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Y Combinator Early Access Network
- behole 8d agoMy guess - next round of this will be for pay. This is the soft-launch before they monetize this "exclusive access" .
- alansaber 8d agoNo but it reinforces the value of the YC brand. VC is always looking for an edge
- charliewarren 8d agonope.
- ViktorRay 8d agoWonder 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 https://x.com/mcuban/status/692595120969875456
- Den_VR 8d agoHow could that possibly happen to a hand-picked group of YC's enterprise-AI founders?!
- walrus01 8d agoMark 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 8d agoI 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 8d agoSacca 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast.com
- Grosvenor 8d ago^^^ this guy fucks. You’re right. So Russ was an amalgamation of sacca, cuban, and probably a few more.
- nostrebored 8d agoHaving 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.
- tmpz22 8d agoGenuine question, I haven't been, is the motivation "solving hard problems" or is it "receive external validation and get-rich-quick by solving hard problems"?
- nostrebored 7d agoThat’s a good question! A mix of both. There are definitely people who see it as a step on their validation treadmill. Most people want to make money. But a lot of people are just techno optimists who think they can do something.
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- dgellow 8d agoThis 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
- alansaber 8d agoHot take but I don't mind startup founders being plucky and a bit arrogant/naieve. They need it.
- NewJazz 8d agoThey need to be naïve?
- sellmesoap 8d agoIf you're too grounded you say no to everything like a reasonable person with experience :D
- NewJazz 8d agoWhat was he replying to?
- ViktorRay 7d agoHe was replying to a tweet by Paul Graham where Paul Graham says the following: “Startups: Instead of appearing on Shark Tank, spend that energy fixing whatever makes your product so unappealing you think you need to.“ https://www.inc.com/business-insider/mark-cuban-chris-sacca-paul-graham-twitter-feud.html https://www.inc.com/business-insider/mark-cuban-chris-sacca-...
- PgThePedo 7d agoSays the founder of YC who makes nothing people want. YC funded Flock. You want that?
- zatkin 8d agoI wonder what the dress code is.
- samus 8d ago[flagged]
- charliewarren 8d ago"business causal" ofc :)
- wxw 8d 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 8d ago[flagged]
- tptacek 8d agoIf you're an enterprise buyer I'm confident most pre-launch YC startups would be more than happy to talk to you about a pilot.
- tfehring 8d agoRelatedly, I think "acceptance" to this program will be easy, bordering on automatic, if you have an enterprise AI budget and purchasing authority.
- tptacek 8d agoIt really seems like this is a program where the exclusivity would cut literally in the opposite direction, against the startups.
- avaer 8d agoIt'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.
- random3 8d agoNature has shown variety wins over inbreeding, I don't see how AI will change this
- mitxela 8d agoInbreeding won all human societies until about 1900 and will win all human societies from now on.
- deleted 8d ago[deleted]
- pj_mukh 8d agoYCombinator 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).
- ModernMech 8d agoPretty much every incubator I've seen has an open application process.
- arionhardison 8d agoSo 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-posts-early-access-lawsuit-democrat-investigations/ https://time.com/article/2026/08/13/trump-sued-truth-social-...
- avaer 8d agoYC 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.
- ModernMech 8d 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.
- avaer 8d agoThat'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.
- arionhardison 8d ago> blame at the feet of YC, it would be just as bad without them. I disagree, I think YC is fully to blame here as are the other grifters of the current administration.
- mcmcmc 8d agoThe problem is predatory pricing is hard to prove, and the FTC is impotent or complicit, depending on the administration
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- mitxela 8d ago[flagged]
- rglover 8d agoThe future isn't found in consensus or groups.
- listic 8d agoBeing about 'AI' is mandatory now, I guess?
- HolyLampshade 8d agoThis isn’t just AI…it’s ‘enterprise-AI’. It’s AI, but with more bureaucracy and politics.
- charliewarren 8d agohaha. we plan to do other events, but focused on B2B first. hence "enterprise AI"
- jzelinskie 8d agoThis 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.
- tfehring 8d agoRight, the point of this from YC's perspective is to identify and pre-qualify the minority of enterprise AI buyers that can move quickly. Even those buyers aren't going to research and inbound to early-stage YC startups very often. The startups aren't intentionally staying quiet, but often they haven't nailed product-market fit and/or messaging yet.
- charliewarren 8d agothis is well put
- 4lx87 8d agoHelp me understand. The purpose is to help founders get sales contracts? What's the value for the buyers? Acquire people before they become competitors?
- alansaber 8d agoUsually the rule of a CTO/CIO is to foster innovation. Getting a custom solution from a big name VC helps then fulfil their JD within the company.
- charliewarren 8d agounderstand what founders are building, which helps them deploy AI internally. you'd be surprised how hard this is to do in a big (tech) company. also, yes there is a peer group aspect.
- ElProlactin 8d 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. Fall 2026 kicks off on October 22 in San Francisco. Hi Claude!
- alansaber 8d agoAI copy from the AI company incubator is hardly the worse sin
- ElProlactin 8d agoI actually don't have a problem with people using AI to write but this is such a small amount of text that outsourcing it to AI screams "laziness".
- charliewarren 8d agoi wrote all the copy here the old fashioned way https://www.ycombinator.com/early-access https://www.ycombinator.com/early-access
- ra0x3 8d agoWhat clues did you use in this to spot Claude?
- blamedang 8d agoWho would want to join a semi-technical echo chamber like YC. Isn’t it just for rich kids whose dads lead the round?
- skmurphy 8d ago[dead]
- figassis 8d agoThis is mostly AI companies needing a large investment (maybe larger than YC's standard 500k) to get off the ground, and so YC now starts acting as market maker (more than it already is), by literally getting people that are primed to buy (filling out the form where minimum amount is 500k, talking about their last funded pilot, company size, etc), so YC can now say this is the size of validated opportunities, so their (potentially higher) seed is now derisked, but also they don't have to wait for their startups to 10x in 3 years, they can 20x in 12 months. The startup however, will do the thing they advised them not to do, which is tailor their roadmap to a large customer. But yes, this is early exit/rugpull planning. If it weren't, it would not be AI exclusive and I don't think companies are that excited to know the latest and brightest AI companies. They can simply wait for the market. But they create FOMO, and now they open a small window, make calls to know how much you'll commit and all the FOMO execs will fly in. I'll be fun.
- charliewarren 8d ago"early exit/rugpull planning" nope.
- n0ticer 8d ago[flagged]
- FlockIsYC 7d ago[flagged]