dispatchable in the past, many renewable sources of energy (like wind and solar) are not. The solution to this problem is twofold: first, build both short-term (e.g. battery) and long-term energy storage, and second, dispatchable demand that can better manage the use and flow of energy around times that are more convenient for the grid.</p><p>Many modern replacement machines that generate or use electricity are “smart” in that they can be controlled via APIs – they are often referred to as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). In the not-too-distant future, vehicles will charge when excess solar is available, could give back to the grid at sunset (V2G) and power our homes during outages (V2H), heat pumps will pre-cool our buildings by a few degrees in the late afternoon, hot water heaters will be stores of energy, and appliances will be paid to respond to grid stress events by automatically moderating their usage (demand response). </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas</strong>:</p><ul><li>Aggregation of APIs for DERs, including EV chargers, solar, batteries, heat pumps, thermostats, water heaters, etc.</li><li>Tesla-like experience for home energy management: smart hub, including smart charging, load shifting, software-based load shedding for improved resiliency, and better circuit-level energy use measurement.</li><li>Commercial energy management: Similar to residential, many commercial heating/cooling, hot water, and other appliances are API-capable but not being leveraged to their full potential.</li><li>Physical load management to prevent the need for panel upgrades, such as load sharing between an EV charger and an induction stove.</li><li>Electricity APIs: Carbon intensity and Rate plans of all utilities around the world.</li><li>Behind the meter demand response and energy management platform that can compensate for actions taken (e.g. battery discharge measured at the inverter) rather than counterfactuals.</li><li>Smarter EV charging for charging networks, fleets, and residential use cases that is price, carbon intensity, and excess solar awareness.</li><li>Helping to balance the grid (demand response), both on an emergency basis as well as a minute-by-minute basis.</li><li>Hardware/software to manage the use of bidirectional charging as an increasing share of EVs allow for this option - both for whole-home backup and for grid support at times of peak demand. </li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/enode/">Enode, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/evoly/">Evoly, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/inbalance/">inBalance, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pelm/">Pelm, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gaiascope/">Gaiascope81% (Norway). To support the transition we need a lot more charging infrastructure. We think new EV-charging infrastructure will be available in the home, at the workplace, at commercial locations, and as public infrastructure. </p><p>We recommend anyone who wants to understand the problems below to buy or rent an EV (especially a non-Tesla EV) and try every available form of charging. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Smart charging software taking advantage of the greenest/cheapest rates and excess solar</li><li>EV-charging networks for emerging markets</li><li>Streamlining of EV-charging installations including permitting</li><li>EV-charger installation without requiring panel upgrades</li><li>EV-charging for trucks and commercial vehicles that avoids the need for major grid upgrades</li><li>Software to speed up planning and deployment progress</li><li>A company that could unlock curbside public charging (lots of permitting and deployment difficulties)</li><li>Multi-unit residential, commercial and corporate EV charging software</li><li>Fleet charging software</li><li>EV-charging loyalty programs</li><li>Software to connect chargers, cars, and utilities (Plaid for EV charging)</li><li>Rent EVs to delivery fleets like Uber / Doordash, directly to consumers, or to commercial operations. Solve specific headaches around rented (vs owned) EVs.</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/statiq/">Statiq, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/heycharge/">HeyCharge, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/coulomb-ai/">Coulomb AI</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/zitara-technologies-inc/">Zitara Technologies</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ampup/">AmpUp, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/olympian-motors/">Olympian Motors</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/telematica/">Telematica, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://nimbusev.com//">Nimbus, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aeoncharge/">AeonCharge, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/enerjazz/">Enerjazz,SixWheelAdvano, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/posh/">Posh, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/millibatt-inc/">Milibatt, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gbatteries/">GBatteries, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/moxion-power-co/">Moxion Power</a></strong></p><h3 id=\"long-term-energy-storage\">Long-term energy storage</h3><p>Whereas fossil fuel sources of energy are <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatchable_generation/">dispatchable, renewables generally are not, so there will be a need to stand up entire industries that are able to provide long-term (multi-week or seasonal) energy storage capabilities at grid scale. This is a rapidly emerging area, and there are significant inherent technology and adoption risks. The key to success for many of these ideas lies not only in efficiency and energy storage potential, but also in the real-world practicalities of deploying the technology that both meets geographical, land use, permitting, and grid constraints – this is where pumped hydro, for example, often runs into challenges.</p><p><strong>Promising emerging technologies:</strong></p><ul><li>Green hydrogen (using renewables for electrolysis) stored in large underground salt caverns</li><li>Advanced geothermal batteries</li><li>Thermal storage</li><li>Compressed air</li><li>Pumped hydro</li><li>Biofuels</li><li>New battery technology for longer-term storage (e.g. much lower cost with less energy density, improvements on cycle count, or other performance characteristics)</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/phoenix-hydrogen/">Phoenix Hydrogen</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airthium/">Airthium </strong></p><h3 id=\"energy-production\">Energy production</h3><p>It is estimated that new utility solar demand will grow from ~10 GW in 2022, to 50 GW per year in 2027 with wind and energy storage not far behind, and combined are projected to overtake gray natural gas by 2027. Further, the IRA manufacturing credits are projected to make US solar and wind the cheapest globally in 2025-2030, from $25/MWh in 2022 reaching lows of <$5/MWh in 2029<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23257578-ira-a-tipping-point-in-climate-action-1/">x. Residential solar is also expected to be a large beneficiary of cost reductions in solar and battery manufacturing.