Hard to think of any other individual who has made as large an impact on the global economy in the 21st century, in addition to opening up the playing field for women. Kudos.
Their contribution to the culture of startups, awareness of the importance of "nice people", creating the alumni network, fostering a supportive and intensely creative atmosphere within YC during the launch phase, diffusing good ideas and practices. Jessica, as part of the YC leadership (especially with PG's support and encouragement), has been central to that, both figuring it out and getting it all to actually work day-to-day.
Beyond the core YC team, this cultural progress has been possible because of a broad receptivity in the generation of potential founders that have flocked to YC. If Paul & Jessica had been alone in their attitude, they never would have developed momentum. It's been part of a generational shift in attitudes towards business, and I love that.
So thank you both Paul & Jessica for being so open about YC, and for having an attitude of service, and to everyone who has worked together with them! Here's to future generations of idealist entrepreneurs.
A non zero-sum way of saying things might just be to thank JL for all the great work she's done, huge impact she's had, and so on. No arguments about 'the top person'.
Gwynne Shotwell would be a good example. She is the President & COO of SpaceX, that is actively significantly reducing the cost of launching satellites, and working on global internet access.
How about Jeff Bezos (AWS certainly powers more startups that YC)?
or
Steve Jobs (Mobile)?
or
Ryan Dahl (nodejs)?
> "...made as large an impact on the global economy in the 21st century" && "[opened] up the playing field for women."