Ask HN: How many YC start-ups are already profitable?

19 points·nextvalley··5 comments

How many of the YC start-ups funded are already profitable?

Do you mean at the point when they apply to YC? Around 10% currently. The number is going up, because as we get better known we get more applicants that are further along. It was 0% for the first several years.

Wow, that's huge. I assume that if they are profitable and there business ideas are scalable, their chances for getting into YC greatly improve?

From what I have been able to understand till now, its some kind of voodoo magic that increases chances of getting into YC.

Joking :)

Everything that can increase one's chances of getting into YC seems to be founder qualities (thats what I can make out from what has been said on this by YC in various posts). YC saying what stage a company is in impacts their selection would be a paradigm shift in how it projects itself and its selection process, imho.

That is impressive. My original question was about the total universe of YC funded start-ups; given that 10% are profitable at the he time they apply, the lifetime number must be much much higher. Would 50% be a reasonable estimate?

It's hard to say for sure, because that ratio is changing too. A few years ago I would not have guessed it could be that high, but now it doesn't seem impossible.

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