</p><p>Growth will be a function of the lowering of the cost and efficiency of deployment at scale, and startups can play an important role in helping on both fronts. While the IRA sets up the structure, there are still many problems standing in the way of large-scale deployment that represents opportunities for startups.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Interconnection is currently a large bottleneck. Total new capacity in interconnection queues has ballooned from 0.3TW in 2013 to 1.2TW in 2021, 83% of which is new utility-scale solar, wind, and battery capacity waiting to come online<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://emp.lbl.gov/generation-storage-and-hybrid-capacity/">x. The root cause of these bottlenecks is transmission capacity, planning, and siting.</li><li>Improving permitting speed. Permitting creates inefficiency in the system, and is often a very manual and one-off process. Some early consumer solutions (e.g. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://solarapp.nrel.gov//">SolarAPP+) could be improved upon or expanded into adjacent areas (e.g. building electrification, EV charging infrastructure).</li><li>Deployment and installation of panels. There is a staggering amount of physical installation that will be happening over the next decade, and plenty of opportunities to make this process more efficient and less expensive. For utility-scale installations, the PV panels, inverter, electrical, and structural components make up roughly 60% of project costs, while for residential installations these components only represent 36% of the project costs. Significant effort is spent on design, engineering, permitting, and labor.</li><li>The efficiency of both solar PV and wind turbines can reduce significantly if not regularly cleaned. However, cleaning is often an expensive proposition, which currently may not always meet ROI considerations. Panels also break and identifying faulty panel maintenance today is largely a manual process.</li><li>Transmission & Distribution systems are increasingly becoming the largest component of electricity costs. These are old, aging systems that are prone to failure (with catastrophic consequences), and that are unable to distribute energy efficiently over long distances from where renewable energy is generated to where it can be consumed. Distribution system planning - the last mile of delivery - lags far behind transmission system planning for optimizing the performance of existing infrastructure for future needs. </li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bright/">Bright, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nira-energy/">Nira Energy</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/charge-robotics/">Charge Robotics</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sunfarmer/">SunFarmer, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/reach-labs/">Reach Labs</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sunfolding/">Sunfolding, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/kitekraft/">Kitekraft, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/paces/">Paces, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/oolu/">Oolu, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aerones/">Aerones, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/raptor-maps/">Raptor Maps</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/smarthelio/">SmartHelio </strong></p><h3 id=\"critical-minerals\">Critical minerals</h3><p>Minerals are a critical component of most clean energy sources, including solar, wind, batteries, and downstream products like EVs. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese, and other rare earth metals are in increasingly short supply as demand scales up – the demand for lithium alone is estimated to grow between 13-42x by 2040. New and more diversified supply sources will need to be tapped – as well as a stronger focus on recycling – in order to meet this demand. </p><p>There will also be a focus on emissions from mineral production, as well as geographical provenance: the Inflation Reduction Act includes strong incentives for materials sourced from the United States or countries with a US free trade agreement.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>AI & software for the discovery of new mineral deposits</li><li>Mining & extraction innovations</li><li>Technologies to reduce emissions during mining & processing</li><li>Changes to battery chemistry that reduce or avoid the use of minerals whose mining is associated with geopolitical risk or ESG concerns.</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/impossible-metals/">Impossible Metals</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/korrai/">KorrAI, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/stratumai/">StratumAI, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/earth-ai/">EARTH AI</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/maverick-bioworks/">Maverick Bioworks</a></strong></p><h2 id=\"science-required\">Science required</h2><p>There is a conventional wisdom that all technologies needed to decarbonize the planet have already been invented and we just need to focus on deployment. First, we don’t agree with this. Second, innovation and deployment are not at odds with each other – we need both.</p><p>The mistake outsiders make with scientific innovation is drawing their conclusions from the v1 version. In science, the v1 versions are usually prohibitively expensive and inefficient. The compounded effects of iterations are what make it work.</p><p>Scientific innovation can create meaningful improvements and opportunities, and there is a significant need for companies to address the areas of society that currently lack immediate solutions.</p><h3 id=\"carbon-removal-carbon-capture\">Carbon removal & carbon capture</h3><p>Carbon removal and carbon capture are similar concepts with different technology and applications. Carbon capture refers to capturing carbon from a point source emission like a power plant, vehicle, vessel, or industrial facility. Carbon removal refers to removing existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. </p><p><em><strong>Carbon capture and use or storage (CCU/S)</strong></em></p><p>These technologies remove carbon emissions from the emission source. Technologies in this field have existed for decades but market incentives have not favored deployment and as a result, progress has been slow. Today, industry players operating large trucking and shipping fleets as well as industrial emitters are a lot more incentivized and interested in pursuing carbon capture and storage. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Trucking carbon capture</li><li>Shipping carbon capture</li><li>Industrial carbon capture (refining, cement, steel, chemicals, hydrogen, etc)</li><li>Blue hydrogen - co-optimized carbon capture with hydrogen production</li><li>Power plant carbon capture (including gas plants and bio-energy)</li><li>Infrastructure for buying, selling, and moving captured carbon</li><li>Infrastructure for monitoring and storing carbon underground </li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/remora/">Remora, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/seabound/">Seabound
