Ask HN: What is Y Combinator return

3 pointsvasilipupkin3 comments

I am curious what is Ycombinator IRR since inception? I know the total valuation of Ycombinator startups is about 10bln.

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You'll never get an answer for IRR because a) data provides a competitive advantage and b) most investments in startup companies have not been realized, which are needed to calculate actual IRR.

well, I am curious about the total return, at current valuations, realized or not. I figured something like this, 10 bln * 1% ownership after dilution should be = 100 mln. If they invested 100k each into 700 companiesm, they have invested 70 mln. So, it's roughly inline with a small technology stock ETF. Good return, but not fantastic, relative to the market. Or am I wrong ?

the total valuation of the YC portfolio is way higher. Dropbox alone raised money at at $10 billion valuation back in January of this year. Then you have some others like AirBnB, Stripe, Teespring etc.. They might be close to $20 billion now.

Having said that, it would indeed be very hard to measure the return because of aforementioned reasons.

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