![](https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2023/10/Pete-Tweet.png/")
Optimizely was acquired</a>, Pete and his team had climbed up to nearly $120M in ARR. </p><p>(Fun fact: Pete is also a<em> literal </em>climber. Check out <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.instagram.com/p/BqJPCM8gg_B//">this picture</a> of him conquering El Capitan.)</p><p>Pete first came back to YC last year as a Visiting Group Partner — a similar role, but one that asks for a commitment on a batch-to-batch basis. As with Pete, a number of Visiting Group Partners have gone on to join YC as full-time Group Partners.</p><p>On that note, <strong>I’m also very happy to welcome two more YC alumni back home as Visiting Group Partners</strong>: Tyler Bosmeny and Nate Smith.</p><p><strong>Tyler </strong>is the co-founder and former CEO of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/clever/">Clever (S12), which lets students and teachers access all of their learning software in one place. If you have a kid in K-12 in the U.S., they probably log into Clever all the time — 60% of them do. In 2021, Clever was acquired for half a billion dollars. Besides his uniquely deep expertise in EdTech, Tyler brings a ton of experience in B2B sales (he was already leading a YC/Stanford class about sales and marketing <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHAh6WKBgiE&t=7s\%22>eight years ago</em></a><em>.)</em></p><p><strong>Nate </strong>is the co-founder and former CEO/CTO of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/lever/">Lever (S12), an all-in-one system that helps companies like Netflix and KPMG (and 5000+ others) handle everything in the talent recruiting process. Lever was acquired by Employ Inc. last year. Before starting Lever, Nate was a Product Manager on Google Search and Google Analytics, and he authored the JavaScript application framework <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://github.com/derbyjs/derby/">DerbyJS. Nate and his husband live in San Francisco with their two bernedoodles, Walnut and Brownie.</p><p>Even before today’s news, YC had more Group Partners than at any point in its history. Every addition brings more experience, more insight, and more personalized attention for each and every YC founder.<em> </em>As an increasing number of YC founders hit their grand slams, more of them are coming home to help the next generation of founders at bat and we <em>love it</em>.</p><p>Yet we’re very deliberate in who we bring on, and we’re just as deliberate in why we call them “Partners”. They’re not just partners at YC; they’re partners<em> with their YC companies</em>.<em> </em>Each of us thinks and acts like long-term owners in these companies, because <strong>that’s the right way to do this</strong>. Any insight, any experience, any strengths we can bring to help these teams succeed, we will. Anyone in startup land can offer you “mentorship”; this is so much more.</p><p>Welcome, Tyler and Nate — and congrats, Pete!</p>","comment_id":"651deaddb7f98e0001a1d5d5","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/10/Nate-Pete-Tyler.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-10-04T15:44:45.000-07:00","updated_at":"2023-10-06T09:10:46.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-10-06T08:58:00.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"I'm thrilled to welcome YC's newest Group Partner and Visiting Group Partners. Welcome, Tyler and Nate — and congrats, Pete!","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71160","name":"Partners","slug":"partners","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/partners/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d2","name":"Garry Tan","slug":"garry","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2023/03/Instagram-Image-Template--Square---21-.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":"@garrytan","meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/garry/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/meet-ycs-newest-group-partner-and-visiting-group-partners/","excerpt":"I'm thrilled to welcome YC's newest Group Partner and Visiting Group Partners. Welcome, Tyler and Nate — and congrats, Pete!","reading_time":3,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":"An image of Y Combinator's Nate Smith, Pete Koomen, and Tyler Bosmeny","feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"63ed7c5ebb97530001aa5cd2","uuid":"c2766136-77ff-4a0c-9a1f-9d50f593e6b9","title":"Why would you start a startup in an economic downturn?","slug":"why-would-you-start-a-startup-in-an-economic-downturn","html":"<p>There will likely be a recession in 2023, and the major downsides to starting a startup are obvious: There is less money in the system so selling and fundraising are harder; investors have less money to invest and companies have less money to spend on products.</p><p>But these are also reasons it’s an especially good time to start a startup, especially with YC.</p><p>Cost-sensitive customers can be helpful in the early days of your company. If they pay you in this tough environment, it's a stronger signal. There’s a higher likelihood you’re building something they really want.</p><p>And though our <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/">new standard deal</a> of $500,000 gives you some slack, you will likely have to develop very smart habits around spending because fundraising is harder. Learning how to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/aord.html/">stay alive</a> is arguably the most important skill you can have as a founder.</p><p>I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two of the top YC companies, Airbnb and Stripe, were started in the depths of the last recession (2009).* They learned how important it is to build something people want and not assume investors will be there to save them early on.</p><p>None of this is new. It’s common knowledge, especially in the tech community, that many successful startups were created during recessions (just search “startups + recession” and you’ll find a bunch of articles), which may be one reason we’ve seen high numbers of applications from founders leaving their big tech company jobs, especially in the last couple of months.