SixWheelAdvano, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/posh/">Posh, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/millibatt-inc/">Milibatt, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gbatteries/">GBatteries, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/moxion-power-co/">Moxion Power</a></strong></p><h3 id=\"long-term-energy-storage\">Long-term energy storage</h3><p>Whereas fossil fuel sources of energy are <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatchable_generation/">dispatchable, renewables generally are not, so there will be a need to stand up entire industries that are able to provide long-term (multi-week or seasonal) energy storage capabilities at grid scale. This is a rapidly emerging area, and there are significant inherent technology and adoption risks. The key to success for many of these ideas lies not only in efficiency and energy storage potential, but also in the real-world practicalities of deploying the technology that both meets geographical, land use, permitting, and grid constraints – this is where pumped hydro, for example, often runs into challenges.</p><p><strong>Promising emerging technologies:</strong></p><ul><li>Green hydrogen (using renewables for electrolysis) stored in large underground salt caverns</li><li>Advanced geothermal batteries</li><li>Thermal storage</li><li>Compressed air</li><li>Pumped hydro</li><li>Biofuels</li><li>New battery technology for longer-term storage (e.g. much lower cost with less energy density, improvements on cycle count, or other performance characteristics)</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/phoenix-hydrogen/">Phoenix Hydrogen</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airthium/">Airthium </strong></p><h3 id=\"energy-production\">Energy production</h3><p>It is estimated that new utility solar demand will grow from ~10 GW in 2022, to 50 GW per year in 2027 with wind and energy storage not far behind, and combined are projected to overtake gray natural gas by 2027. Further, the IRA manufacturing credits are projected to make US solar and wind the cheapest globally in 2025-2030, from $25/MWh in 2022 reaching lows of <$5/MWh in 2029<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23257578-ira-a-tipping-point-in-climate-action-1/">x. Residential solar is also expected to be a large beneficiary of cost reductions in solar and battery manufacturing.</p><p>Growth will be a function of the lowering of the cost and efficiency of deployment at scale, and startups can play an important role in helping on both fronts. While the IRA sets up the structure, there are still many problems standing in the way of large-scale deployment that represents opportunities for startups.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Interconnection is currently a large bottleneck. Total new capacity in interconnection queues has ballooned from 0.3TW in 2013 to 1.2TW in 2021, 83% of which is new utility-scale solar, wind, and battery capacity waiting to come online<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://emp.lbl.gov/generation-storage-and-hybrid-capacity/">x. The root cause of these bottlenecks is transmission capacity, planning, and siting.</li><li>Improving permitting speed. Permitting creates inefficiency in the system, and is often a very manual and one-off process. Some early consumer solutions (e.g. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://solarapp.nrel.gov//">SolarAPP+) could be improved upon or expanded into adjacent areas (e.g. building electrification, EV charging infrastructure).</li><li>Deployment and installation of panels. There is a staggering amount of physical installation that will be happening over the next decade, and plenty of opportunities to make this process more efficient and less expensive. For utility-scale installations, the PV panels, inverter, electrical, and structural components make up roughly 60% of project costs, while for residential installations these components only represent 36% of the project costs. Significant effort is spent on design, engineering, permitting, and labor.</li><li>The efficiency of both solar PV and wind turbines can reduce significantly if not regularly cleaned. However, cleaning is often an expensive proposition, which currently may not always meet ROI considerations. Panels also break and identifying faulty panel maintenance today is largely a manual process.</li><li>Transmission & Distribution systems are increasingly becoming the largest component of electricity costs. These are old, aging systems that are prone to failure (with catastrophic consequences), and that are unable to distribute energy efficiently over long distances from where renewable energy is generated to where it can be consumed. Distribution system planning - the last mile of delivery - lags far behind transmission system planning for optimizing the performance of existing infrastructure for future needs. </li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bright/">Bright, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nira-energy/">Nira Energy</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/charge-robotics/">Charge Robotics</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sunfarmer/">SunFarmer, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/reach-labs/">Reach Labs</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sunfolding/">Sunfolding, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/kitekraft/">Kitekraft, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/paces/">Paces, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/oolu/">Oolu, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aerones/">Aerones, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/raptor-maps/">Raptor Maps</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/smarthelio/">SmartHelio </strong></p><h3 id=\"critical-minerals\">Critical minerals</h3><p>Minerals are a critical component of most clean energy sources, including solar, wind, batteries, and downstream products like EVs. