It changed my life in a way that has very little to do with my YC-funded company.
It helped me onto a path of healing and growth from chronic emotional and physical pain, and inspired me to focus on being a more rounded, grounded, decent person, rather than on simplistic notions of “success”.
It’s hard to imagine how I could have turned my life around so much, without YC.
None of these personal development practices were provided/recommended by YC, but YC gave me the confidence and self-belief to find this path and pursue it all the way, when no person or organisation had done so before, and none I know of today would give that kind of opportunity to the person I was at that time.
Of course, many organisations can help people make profound changes in their lives, and YC is not going to be the best one for everyone or even many people.
But it was the the first organisation that helped me make the changes I needed, and those changes had nothing to do with becoming (or trying to become) a tech millionaire/billionaire.
Of course, YC wants their founders to build successful companies if possible, but as I've found first-hand, they first-and-foremost care about about the founders' personal wellbeing and personal qualities.
Wow, thanks for sharing Tom! This answer resonates with me too. YC was life changing for me as well because of the values I gained from the experience, and not for the help building some big company (which turns out is just not something I'm built for).
Before YC my business advice came from The Apprentice, and I didn't really know how to create value. But somehow I lucked into YC. I'll never forget being in awe of how hard my cohorts worked (and how exhausted they could be at the end of the day), and how good their skills were. How they could make things that were good, not in just well designed and built, but good for the world. I was way out of my depth, but committed to try and be able to do what they could do. I'm still maybe a B or B+ on my "can build something people want" skillset, but far better than the "D/D-" I was a decade ago.
I used to have one gripe about YC because of the insider/outsider thing—it's great to be on the inside but as a rule I prefer more open things—but then they came out with the most recent iterations of SUS which are open to all and have just been truly remarkable. I think it just goes to show what a special organization this is.
It helped me onto a path of healing and growth from chronic emotional and physical pain, and inspired me to focus on being a more rounded, grounded, decent person, rather than on simplistic notions of “success”.
It’s hard to imagine how I could have turned my life around so much, without YC.
None of these personal development practices were provided/recommended by YC, but YC gave me the confidence and self-belief to find this path and pursue it all the way, when no person or organisation had done so before, and none I know of today would give that kind of opportunity to the person I was at that time.
Of course, many organisations can help people make profound changes in their lives, and YC is not going to be the best one for everyone or even many people.
But it was the the first organisation that helped me make the changes I needed, and those changes had nothing to do with becoming (or trying to become) a tech millionaire/billionaire.
Of course, YC wants their founders to build successful companies if possible, but as I've found first-hand, they first-and-foremost care about about the founders' personal wellbeing and personal qualities.