</p><p>If running a startup is like commanding an army, then YC is elite basic training. You’ll learn how to navigate the challenges (or realize you’re not up for it) when your company is small and with the support of advisors and YC batchmates. You’ll build a solid foundation of learning how to build something people want and staying alive. </p><p>The YC training prepares you by default for succeeding through recessions. And it’s easier to internalize that training today when the macroenvironment supports it. The alternative is learning it on the battlefield when the stakes are way higher — when you’ve already raised money and have employees who depend on you. </p><p>As YC founder Paul Graham <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html/">wrote, “Bad shit is coming. It always is in a startup.” If you’re interested in starting a startup, we’re entering a counterintuitively good time to do it. It won’t be easy, but if you get through the early days, you’ll be better prepared than most. And if the challenge excites you, you probably have the right personality for it.</p><p>*Their products were also tailored to a cost-sensitive environment. Stripe made it easier for brick-and-mortar businesses to cut costs by selling online and Airbnb created a new income stream for hosts and lower-priced accommodations for travelers.</p>","comment_id":"63ed7c5ebb97530001aa5cd2","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/02/stephblog.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-02-15T16:44:14.000-08:00","updated_at":"2023-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00","published_at":"2023-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"In an economic downturn, there are obvious downsides of starting a startup — but there are also powerful upsides; because to survive, you have to *actually* build something people want.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c8","name":"Stephanie Simon","slug":"stephanie","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/steph-af6b11e61b7a3c55b099c780fe0a359236ceaab496850b530d178aedb8cefb2c.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Stephanie Simon is the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. \n\nPrior to YC, she was a software engineer at Earnest and co-founded Murmur, a venture-backed local search startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/stephanie/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7116d","name":"Essay","slug":"essay","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/essay/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},{"id":"63ed8ba5bb97530001aa5ced","name":"#271","slug":"hash-271","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"63ed8ba5bb97530001aa5cee","name":"#240","slug":"hash-240","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c8","name":"Stephanie Simon","slug":"stephanie","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/steph-af6b11e61b7a3c55b099c780fe0a359236ceaab496850b530d178aedb8cefb2c.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Stephanie Simon is the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. \n\nPrior to YC, she was a software engineer at Earnest and co-founded Murmur, a venture-backed local search startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/stephanie/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/why-would-you-start-a-startup-in-an-economic-downturn/","excerpt":"In an economic downturn, there are obvious downsides of starting a startup — but there are also powerful upsides; because to survive, you have to *actually* build something people want.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"620da5f7d710a50001fba7dd","uuid":"2e869860-9ab1-45e5-9761-e49ec49f7a45","title":"Y Combinator Top Companies - February 2022","slug":"y-combinator-top-companies-feb-2022","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><p>We’re excited to share the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/">2022 YC Top Companies</a>. In addition to the list of top companies, we also launched the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/breakthrough/">YC Breakthrough Companies</a> list to highlight the fast-growing companies that have received between $15M-$300M <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/continuity//">from YC</a>.</p>\n<p>Both lists include private, public and exited companies valued at $150M or more and are sorted by valuation<sup class=\"footnote-ref\"><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"#fn1\" id=\"fnref1\">[1]</a></sup> or market cap as of February 2022.</p>\n<p>Here are some stats about this year’s list:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>More than 260 YC companies are valued at $150M+ and more than 60 companies are valued at $1B+.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>99 new companies joined the list since our last update in July 2021.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>More companies are operating remotely</p>\n<ul>\n<li>11% of the top companies are remote first.</li>\n<li>Three of the top ten private companies are remote first (<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/opensea/">OpenSea, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/brex/">Brex, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gitlab/">Gitlab)./n/n/n20 countries are represented</p>\n<ul>\n<li>6 new countries represented: Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Chile, Brazil, and Singapore</li>\n<li>Of the companies that are new to the list, 28% are outside of the US.</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>Top 10 valuation jumps since July 2021:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety/">Flock Safety</a> (jumped 74 spots to #31)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/solugen/">Solugen (jumped 74 spots to #51)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gem/">Gem (jumped 69 spots to #76)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/modern-treasury/">Modern Treasury</a> (jumped 52 spots to #48)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/xendit/">Xendit (jumped 49 spots to #37)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/captivateiq/">CaptivateIQ (jumped 35 spots to #71)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/easypost/">EasyPost (jumped 34 spots to #60)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/h1/">H1 (jumped 30 spots to #98)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/veriff/">Veriff (jumped 28 spots to #61)</li>\n<li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/promise/">Promise (jumped 21 spots to #121)</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>You can read more about some of the featured companies <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/featured/">here.