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese, and other rare earth metals are in increasingly short supply as demand scales up – the demand for lithium alone is estimated to grow between 13-42x by 2040. New and more diversified supply sources will need to be tapped – as well as a stronger focus on recycling – in order to meet this demand. </p><p>There will also be a focus on emissions from mineral production, as well as geographical provenance: the Inflation Reduction Act includes strong incentives for materials sourced from the United States or countries with a US free trade agreement.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>AI & software for the discovery of new mineral deposits</li><li>Mining & extraction innovations</li><li>Technologies to reduce emissions during mining & processing</li><li>Changes to battery chemistry that reduce or avoid the use of minerals whose mining is associated with geopolitical risk or ESG concerns.</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/impossible-metals/">Impossible Metals</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/korrai/">KorrAI, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/stratumai/">StratumAI, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/earth-ai/">EARTH AI</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/maverick-bioworks/">Maverick Bioworks</a></strong></p><h2 id=\"science-required\">Science required</h2><p>There is a conventional wisdom that all technologies needed to decarbonize the planet have already been invented and we just need to focus on deployment. First, we don’t agree with this. Second, innovation and deployment are not at odds with each other – we need both.</p><p>The mistake outsiders make with scientific innovation is drawing their conclusions from the v1 version. In science, the v1 versions are usually prohibitively expensive and inefficient. The compounded effects of iterations are what make it work.</p><p>Scientific innovation can create meaningful improvements and opportunities, and there is a significant need for companies to address the areas of society that currently lack immediate solutions.</p><h3 id=\"carbon-removal-carbon-capture\">Carbon removal & carbon capture</h3><p>Carbon removal and carbon capture are similar concepts with different technology and applications. Carbon capture refers to capturing carbon from a point source emission like a power plant, vehicle, vessel, or industrial facility. Carbon removal refers to removing existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. </p><p><em><strong>Carbon capture and use or storage (CCU/S)</strong></em></p><p>These technologies remove carbon emissions from the emission source. Technologies in this field have existed for decades but market incentives have not favored deployment and as a result, progress has been slow. Today, industry players operating large trucking and shipping fleets as well as industrial emitters are a lot more incentivized and interested in pursuing carbon capture and storage. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Trucking carbon capture</li><li>Shipping carbon capture</li><li>Industrial carbon capture (refining, cement, steel, chemicals, hydrogen, etc)</li><li>Blue hydrogen - co-optimized carbon capture with hydrogen production</li><li>Power plant carbon capture (including gas plants and bio-energy)</li><li>Infrastructure for buying, selling, and moving captured carbon</li><li>Infrastructure for monitoring and storing carbon underground </li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/remora/">Remora, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/seabound/">Seabound
Carbon Removal</strong></em></p><p>Carbon removal is the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequestering it for permanent removal or sometimes using it for products like fuel. All IPCC scenarios to reach 1.5°C or even 2°C have accounted for massive amounts of carbon removal required, but have been light on details of which technologies they recommend. Many current technologies face large-scaling challenges due to energy and/or water requirements. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Direct air capture</li><li>Nature-based methods</li><li>Trees (Afforestation & Reforestation)</li><li>Soil carbon sequestration & measurement</li><li>Building materials that sequester carbon</li><li>Carbon mineralization</li><li>Enhanced weathering</li><li>Coastal blue carbon</li><li>New ocean measurement and reporting software (MRV)</li><li>Marine biomass</li><li>Increasing ocean alkalinity</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/noya/">Noya, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airmyne/">Airmyne, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/living-carbon/">Living Carbon</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/phykos/">Phykos, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/heimdal/">Heimdal, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/holy-grail-inc/">Holy Grail</a> </strong></p><p><em><strong>Methane capture & removal</strong></em></p><p>Methane is the second biggest greenhouse gas, with 30x more warming potential than CO2 over a 100-year time frame and a staggering ~85x more warming potential over a 20-year time frame. We are likely to have a near-term gap between where the science says we need to limit warming (1.5°C) and the path we are realistically on. There are no commercial technologies that exist today for removing methane from the atmosphere – early research is ongoing – and the regulatory environment and incentives do not yet exist. While methane removal is still early, there are clear paths to commercializing technologies around methane emissions reduction.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Methane measurement and monitoring tools</li><li>Methane emissions reduction technologies</li><li>Reduce emissions from network infrastructure</li><li>Reduce leakage/slip from natural gas engines</li><li>Mitigate other non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions like nitrous oxide</li><li>Direct air capture of methane</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/alga-biosciences/">Alga Biosciences</a> </strong></p><!--kg-card-begin: html--><table style=\"border:none;border-collapse:collapse;table-layout:fixed;width:468pt\"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr style=\"height:0pt\"><td style=\"border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;\"><p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;\">Additional resources</span></p><p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;\">YC Carbon Removal RFS: </span><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://carbon.ycombinator.com//" style=\"text-decoration:none;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;\">http://carbon.ycombinator.com/</span></a></p><p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;\">Carbon removal knowledge gaps: </span><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://frontiergaps.softr.app//" style=\"text-decoration:none;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;\">https://frontiergaps.softr.app/</span></a></p></td></tr></tbody></table><!