YCombinator is “a "functional" (a function that operates on other functions) that enables recursion, when you can't refer to the function from within itself. [1]” I don’t understand what that means either. So, in other words, YCombinator “allows you to implement recursion in a language that doesn't necessarily support it natively. [2]” In even simpler terms, it is a hack.
YCombinator allows something that is not otherwise possible to become possible. YCombinator - the organization that you may have heard of, was created for this sole purpose. To allow people who would not have started a startup otherwise start one. Startups solve problems. Solving problems is good for the world. More startups mean more good for the world. This was the thinking of the founders of YCombinator when they started, because they believed it was a net good for the world. They also knew that it was hard for startups to get funding from VCs - You had to have a significant amount of traction to get any money. YCombinator was willing to fund you much earlier, even if you had only an idea. YCombinator also didn’t care as much about the idea as they did the person. They were, and still are taking bets on people and not the ideas. Afterall, it’s people that get ideas. Now, YCombinator seems prescient. The first accelerator in such a unique time in Silicon Valley history.
I believe Nigeria is in a unique situation [3] where a YCombinator is going to be very useful - An organization to make it easier for people to start companies, especially young unproven people like myself. I really believe young people like me can build startups that have significant impact on Nigeria, on the continent and on the world. History is on my side - Zuckerberg, Gates, The Collison brothers, Opeyemi, Altman, Musk the list is super long. For some reason this kind of organization does not exist in Nigeria - An accelerator for students and young people to work full-time on an idea and a small amount of capital to get them started.
I would like to start something like this that funded students to work on their ideas full-time in the summer instead of working an internship or doing nothing. Whether the idea they plan on working on is good or if the project ends up failing does not matter as much as fueling ambitious young people to take a leap. In fact, in YCombinator’s legendary first batch, three or four teams out of the eight had pretty humble outcomes, but the founders went on to build multibillion-dollar companies. So, the goal is to help ambitious founders take the leap. And when you do that, you get great outcomes anyway.
The goal quite plainly is to build something like Early YCombinator. To learn more about what YCombinator is, why and how it got started, read these essays from YCombinator’s founders - Why YC, The Puzzle around you.
[2] - source
[3] - what makes Nigeria's situation unique? Does She have the 'capable people' or the market/opportunity or both? - (1) There are funds but not available to very very early startups.
(2) In every market there are always opportunities to be solved, so the big question is 'who will?' (3) Does it have 'capable people'? is a much harder question. A simplistic view of this is that there's an equal distribution of talent. So, yes. But another question is, is there really an equal distribution of talent geographically? Idk. But is there talent in Nigeria? Yes, there is - I have seen it with my own two eyes.