4lx87•7 minutes ago

Help me understand. The purpose is to help founders get sales contracts? What's the value for the buyers? Acquire people before they become competitors?

mitxela•about 2 hours ago

Did you know you can become a member of the WEF for free and get their nonsense emails in advance of anyone else talking about what stupid stuff the WEF is doing?

wxw•about 2 hours ago

> The Early Access Network is an invite-only group of senior technology leaders who want to see what's coming before it's on anyone's shortlist.

> Four times a year, we put a hand-picked group of YC's enterprise-AI founders in a room with buyers who can actually run a pilot.

Seems like a win-win.

avaer•about 2 hours ago

For everyone except you, for most definitions of "you".

listic•about 1 hour ago

Being about 'AI' is mandatory now, I guess?

rglover•about 2 hours ago

The future isn't found in consensus or groups.

zatkin•about 2 hours ago

I wonder what the dress code is.

samus•about 2 hours ago

I'm all for making swimsuit formal wear, at least in summer.

behole•about 2 hours ago

My guess - next round of this will be for pay. This is the soft-launch before they monetize this "exclusive access" .

arionhardison•about 2 hours ago

So basically now YC is looking to emulate Trump and his "pay for early access to truth social posts" ?

re: https://time.com/article/2026/08/13/trump-sued-truth-social-...

avaer•about 1 hour ago

YC isn't taxing you, or elected to serve your interest, or beholden to public recordkeeping law or sworn to a national constitution with explicit rules against self-enrichment.

YC can do whatever they want, you can not play their game if you choose. It's not really comparable.

arionhardison•about 1 hour ago

This is a very good point, I did not mean literally in that sense; only in that they are offering "the privileged" exclusive access to information that will further entrench their positions.

I apologize for not being clearer in my comment. I actually agree with your response and fully understand that there is a fundamental difference but also believe that the outcomes of both the aforementioned are aligned.

ModernMech•about 1 hour ago

> YC isn't taxing you

It's a different kind of tax. The VC model is to get you addicted to a service and then jack up prices as soon as they've squeezed out other competition. You can't opt out of that game when AirBnBs take over your town.

mcmcmc•16 minutes ago

The problem is predatory pricing is hard to prove, and the FTC is impotent or complicit, depending on the administration

avaer•about 1 hour ago

That's fair and accurate, there's a lot broken with the system. But I wouldn't place the blame at the feet of YC, it would be just as bad without them.