Y Combinator turns arenas into AI’s biggest pep rally

The CEOs emerged from the illuminated tunnel as if preparing for a fight. A cameraman walked in front of them and broadcast their entrance into the San Francisco arena.

Executives such as Sam Altman and Jensen Huang traded advice rather than exchanging jabs. They were at Chase Center this weekend for Y Combinator’s Startup School, a two-day conference for “tech builders” looking to find success in entrepreneurship.

Startup School had it all: glowing headphones, AI versions of YC partners, and freebie after freebie. Let’s take a quick look at the scene here.

(Startup) Back to school

Chase Center is usually decorated in the blue and gold of the Golden State Warriors. One weekend in July, everything was Y Combinator orange.

A large orange Y was propped up outside the arena, beckoning would-be founders from afar. YC leaders said the event was triple the size of last year, with more than 6,000 participants. The accelerator also helped support travel for people outside the Bay Area.

Inside the arena, speakers Altman and Hwang received a thunderous applause. Other speakers included Meta’s Alexandr Wang, Anthropic’s Boris Cherny, and Google’s Jeff Dean. “ClawFather” himself, Peter Steinberger, founder of OpenClaw, was in the room. The only major AI lab not officially represented was SpaceXAI.

Some of these speakers also offered product giveaways. Charney told the audience they would receive six months of Anthropic’s $200 Claude Max plan. Mr. Wang offered $1,000 in free meta credits. Two months ago, Altman made a unique deal for YC founders: an equity token.

Attendees described breakout sessions at the stadium wearing headphones to block out the noise. They participated in one of about 100 parallel small group sessions, including an ML research symposium, said general partner Ankit Gupta.

And then there was “Office Hour Simulator.” One of the participants spoke to the artificial Blood Flora, but the real Blood Flora simply shook his hand.

Memes about “megachurches”

Y Combinator also gave away portable batteries to attendees. The only potential concern raised by one participant was that it might look too explosive to bring back on a plane.

Young techies post everything on X. As you can see, Startup School had its fair share of memes, and the battery was one of them.

Other memes included the line for the men’s room, which was, in true Man Francisco style, longer than the line for the women’s room.

But the biggest meme of the event was religious. “YC Startup School has been giving off a megachurch feel these days,” writes OpenAI’s Bill Chen.

Some joked about the so-called sanctity of startup schools, while others framed it as criticism. Jay Kapoor, general partner at VSC Ventures, wrote that Startup School looks like a “megachurch for people who just worship money.”

YC partner Tyler Bosmeny retorted to applause: “What are the New York City financial people saying?”

For others, the grandeur of Startup School was an abandonment of YC principles.

“The YC brand felt like it was designed to exclude status-seekers,” writes Spellbook co-founder Scott Stevenson. “You can feel the herd pouring into the overflowing barn. It’s a stadium-sized barn.”

YC has always been very selective, with an acceptance rate of 1%. Still, YC general partner Christopher Golda defended the scale of the event, writing that the accelerator’s purpose was never “shortage.”

“There are many more people who can, should, and will be in the arena,” Golda wrote. “Yes, we rented an arena.”