
How to Get Into Y Combinator in 2025
Y Combinator is less a program and more a forcing function. For three months you operate with urgency, learn from builders who’ve scaled consequential companies, and gain credibility that opens doors with customers, hires, and later investors. Getting in isn’t about theatrics or glossy decks; it’s about making the core of your company unmistakably clear. Partners need to grasp the problem, why now is the right moment, the edge your team has, and the small but real signals that users care. In 2025, that hasn’t changed. The application is read quickly and seriously, the one-minute founder video reveals how you communicate under constraint, and the ten-minute interview rewards clarity over performance. Clarity across the application, video, and interview is what turns curiosity into conviction.
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