--kg-card-end: html--><h3 id=\"renewable-fuels\">Renewable fuels</h3><p>Electric vehicles powered by batteries are an incredible innovation. But batteries have one major drawback – the further you want to go and the bigger the vehicle the more batteries the vehicle needs and a bigger percentage of its weight are batteries. This is a problem for sectors like international shipping, long-distance aviation, and (although debatable) freight trucking. While batteries are improving fast, it is going to take a long time to make up for the 35x energy density of jet fuel. These are big markets: just aviation and shipping, both of which are growing fast, represent 20% of all transportation emissions in the world. Another big market opportunity for renewable fuels is energy storage. And it will take many decades to phase out all gas vehicles in the world, which creates a big need for transitionary drop-in fuel replacements. </p><p>Renewable fuels can be categorized into two categories: Electrofuels and advanced biofuels. Both are effectively powered by the sun. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>More efficient and cheaper electrolyzers for hydrogen production</li><li>New microorganisms for biofuels</li><li>Infrastructure for green hydrogen storage</li><li>Innovation to drive down costs in woody biomass-based approaches to biofuels</li><li>Advanced biofuels</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/prometheus/">Prometheus, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/phoenix-hydrogen/">Phoenix Hydrogen</a> </strong></p><h3 id=\"vehicle-breakthroughs\">Vehicle Breakthroughs</h3><p>Approximately 75% of vehicle-based emissions are in categories that have obvious paths to electrification. The remaining 25% will need to either capture the emitted carbon, use renewable fuels, or will require a breakthrough in the technology available today in order to fully convert to electric alternatives. Here is a breakdown of emissions by hard-to-electrify vehicle category:</p><ul><li>Aviation (11%): Difficult due to battery energy density to weight ratio. Short-haul electric aviation is currently difficult but possible, and with 45% of all global airline flights being under 500 miles, is an interesting near-term opportunity <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/80220.pdf/">x. Long-haul aviation does not currently have a generally accepted path to electrification, and the industry plans to transition to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/rfs-climatetech/#renewable-fuels\">Sustainable Aviation Fuel</a> in order to mitigate emissions. Hydrogen is another potential alternative for long-haul aviation</li><li>Shipping (10%): Difficult for similar reasons to aviation, including needing a staggering amount of battery storage capacity for longer routes. Also similar to aviation, there may be some possibilities for short-haul electrification. For long-haul routes, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/rfs-climatetech/#carbon-removal-carbon-capture\">CCS</a> or <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/rfs-climatetech/#renewable-fuels\">renewable fuels</a> will likely provide emissions reductions.</li><li>Construction vehicles (4%): Very early category with limited progress to date.</li><li>Recreational boats (0.2%): While boats in this category “only” produce 12.5M tons of CO2e emissions, there may be other advantages to electrification in this category, such as reducing noxious fumes, noise, and the ability to fully benefit from renewable energy from solar, wind, and hydro generation.</li></ul><p><strong>Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Hybrid technologies that can reduce the majority of emissions by supplementing combustion power with electric power, without the need to fully convert or retrofit.</li><li>Boats (passenger and recreational)</li><li>New or retrofitted electric cargo ships</li><li>Semi-truck electrification - both for drayage and long-haul applications.</li><li>Electric construction vehicles</li><li>Electric work site power</li><li>Zero-emissions port vehicles and equipment</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/cruise/">Cruise, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/heart-aerospace/">Heart Aerospace</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sixwheel/">SixWheel, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/fleetzero/">Fleetzero, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/wright-electric/">Wright Electric</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/talyn-air/">Talyn Air</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://primelightworks.com//">Prime Lightworks</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/beyond-aero/">Beyond Aero</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/h3x-technologies/">H3X Technologies</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/regent/">REGENT, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/odys-aviation/">Odys Aviation</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pyka/">Pyka, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hypermile/">Hypermile, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/seaflight-technologies/">Seaflight Technologies</a> <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/boundary-layer-technologies/">Boundry Layer</a> </strong></p><h3 id=\"advanced-energy-generation\">Advanced energy generation</h3><p>Nuclear energy has already delivered carbon-free energy grids in countries like Sweden and France. This was done in record time but for decades the nuclear industry has been challenged by regulatory pressure and increased costs which led the industry growth to a stand-still (with South Korea and China as the exceptions). But public support for nuclear power is growing again and there are a promising new set of companies creating small modular reactors (SMRs). Until we have evidence of long-term storage working for intermittent energy sources like solar and wind, nuclear will play a very important role in a decarbonized grid.</p><p><strong>Areas of interest:</strong></p><ul><li>Small modular nuclear reactors</li><li>Fusion</li><li>Flexible nuclear generation technologies</li><li>Fuel cycles that avoid or reduce nuclear waste issues</li><li>Fuel cycles that avoid or reduce proliferation risk issues</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/oklo/">Oklo, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/helion-energy/">Helion Energy</a> </strong></p><h3 id=\"agriculture\">Agriculture</h3><p>Around 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are a result of beef production, farming, and agriculture. The majority of these are methane emissions of which beef production is its biggest contributor.