Dave Yen (@davecyen) / X

Dave Yen

3,072 posts

Dave Yen

@davecyen

GP @orangecollectv. YC unc. ultra basic dad. 🏀 is life

San Francisco, CA

Joined April 2009

Dave Yen
@davecyen
Nov 14, 2024
Recently, @garrytan revealed some pretty incredible data on the returns for investors at YC demo day. If you invested in 3+ startups every demo day over a two-year period (2018-20), the returns you would've seen: Top 10%: 16x Top 25%: 8x Median: 5x Bottom 25%: 3.3x Compare
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Oct 30, 2025
There’s a 2X YC founder who’s in the current F25 batch after selling their previous YC startup for ~$1B. That says all you need to know about whether YC is “worth it”
Y Combinator
@ycombinator
Oct 27, 2025
Applications for the YC Winter 2026 batch are now open! Apply by November 10: ycombinator.com/apply
100K
Dave Yen
@davecyen
Nov 8, 2024
of course I’m biased but YC has been on an absolute roll over the past year… - return of in-person demo days - doubled the number of batches per year - first investment in defense sector - new group partners w/ expertise in ai, biotech, fintech, design - Michael & Dalton
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Sep 22, 2024
we are so back. @ycombinator
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Mar 14, 2025
I vibe coded a project with @mastra: an AI-powered VC analyst to help research potential investments in YC companies. Now we're using this agent to help with all of our research and LP memos at Orange Collective. Excited to be both an early investor and customer of Mastra.
33K
Dave Yen
@davecyen
Dec 2, 2024
“Welcome home” @garrytan @ycombinator
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Aug 25, 2025
Unc Combinator is crazy 😂
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Apr 4, 2024
“It’s actually at $3K MRR now” @geepytee Amazing energy at the @ycombinator investor reception, feels like OG in-person demo day
26K
Dave Yen
@davecyen
Sep 25, 2024
In the last week alone, I’ve met 5 companies in S24 who’ve already hit or are on track to reach $1M ARR by Jan, with the bulk of their growth achieved during YC.
Garry Tan
@garrytan
Sep 25, 2024
It’s YC Demo Day today. The summer 2024 batch is graduating. More than ever, YC is for builders using technology to solve problems in the world’s biggest industries. Between 5% to 10% of recent batches have become worth $1B or more. These are the outliers of the power law.
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Oct 3, 2025
Supabase Select at YC w/ @francedot @konstiwohlwend Fun hearing the origin story from @AntWilson @kiwicopple - when they first launched, changing their h1 tagline from “realtime postgres” to “The open source Firebase alternative” led to hitting #1 on HN, and the rest is history
21K
Dave Yen
@davecyen
Aug 21, 2025
Replying to @larmbrust
massive respect and admiration 🫡. how you built and staffed a US manufacturing facility when the world shut down is insane. statistically, just based on the sheer volume of filters/masks you shipped - you saved many, many lives. from healthcare workers to the most vulnerable and
1.6K
Dave Yen
@davecyen
Apr 1, 2023
It’s @ycombinator W23 alumni demo day today - crazy to think when the batch started, ChatGPT and SVB wasn’t really a thing yet… Throwback to simpler times in 2015 when i was a wide eyed baby deer. And discovering @JoeMontana was also a legend at angel investing
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Dave Yen
@davecyen
Sep 16, 2024
One of my favorite companies in the S24 batch is in the consumer space: @JoinOverlap At the surface, it’s the classic toy idea—just another podcast or video clipping app. But by processing thousands of hours of audio + video content every week, and indexing it w/ LLMs, they’re
Michael Seibel
@mwseibel
Sep 14, 2024
Too many startups/investors are exploring the b2b opportunities with LLMs and not enough are exploring the consumer opportunities. This is the moment consumer founders have been waiting for.
15K
Dave Yen
@davecyen
Jul 26, 2025
“it’s gonna be fire, trust” @ycombinator Launch Live is the best
16K