If you imagine someone with 100 percent determination and 100 percent intelligence, you can discard a lot of intelligence before they stop succeeding. But if you start discarding determination, you very quickly get an ineffectual and perpetual grad student. - Paul Graham

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past decade, you'd know that Y Combinator (aka YC) has been a leader in start-up education and an investor in some of the most notable startup successes in history. With an acceptance rate of nearly 3%, YC is even more selective than even the most prestigious private schools. So what does it take to become a YC founder?

We've analyzed the founders from over 3,148 YC companies, and n=4744 founders, to get a deeper look into what these founders have in common.
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Summary

For the most part, YC founders have fairly predictable profiles. They attended top universities, studied computer science or engineering disciplines, build their companies in California, and have interests and skills that lie at the forefront of technology & entrepreneurship.
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At ExactBuyer, we work to help these founders at every stage of their journey. From finding beta testers for a new feature, investors for a new round, engineers to hire and partners to grow with.

Want to run an analysis like this for your own audience? Use ExactMatch to upload contacts from your own CRM and get your results instantly!

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