I'm a cofounder of a YC company. This June will be the sixth anniversary of when we did YC, and our company isn't exactly a billion-dollar darling (to put it mildly). Nor do we have any interest in going public or being acquired, so the odds of YC seeing any sort of financial return from us are slim.

Nevertheless, we commonly get email responses from YC partners (including Sam) inside of five minutes, and I've met and gotten helpful advice when we needed help from six partners (including Sam) in just the past year or so.

YC doesn't only help the huge successes: They also do a tremendous amount to help tiny companies, and even if they're still tiny many years after YC.