</p><p>There are several ways startups are addressing this already. You can neutralize or reduce the emissions at the source – effectively making cows burp out less methane. This is a promising technology and would have an immediate effect on planetary heating but would still not account for the land-use impact of beef production. </p><p>The second major area startups have been addressing these emissions is by creating a new kind of alternative meat and dairy. There are two primary categories of startups: plant-based protein and cultivated/cultured meat. Plant-based companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are already worth billions of dollars but struggle with the costs of production. On the cultivated meat side there have recently been <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/human-food-made-cultured-animal-cells/">regulatory breakthroughs</a> giving us hope of these hitting the shelf soon. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Cheaper ways to produce plant-based protein and cultivated meat</li><li>Methane reduction/neutralization in beef production</li><li>Sustainable fertilizers</li><li>Soil carbon measurement tools (MRV) </li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/eclipse-foods/">Eclipse Foods</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/rebellyous-foods/">Rebellyous Foods</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/orbillion-bio/">Orbillion Bio</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hedgehog-2/">Hedgehog, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/mooji-meats/">Mooji Meats</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/alga-biosciences/">Alga Bioscience</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/current-foods/">Current Foods</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/c16-biosciences/">C16 Biosciences</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/iron-ox/">Iron Ox</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/future-fields/">Future Fields</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/the-good-food-institute/">The Good Food Institute</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/shiok-meats/">Shiok Meats</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/micro-meat/">Micro Meat</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/numi-foods/">numi foods</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/brown-foods/">Brown Foods</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nobell-foods/">Nobell Foods</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ten-lives/">Ten Lives</a> </strong></p><h3 id=\"construction\">Construction</h3><p>The construction of buildings and infrastructure represents 13% of global emissions, with a majority of these emissions coming from the production of the raw materials required, such as concrete and steel. This will be a difficult industry to decarbonize due to challenges with inertia, low tolerance for any green premium, and lack of consumer awareness of the underlying materials used. And while there are significant challenges, construction materials is a $1T industry, so any company that can successfully solve these challenges has an opportunity for significant scale.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Low or zero emissions concrete</li><li>Low or zero emissions steel</li><li>Commercialization of low-carbon building materials</li><li>Software to design buildings for lower energy and carbon footprint</li><li>New building materials to improve building energy efficiency</li><li>Construction vehicles & tools</li><li>Software for cities to automate new building codes</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/moxion-power-co/">Moxion Power</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/carbon-crusher/">Carbon Crusher</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/intelline/">Intelline </strong></p><h3 id=\"industrial-heat-processes\">Industrial heat & processes</h3><p>Industry – the way that we transform raw materials into more useful ones – accounts for a significant percentage of global emissions. Many of the processes required to transform raw materials into cement, steel, chemicals, and plastics (among others) require a large amount of process heat and produce difficult-to-remove emissions. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Renewable fuels as an alternative source of energy for heat</li><li>New processes that don’t produce emissions as a byproduct</li><li>Breakthroughs to electrify industrial processes</li><li>Infrastructure to transport and manage captured carbon</li><li>Capture excess renewable energy generation for grid integration benefits</li></ul><p><strong>YC companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/phase-biolabs/">Phase Biolabs</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/solugen/">Solugen, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/medium-biosciences/">Medium Biosciences</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/alt-tex/">ALT TEX</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/birch-biosciences/">Birch Biosciences</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/genecis-bio/">Genecis Bio</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ferveret-inc/">Ferveret </strong></p><h2 id=\"climate-adaptation\">Climate Adaptation<br></h2><h3 id=\"climate-intelligence\">Climate Intelligence</h3><p>As climate patterns continue to change, assumptions that rely on past data are increasingly breaking, affecting industries such as insurance, agriculture, and transportation. There is a new crop of companies that are building better predictive models, and others that are innovating on business models that can help these industries adapt and mitigate their risk. Another set of companies are launching new measurement hardware to collect data not previously available, such as satellites that monitor methane emissions and mesh sensor networks to collect moisture levels. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Improved risk models for insurers, cities, and investors</li><li>Improved datasets for evaluating risk via models</li><li>Methane monitoring</li><li>Purpose-specific climate modeling for vulnerable industries like Agriculture and Transportation</li><li>Risk management or reduction software</li><li>Mesh sensor networks</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/wyvern/">Wyvern, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/albedo/">Albedo, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/array-labs/">Array Labs</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/our-world-in-data/">Our World in Data</a> </strong></p><h3 id=\"fire\">Fire</h3><p>Extreme wildfire behavior has reached a breaking point caused by climate change and 100 years of poor forest management practices. Given longer, hotter, dryer fire seasons, this extreme behavior is accelerating: as one example, 18 of the 20 worst fires in California history have occurred in the last two decades. Extreme fires cause damage to landscapes, watersheds, homes, and cities with stakeholders like insurance companies, landowners, utilities, and private businesses heavily impacted. Wildfire also contributes back to climate change in a negative feedback loop: studies estimate that 18% of global CO2 emissions are caused by fire and that recent wildfires have erased two decades of emissions reductions in California.