I’ve always wondered how well YC has actually done. Sam Altman posted this blog post outlining some of their numbers and using that post I’ve come up with some very basic and probably incorrect assumptions. But it was still fun.
Some assumptions I made:
(1) YC owned 2% of each company at exit (They probably get diluted quite a bit)
(2) Of their $100m+ companies, the average value is $250mm
(3) Of their $1B+ companies, the average value is ~$5B
(4) The average investment from YC has been ~$50k (this number has fluctuated over time, as low as $16k(?) in the very beginning and more over time.
I used these numbers around the amount of $100m and $1B valuations to calculate MOIC (multiple on invested capital).
I then used their total valuation of call companies as a second way of measuring.
Both are likely equally as inaccurate. But it was still fun, and the numbers are still absurdly good.