/nOne thing to note is that this is not an exhaustive list of YC’s top companies. We allowed founders to opt out of being listed for any reason. Here's the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/">full list</a> of YC companies.</p>\n<p>Congratulations to all of the fantastic companies highlighted here. We’re delighted to be part of their stories and hope these lists help potential employees, customers and investors identify companies they’d like to work with as well.<br>\n<br></p>\n<p><em>This list was published in late February 2022, just as the fighting in Ukraine began. We didn’t think it was an appropriate moment to be celebratory, and wanted to take time to turn our attention to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/supporting-ukraine/">the Ukrainian people</a> and the YC community being impacted by the invasion of Ukraine.</em><br>\n<br></p>\n<hr class=\"footnotes-sep\">\n<section class=\"footnotes\">\n<ol class=\"footnotes-list\">\n<li id=\"fn1\" class=\"footnote-item\"><p>Why do we use valuation? We have always said that valuation is not the best way to measure a company’s value, and we consistently warn our companies not to over-optimize their fundraising for a high valuation. That said, it’s the most commonly available metric to compare companies in the startup world. Other metrics, like revenue, are often kept private. We have a number of impressive companies who would appear on the list or rank even higher if we counted other metrics (revenue, revenue/employee, etc). <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"#fnref1\" class=\"footnote-backref\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</section>\n<!--kg-card-end: markdown-->","comment_id":"620da5f7d710a50001fba7dd","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/yc-top-companies-list-og-image-2.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-02-16T17:33:43.000-08:00","updated_at":"2022-04-19T16:33:56.000-07:00","published_at":"2022-02-28T08:44:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"We’re excited to share the 2022 YC Top Companies. 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At each location, we will host talks with YC group partners and YC alumni, who will discuss their founder journey, the YC experience and myths around starting startups.</p><p>We will also be hosting two virtual admissions sessions to chat about the YC application process, give application tips and answer your questions about the batch program.</p><p>This year, we’re working with AWS Activate to provide $1,000 in AWS credits to spend on AWS services, and $350 in Developer Support plan credits to attendees. This is on top of any AWS credits you may have received from AWS Activate previously. To learn more about AWS Activate, please visit <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.aws.com/activate/" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.aws.com/activate</a>.</p><p>Interested in applying to YC? <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://ycombinator.com/apply/">Applications for YC Summer 2022 are now open</a>.</p><p><strong>We hope you’ll join us (virtually) at these locations:</strong></p><p><strong>January 31</strong> - Mexico: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/309/">YC @ Orchata</a><br><strong>February 1</strong> - Canada: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/316/">YC @ University of Toronto</a><br><strong>February 4</strong> - France: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/318/">YC @ Station F</a><br><strong>February 9</strong> - United States: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/328/">YC @ HBCUs</a><br><strong>February 10</strong> - Russia: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/323/">YC @ ITMO University</a><br><strong>February 11</strong> - Spain: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/317/">YC @ Lanzadera</a><br><strong>February 16</strong> - United Kingdom: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/325/">YC @ Cambridge</a><br><strong>February 17</strong> - Indonesia & Singapore: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/313/">YC @ Payfazz & Xfers</a><br><strong>February 23</strong> - Europe: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/321/">YC @ Start Global</a><br><strong>February 25</strong> - Colombia: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/312/">YC @ Platzi</a><br><strong>February 25</strong> - United States: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/314/">YC @ Stanford</a><br><strong>February 25</strong> - United States: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/315/">YC @ UC Berkeley</a><br><strong>March 4</strong> - United States: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/324/">YC @ University of Washington</a><br><strong>March 4</strong> - United States: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/326/">YC @ Harvard</a><br><strong>March 11</strong> - United States: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/320/">YC @ MIT</a><br><strong>March 11</strong> - Canada: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/322/">YC @ University of Waterloo</a><br><strong>March 14</strong> - India: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/327/">YC @ IIT Bombay</a><br><strong>March 18</strong> - <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/319/">AMA w/ Michael Seibel</a><br><strong>March 21</strong> - <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/310/">YC Admissions</a><br><strong>March 21</strong> - <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/311/">YC Admissions</a><br><strong>March 25 </strong>- Ireland: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com/events/330/">YC @ University of Limerick</a></p><p>If you are starting a startup or have questions about YC, we want to meet you. 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Meet YC’s newest Group Partner and Visiting Group Partners
by Garry Tan10/6/2023
The command center of YC is growing even stronger.