</p><p>Most experts agree that the solution to wildfire lies in making landscapes more resilient to fire, protecting homes and cities, and enabling rapid detection and suppression when warranted. However, current efforts are largely untouched by technology and startups.</p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Landscape resiliency</li><li>Software to help land & timber managers understand risk</li><li>Robotic tools for safe fuel removal & treatment</li><li>Application of carbon credits to fuel treatments and landscape resiliency</li><li>New products & business models for currently wasted small-diameter timber</li><li>Protect homes & cities</li><li>Better data, models & risk mitigation for insurance</li><li>Better ways to reduce or eliminate powerline ignitions</li><li>Home protection & hardening</li><li>New approaches to suppression</li><li>Faster, more ubiquitous detection</li><li>Better situational awareness and intelligence for firefighters</li><li>Better allocation of aerial firefighting resources</li><li>Autonomous aerial fire suppression</li><li>Make suppression faster</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gridware/">Gridware, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/alba-orbital/">Alba Orbital</a></strong></p><p><em>(Special thanks to Bill Clerico for authoring this section)</em></p><h3 id=\"drought-water\">Drought / Water</h3><p>Climate change is altering the water cycle: heat creates more evaporation on land resulting in drier and more arid soil, while also creating more evaporation over the oceans causing shifting patterns of intense precipitation in some areas and extreme drought in others. Warming is also causing sea levels to rise. This creates two broad categories of problems: too much water, and too little water. </p><p>Another major water trend is workforce turnover: as a set of water experts age out, agencies are having a difficult time filling the hole in the workforce. There is an opportunity to codify much of the knowledge and experience that is departing into software and automation.</p><p><strong>“Too little water” Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Atmospheric water generation</li><li>Groundwater monitoring, management, and remediation</li><li>Future of desalination (though difficult for new tech to get off the ground due to heavy engineering and permitting overhangs)</li><li>Productive uses of desalination salt byproduct</li><li>Water sanitation and remediation of unwanted chemicals in the water supply</li><li>Non-contact sensing of chemical composition</li><li>Agricultural water circularity: managing runoff and reintroducing it into the top of the system</li><li>Reduce water use in industrial processes</li><li>Modified drought or heat-resistant crops</li></ul><p><strong>“Too much water” Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Disaster resilience in terms of preparation and recovery</li><li>Better approaches to applying floodwater to groundwater recharge</li><li>Stopping the impacts of rising water (e.g. where to pour the concrete for sea walls)</li><li>Brackish groundwater impacts of rising sea levels</li><li>Preparation and financial resilience for flooding</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/waterplan/">Waterplan </strong></p><h2 id=\"green-fintech\">Green Fintech</h2><p>Finance is a strong and proven lever for decarbonization and is increasingly being tapped as an important part of the strategy toward decarbonization. A $27B “green bank” was created by the Inflation Reduction Act for projects that reduce GHG emissions, and financial institutions are beginning to offer better financing options for companies that are helping to reduce carbon emissions. With increased financing available, there is a new and emerging opportunity to create purpose-built fintech models suited to green project needs.</p><p><strong>Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Solutions for automating and streamlining non-venture financing of climate tech. This includes project financing, debt financing, government financing, and automating government incentive programs.</li><li>Discovery platforms for project and debt financing</li><li>Leverage public funds (e.g. IRA green bank mechanism) to unlock private sector funds</li><li>Purpose-built risk underwriting models</li><li>Alleviate cash flow needs with project and incentive awareness</li><li>Specific “green project” needs around e.g. building electrification</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/plover-parametrics/">Plover Parametrics</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/perl-street/">Perl Street</a> </strong></p><h2 id=\"carbon-accounting-offsets\">Carbon Accounting & Offsets</h2><p>Reducing carbon emissions starts with measurement. Carbon accounting software measures all emissions an organization/company is emitting. Usually using the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/scope-1-and-scope-2-inventory-guidance/">Scope 1</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/scope-1-and-scope-2-inventory-guidance/">Scope 2</a> and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/scope-3-inventory-guidance/">Scope 3</a> standards. Companies around the world are now being required to report emissions to customers, public markets, and financial institutions because they believe that reducing carbon is future-proofing the business. </p><p>Measuring carbon emissions with software is the first step in order to set reduction goals each year. Carbon accounting software can surface the exact emissions from utility providers, transportation fleets, and industrial emissions and give recommendations for alternatives. For emissions that are not easy to reduce they can buy offsets or removal credits. These offsets are usually purchased through a carbon removal marketplace.</p><p>Having a lot of carbon emissions is a financial risk to investors and lenders. As a result, the financial industry has started requiring disclosures and plans from companies before offering financing. </p><h3 id=\"carbon-accounting-software\">Carbon Accounting Software</h3><p>The biggest category is carbon accounting software. Counting carbon emissions in an organization has historically been done manually with spreadsheets and consultants. All this will be replaced by software and we imagine both vertical and horizontal solutions.