| Company | Founder(s) | Recent Graduate | Current Student | 4+ Years Outside College | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Huffman | Yes | No | No | Graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005 | |
| Alexis Ohanian | Yes | No | No | Graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005 | |
| Chris Slowe | No | No | Yes | Research assistant at Harvard for 6 years since his graduation in 2000 from Harvard | |
| Infogami | Aaron Swartz | No | Yes (Dropped out) | No | Was working on projects and activism prior to YC, dropped out of formal education |
| Kiko | Emmett Shear | Yes | No | No | Graduated from Yale in 2005 |
| Kiko | Justin Kan | Yes | No | No | Graduated from Yale in 2005 |
| Loopt | Sam Altman | No | Yes | No | Was a sophomore at Stanford University |
| Loopt | Nick Sivo | No | Yes | No | Also a sophomore at Stanford University |
| Memamp | Zak Stone | Yes | No | No | Graduated from Harvard one year before joining YC |
| TextPayMe | Philip Yuen | No | No | Yes | Graduated from Cornell in 2000, Masters from 2001 to 2002, worked for Microsoft 2002-2005 |
| Clickfacts | Mikhail Ledvich | No | Yes | No | Was a current student at the time of joining YC |
| Simmery Axe | Jesse Tov | Yes | No | No | Graduated from Harvard in 2003 |
Why This Batch is Legendary
One of the reasons why this batch is so legendary is because the kind of people who would work on an idea for a summer, when it was not popular to do so, are the kind of people who end up being successful.
Another data point is that, when the internet just began, it was low status to go work for Google, Microsoft, or some other internet company compared to banking. The people who took the low-status option then, are rich af now.
Now, starting a startup is no longer regarded as low status and is even regarded as elite. This means that starting a startup no longer attracts only the specific type of people who are willing to do some low-status thing because of their conviction or interestingness. It also attracts people who are looking to attain higher social status.
Former YC president, Sam Altman, talked about how he feels some responsibility now that starting a startup is no longer the way it was when he started - ‘the motivation for starting a startup has changed and is now equivalent to going into banking.’ [link]
The Importance of Being Low-Status
Well, what’s the point? What is it with people who are willing to be low-status? Why is that important at all?
The first is a simple business law - taking advantage of undervalued ideas. If you believe in and act on an idea that most of the world has not yet accepted, and are right, you will profit from it. For example, ‘one day, everyone in the world will be using computers’. This idea gave birth to Apple and Microsoft. When ideas are not mainstream yet, people who don't mind being low-status are much more likely to believe in and take advantage of them. You have to be willing to give up your status and be bold enough to do it. If you cared so much about what other people think, you’d believe what most other people believe in or act like you believed what they believe. In other words, you have to be okay with people calling you foolish and laughing at your ideas. Here’s Bill Gates talking about the internet in 1995 [link].
There are many other reasons to pursue an idea. You might enjoy working on it, have a deep conviction, or want to solve a specific problem. The point is that the best people wouldn’t be deterred from pursuing an idea because it was low status. Unsurprisingly, the best ideas usually are. Regardless of the motivation, achieving high status in the future involves believing in low-status ideas now, acting on them, and being right.
“If you’re going to do anything new or innovative, you have to be willing to be misunderstood.”
~ Jeff Bezos
So, What Low-Status Thing Should I Be Doing Now?