Startup accelerators offer mentorship and seed funding in exchange for equity

Startup accelerators that include more training activities, such as pitch competitions, tend to have better long-term success rates

That's according to a new study from Wharton. Y-Combinator, perhaps the most famous startup accelerator, currently has 16 alumni companies trading on the public market. But not every entrepreneur who joins a startup accelerator makes it big.

Seed funding is often the first round of capital that a startup raises

Early-stage startups often try to secure seed funding from investors in order to take their idea from concept to reality.

Startups are small, early-stage companies designed to grow fast

The definition of the word “startup” is complicated—so who better to define it than Y Combinator, perhaps the most well-known startup accelerator in the business? YC’s blog also explains how startups make money and build products.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Angel investors often receive significant equity because of the risk they take

Angel investors fund startups at an early stage, at which time a company’s success is less assured. In exchange, they often ask for a significant equity stake.

Y Combinator tends to outperform many other Silicon Valley startup accelerators

In a podcast episode, Garry Tan—CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator—speaks about how YC has a better track record than the rest of Silicon Valley at placing bets on startups. Learn how Tan earned his first million dollars, as well as lessons from other successful businesspeople, including Y Combinator’s Paul Graham.

Venture capital is a type of financing that firms and funds use to invest in startups they believe have the potential for long-term growth

Household name companies such as Airbnb and Uber might not exist without venture capital, which is commonly referred to as "VC" for short.

The Y Combinator startup directory includes every company YC has funded

The startup accelerator has funded more than 5,000 companies over the years. This YC-specific search engine lets you look up any company to find out if it's a YC alum.

Stanford’s ‘How to Start a Startup’ series

Stanford’s archive of lectures about creating a startup includes advice from Y Combinator notables such as former YC president and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and YC Cofounder Paul Graham.

Angel investors often come together as a syndicate

Startups raise money in different rounds from investors that include their friends and family, angels, and venture capital funds. These types of investors serve different purposes.

Nonprofit VC funds invest in startups, but have donors instead of LPs

Examples include Andreessen Horowitz’s TxO (Talent x Opportunity) Initiative and Fifth Star Funds, which allows donors to write “Friends & Family” checks for Black tech founders.

Y Combinator was founded in 2005 to bridge gaps between founders and investors

In one of Paul Graham’s essays on his website, he took the time to explain how and why he and his cofounders (including his girlfriend at the time, and now wife, Jessica Livingston), came up with the idea of and eventually created Y Combinator.

Dive deep into the numbers that shape each YC deal

Y Combinator invests $500K into each company in any given batch. $125K of that investment converts into a fixed 7% in ownership of the startup, and the other $375K is invested on something called an uncapped MFN safe. YC explains what that means and more terms of the deal in a detailed article on their website

‘Demo days’ are when founders at Y Combinator pitch their startup ideas

Investors sit in the audience, waiting to hear what this season’s batch of YC founders have cooked up. YC argues that going through the process of a demo day can help founders get a better understanding of their startup themselves.

Many startup founders pull out-of-the-box stunts to get their businesses off the ground

Do you know Airbnb’s founders used cereal (yes, as in the breakfast food) to secure their initial round of funding? Or that PayPal’s founders once gave out free money to get people to sign up for the platform? These stories might be crazy, but they’re not uncommon.

Andreessen Horowitz is among the most well-known venture capital firms

Also known as a16z, the firm has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Facebook, and Lyft since its founding in 2009. A podcast episode offers a deep dive into how the firm got started and became the industry disruptor it is today.

SPACs, explained

Special purpose acquisition companies make it easy for mature unicorns (companies valued at over $1B) to receive growth capital by going public. This process effectively skips the work of a traditional initial public offering, and its time-intensive investor negotiations. Typically, a well-known investor with expertise in a certain industry sponsors a SPAC with the intent to acquire a startup. Learn how it works and the risks involved here.

75% of venture-backed startups fail

Startups are inherently risky ventures. Successful startups are relatively rare due to factors including cash flow drying up, marketing issues, and more.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

The infrastructure, talent, and markets of Silicon Valley make the high-tech region ideal for startups

The number of startup employees, founders, and investors who have flocked to Silicon Valley over the years makes the California region ideal for networking in the tech space. Plus, California’s laws and specific rules around trade secrets help founders of fledgling businesses in Silicon Valley feel protected.

Explore Bessemer's anti-portfolio of missed opportunities

From Pinterest to Yelp, Bessemer Venture Partners—one of the most well-known VC firms—has invested in many successful companies over the years. But the firm has also kicked itself for passing on a few great opportunities, like Apple and Google. Check out the other companies in Bessemer's "anti-portfolio" here.

Learn more about Palantir's 'meritocracy fellowship'

In 2025, Palantir launched a fellowship program for high school graduates to bypass college and begin working at Palantir. The fellowship is positioned as an alternative to American universities, which Palantir leaders and cofounders frequently criticize, and offers students four months of paid training, seminars from business leaders, and return offers to top students.

NASA and SpaceX combine public support and funding with private enterprise

Rather than competitors, SpaceX and NASA are mutually beneficial collaborators. Without NASA contracts, SpaceX may have run out of funding, and without the low-cost tech of SpaceX, NASA may have been left without a US-based launch system.

Explore a step-by-step guide for getting started as a retail investor

Instead of purchasing individual stocks and bonds, new investors may want to start in funds that track an index—like the S&P 500—or that hold a group of themed stocks.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Meme stocks often have little underlying value but are fueled by crowd funding

"Meme stocks" is a phrase originating in the early 2020s, referring to companies with little underlying value who gain recognition through social media and whose stock price experiences rapid gains.

Find out how companies decide which stock exchange to list on

Tech companies often prefer to list on the tech-focused Nasdaq, whereas more traditional organizations opt for the New York Stock Exchange. Sometimes the choice is made partly based on the services an exchange offers a company.

Film festivals are where independent projects find studios

Film festivals are incubators for the movie industry, providing smaller films and their producers with opportunities to screen in front of live audiences, as well as potential investors who may offer wider distribution.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.