At the helm of YC are the Group Partners, a set of talented, optimistic, and deeply-experienced individuals — all of whom know what it’s like to start a company, because they’ve done it. These are the Unicorn whisperers that choose the founders invited to each YC batch, and the ones supporting those founders and their startups for life.
Today I’m thrilled to welcome a new addition to that set: Pete Koomen. Pete is the co-founder of Optimizely, which builds tools that let companies easily run experiments on their websites and apps.
I met Pete over a decade ago, just before he went through YC’s W10 batch. Like so many YC companies before/since, Optimizely was actually born from the batch; they’d applied with a totally different idea (a way for merchants to give discounts to fans for talking them up on social media, according to their old application), but found a much bigger problem to solve while going through YC.
Even early on, it was clear that Pete was a clever, thoughtful, and multi-faceted founder. He could wear whatever hat his team needed most at that moment. In the early years that meant building product (alongside his co-founder Dan) and scaling the product and engineering teams. Later it meant focusing on sales, leading sales engineering, and helping to close huge enterprise deals. By the time Optimizely was acquired, Pete and his team had climbed up to nearly $120M in ARR.
(Fun fact: Pete is also a literal climber. Check out this picture of him conquering El Capitan.)
Pete first came back to YC last year as a Visiting Group Partner — a similar role, but one that asks for a commitment on a batch-to-batch basis. As with Pete, a number of Visiting Group Partners have gone on to join YC as full-time Group Partners.
On that note, I’m also very happy to welcome two more YC alumni back home as Visiting Group Partners: Tyler Bosmeny and Nate Smith.
Tyler is the co-founder and former CEO of Clever (S12), which lets students and teachers access all of their learning software in one place. If you have a kid in K-12 in the U.S., they probably log into Clever all the time — 60% of them do. In 2021, Clever was acquired for half a billion dollars. Besides his uniquely deep expertise in EdTech, Tyler brings a ton of experience in B2B sales (he was already leading a YC/Stanford class about sales and marketing eight years ago.)
Nate is the co-founder and former CEO/CTO of Lever (S12), an all-in-one system that helps companies like Netflix and KPMG (and 5000+ others) handle everything in the talent recruiting process. Lever was acquired by Employ Inc. last year. Before starting Lever, Nate was a Product Manager on Google Search and Google Analytics, and he authored the JavaScript application framework DerbyJS. Nate and his husband live in San Francisco with their two bernedoodles, Walnut and Brownie.
Even before today’s news, YC had more Group Partners than at any point in its history. Every addition brings more experience, more insight, and more personalized attention for each and every YC founder. As an increasing number of YC founders hit their grand slams, more of them are coming home to help the next generation of founders at bat and we love it.
Yet we’re very deliberate in who we bring on, and we’re just as deliberate in why we call them “Partners”. They’re not just partners at YC; they’re partners with their YC companies. Each of us thinks and acts like long-term owners in these companies, because that’s the right way to do this. Any insight, any experience, any strengths we can bring to help these teams succeed, we will. Anyone in startup land can offer you “mentorship”; this is so much more.
Welcome, Tyler and Nate — and congrats, Pete!
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Author
Garry Tan
Garry is the President & CEO of Y Combinator. Previously, he was the co-founder & Managing Partner of Initialized Capital. Before that, he co-founded Posterous (YC S08) which was acquired by Twitter.