Has YC's Investment Trend Really Changed: Our Odds Went Down — but So Did Our Need

There’s been a narrative going around the Chinese-speaking internet — that experienced founders are back in demand. I went and checked the source material. It doesn’t say that at all.

I looked up what YC posted on X on September 17, 2026, and cross-referenced their recent investments. This accelerator has backed over fifty-six hundred companies collectively worth more than six hundred billion dollars. They accept roughly one percent of applicants. Where they put their money draws serious attention.

In the latest batch, founders under twenty-five make up nearly sixty percent, up from thirty-eight percent the batch before. The money still skews young. But the share of founders in their thirties barely changed, and those in their forties held steady too. The average age hardly moved. The group that actually shrank: founders aged twenty-five to twenty-nine.

A fund manager named Hyman — himself a YC founder from the 2013 batch — now runs a fund that invests exclusively in YC alumni companies. He holds the most comprehensive founder dataset outside of YC. His analysis of which age group is most likely to build something that works points to twenty-six to thirty — largely overlapping with the group that just went missing. The cohort he’s most bullish on now has the lowest rate of being funded by YC in years.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve become less investable. One possible explanation: these twenty-five-to-twenty-nine-year-old founders have already spent a few years in their industries. They know why customers buy and where to find them. Building a product used to require upfront capital; now, with AI, they can potentially build it themselves and go straight to selling. If the business makes money from day one, why give up equity? They may not have applied at all. How many actually chose not to — that’s impossible to tell from the funded list alone. This is just a guess.

I’m a one-person company myself. Investors still favor the young, and for self-styled youthful old-timers like us, the chances of getting funded have certainly shrunk. But we may not need funding anymore. We know our markets, we know our customers, and plenty of businesses can turn a profit from the start. Build up a little at a time. Grow a little at a time.

EP0103 · 2026-09-21 · 02:39. The picture uses a digital human, and the voice uses my cloned voice. This is an English translation of the approved Chinese script used to create the narration.

There’s been a story going around the Chinese internet these past couple of days — that experienced founders are back in demand. If you’re a slightly older entrepreneur, hearing that might make you pretty happy. Finally, it’s our turn. But I went and checked, and the source material says something completely different.

I looked up what the American startup accelerator YC posted on X on September 17, 2026, and I checked the companies they’ve recently funded. Here’s what you should know: this institution has invested in over fifty-six hundred companies, worth a combined six hundred billion-plus dollars. They accept roughly one percent of applicants. Where they put their money — everyone’s watching.

In this latest batch of funded founders, those under twenty-five make up nearly sixty percent. The previous batch? Thirty-eight percent. In other words, their money still goes to the young.

So did older founders get pushed out? Not really. The share in their thirties barely changed. Those in their forties — about the same. The average age hardly moved. The group that actually shrank was the twenty-five-to-twenty-nine-year-olds.

Here’s where it gets interesting. There’s a fund manager named Hyman — he came out of YC himself, from the 2013 batch. He now runs a fund that specifically invests in YC companies, and he sits on the most comprehensive founder dataset outside of YC. He’s analyzed which age group of founders is most likely to succeed, and the sweet spot is twenty-six to thirty. That overlaps heavily with the group that just went missing. The cohort he’s most bullish on now has the lowest rate of being funded by YC in years.

So why did founders aged twenty-five to twenty-nine shrink in number? It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not worth investing in. What I think might be happening is that they simply don’t need to be incubated anymore. That early-stage funding — they might not need it.

Think about it. Founders between twenty-five and twenty-nine have already had the chance to work in their industries for a few years. They know why customers buy. They know where to find them. It used to be that just getting a product built required spending real money upfront. Now, with AI, they might be able to build the thing themselves and go straight to selling.

So tell me — if the business makes money from day one, why would I let someone else take my equity? I can keep going on what customers pay me. Why would I need to go convince an investor first?

If there really are people in that twenty-five-to-twenty-nine age range who think this way, they might not have applied at all. So of course you won’t find them on the list of funded founders. How many of them actually chose not to apply — we can’t tell just from this list. This is just my guess.

I’m actually a one-person company myself, right? Investors do still prefer the young. For self-styled youthful old-timers like us, the chances of getting funded have definitely gotten slimmer. But we don’t really need funding anymore either. We know our markets inside and out, we know our businesses inside and out. A lot of these businesses can make money right from the start. Build up bit by bit. Grow little by little.

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow. Bye.