Joins YC
Thiel joins YC on Altman’s invitiation. Altman says Thiel won’t be able to invest in any companies while they’re in YC, or for 3 months after they present at Demo Day. Altman:
I’m delighted to announce Peter Thiel is joining YC as one of the (now 10!) part-time partners…He already works with a number of YC companies, and we’re very happy he’ll be working with more…We generally won’t bring on people that are involved with other investing firms given the obvious conflict, but Peter is so good we felt like we had to make an exception. We’re pretty paranoid about potential conflicts, and we’ll continually evaluate this and change it if it’s not working…On a personal note, Peter is one of the two people (along with PG) who has taught me the most about how to invest in startups. I am confident that Peter joining will be great for YC.
Reddit $50m Series B funding
Altman leads Reddit’s $50 million Series B round with Andreesen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, as well as individual investors including Leto, Dogg, Kushner, Livingston, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Mariam Naficy, and Reddit CEO Yishan Wong. Valuation is $500 million. Altman:
I’m willing to be very patient. I don’t have any particular timeframe in mind. I believe that the community is very valuable and that the value will continue to increase. Up to the company if they want to share cashflow details, but they run the company efficiently.
Quora joins Y Combinator
Altman invites the question-and-answer site to be the first late-stage participant:
I don’t know if [Quora] will develop a new product that they did not already have in the works as a result of being at Y Combinator…But we think we can help them with certain areas like hiring… And we think they can help our community a great deal.
$7.1m investment round
The company raises $7.1 million from unnamed investors. (SEC filing here.)
$12m Series B funding
Loopt raises a reported $12 million from its two existing investors, Sequoia Capital and NEA. It is reported to call down $2.25 million from the funding.
$5m Series A funding
0 0 reuben reuben2014-10-16 15:49:282015-03-23 01:35:37$5m Series A fundingLoopt joins Y Combinator
Loopt joins the inaugural batch and receives a reported $6,000. Altman says the money-saving culture at Y Combinator, which extends to things like readymade meals, helps develop the location-based mobile app company develop:
That culture of frugality and discipline is really important for the Y Combinator mindset. The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.