For two decades, and Combinator has incubated some of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies, such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Coinbase. Now, given the growing competition of other investors, the historic institution joins the list of new partners: Dalton Caldwell and Paul Buchheit, both partners with extensive experience, leave the firm to create their own support fund to companies in the initial phase, according to sources connoisseur of the project.
The fund, called Standard Capital, will allow startups to request and request specific financing amounts, according to a source familiar with the project. For example, the fund could issue 5 or 10 million dollars to startups in exchange for 10% capital, according to an email about the project sent to risk capitalists, which was seen by Forbes . The background size has not been announced, but a source said it will be substantially exceeding 250 million dollars. The fund will accept around 20 companies a year, divided into four groups, according to email. (In comparison, YC invests $ 500,000 for a 7% capital participation). And Combinator will be an investor in the new fund, and Bryan Berg, a Stripe software engineer who works in the CTO office, will also join.
“I have been in the front row observing what is happening in AI, the speed with which companies grow and the quality of the models. And I think that virtually anyone at this time should consider, if you have a credible idea of AI, create an AI company,” Caldwell declared Forbes When he was contacted to obtain comments. As one of YC’s most veteran partners, he said he wanted to undertake something new.
After the publication, and C expressed his gratitude for Caldwell’s contributions to the firm. «In his transition to a partner emeritus to found Standard Capital, we are excited to support him in his next stage».
Caldwell and Buchheit won a solid reputation as operators before devoting themselves to risk capital: Caldwell founded the IMEEM musical network, which was sold to MySpace in 2009. Buchheit, one of Google’s first employees, is known as the creator of Gmail and is said to suggest the famous slogan of the company, “you are not evil”. Buchheit, who began working at YC in 2010, has advised Instacart, Coinbase and Twitch. Caldwell joined and Combinator in 2011 as part -time partner, before finally ascending to the director of investments of the firm. During that time, he advised unicorns such as Dordash, the Brex credit card startup and the Deel payroll company.
Its and combinator exit occurs after another important loss for the firm. In March, YC’s partner, Michael Siebel, who was executive director of the firm startup accelerator between 2016 and 2024, announced his departure from the company to focus on government projects. “Michael’s impact on YC has been enormous,” Garry Tan, executive director of and Combinator wrote, leaving the company. “It has been fundamental to mold our program, our culture and our values.”
Read more: Tiktokers attributed the merit of Trump’s assistance to the parade
Two and combinator members retire to create a new serial fund A
And Combinator, founded in 2005 by the investor Paul Graham, has forged an excellent reputation as a mentor of future unicorns: the company took its name from a computer term for a program that executes other programs. But in recent years, the firm has received criticism for its growing scale: according to the YC startup directory, in 2024 the program had 600 companies in its groups (although that figure is lower than its peak during the pandemic, when more than 700 companies passed through its ranks in 2021). “I hope YC resembles a large and successful state university system, instead of a network of the Ivy League,” Seibel said in 2020, noting that the firm did not intend to build “another ivory tower.”
Meanwhile, now faces an additional opposition from new rivals, such as Neo, a firm founded by the initial Facebook investor Ali delivery generative) have emerged from and combinator.
Both will now use their more than a decade of experience in and Combinator to advise another group of young founders.
“Am I working right? What do people want? How do I work with my co -founder? How do I get users? They are basic things,” said Caldwell a Forbes Last year, explaining your advice approach. “I have financed 1000 companies. It is like a large linguistic model trained with all these data.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
You may be interested: why Las Vegas casinos do not bet on cannabis