</p><p>Examples of vertical solutions are those that tackle specific industries or verticals like shipping, real estate, or industrials. </p><p><strong>Carbon accounting software does a few things: </strong></p><ol><li><strong>Measure</strong> a company’s carbon footprint</li><li>Help companies <strong>reduce</strong> their carbon footprint (e.g. recommendations)</li><li>Help companies <strong>offset</strong> carbon emissions</li><li>Help companies <strong>report</strong> on carbon emissions to public markets and regulatory bodies</li></ol><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Industry-specific carbon accounting</li><li>Software infrastructure for carbon accounting (Plaid for carbon accounting)</li><li>Supply chain integration of carbon accounting and procurement</li></ul><p><strong>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sinai/">Sinai, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/unravel-carbon/">Unravel Carbon</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/carbonchain/">CarbonChain, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aklimate/">Aklimate, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/minimum/">Minimum, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/carbonfact/">Carbonfact, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/cambio-2/">Cambio, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bend/">Bend </strong></p><h3 id=\"carbon-offset-and-removal-marketplaces\">Carbon Offset and Removal Marketplaces </h3><p>In order to reach the 1.5°C degree goal decarbonization alone is not sufficient – we also need massive amounts of carbon removal. We covered some of the promising ideas for carbon removal in the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/rfs-climatetech/#science-required\">science-required</a> section. There are already many startups that finance, measure, and sell these carbon removal credits but the market is still small. </p><p>Historically carbon removal credits have had a bad reputation. The reason for this is that it was difficult to know if they actually had an incremental impact (additionality), whether they were long-lasting (permanence), issues with double counting, and how accurately they were measured. Startups today are expected to have great answers to these questions and customers of carbon removal credits are requiring them. </p><p><strong>Problems & Ideas:</strong></p><ul><li>Carbon removal marketplaces</li><li>Financing of future carbon removal credits</li><li>New MRV software (measurement, reporting, and verification of carbon removal credits)</li><li>New approaches to increasing credibility of additionality claims<br>YC Companies: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pachama/">Pachama, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pina-earth/">Pina Earth</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/verdn/">Verdn, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/abatable/">Abatable, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/wren/">Wren, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/jasmine/">Jasminecommon misconception</a> is that you need a launched product or a lot of traction in order to get accepted. In fact, a founding team and an idea the team is excited to work on are sufficient, and anywhere between 25-50% of the companies that we accept each batch have just those two things.</p><p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">Apply here</a> for the next YC batch. We’re excited to hear from you!</strong></p><p>---<br><br><strong>Additional resources</strong></p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.amazon.com/100-Solution-Solving-Climate-Change/dp/1612198384/">The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change</a> - Solomon Goldstein-Rose</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.amazon.com/Electrify-Optimists-Playbook-Energy-Future/dp/0262046237/">Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future</a> - Saul Griffith</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.amazon.com/How-Avoid-Climate-Disaster-Breakthroughs/dp/0385546130//">How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need</a> - Bill Gates</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593420470/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1\%22>Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now</a> - John Doerr</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://content.rewiringamerica.org/reports/rewiring-america-field-manual.pdf/">Rewiring America</a> - Saul Griffith, Sam Calisch, Laura Fraser</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Future-Countries-Solved-Climate/dp/1541724100/">A Bright future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow</a> - by Joshua S. Goldstein and Staffan A. Qvist</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23257578-ira-a-tipping-point-in-climate-action-1/">US Inflation Reduction Act: A Tipping Point in Climate Action</a> - Credit Suisse</p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/@PrecourtInstitute/videos/">Stanford ENERGY</a></p><p><br></p>","comment_id":"1102296","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/12/BlogTwitter-Image-Template1.jpeg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2018-03-05T09:00:43.000-08:00","updated_at":"2022-12-29T16:32:14.000-08:00","published_at":"2022-12-15T08:30:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"At YC, we believe founders and startups can make a positive impact on climate change and support the transition to a sustainable future. Here are a few areas and ideas we find most interesting, and hope to see founders apply with.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"638a7d499132af0001d1aee9","name":"rfs","slug":"rfs","description":"Request for Startups","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/rfs/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/rfs-climatetech/","excerpt":"Y Combinator has funded well over 100 climate tech startups, and together they are worth over $10B.","reading_time":24,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bfd","uuid":"0ca92edd-4f79-4147-89e6-68c1eb719a32","title":"Come Work at YC - October 2021","slug":"come-work-at-yc-october-2021","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>YC is hiring across many of our teams, including Admissions, Continuity, Software, People Ops and Finance. Find out more about the open roles <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers/">here.
ADMISSIONS
/n/nADMISSIONS
Admissions Associate</strong></a>: Twice a year, Y Combinator receives tens of thousands of applications from promising startups all around the world. Reviewing these applications is fundamental to our core business and we’re looking for an Admissions Associate to review those applications and help manage the overall admissions process. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=c8a4c1c8-9410-479f-86e7-cb2c1ca35e32\%22>Learn more</a>.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=ef00c8d1-76e7-4cc3-82fe-7cc3e4679652\%22>Product Engineer</strong></a>: The YC admissions team uses lots of custom software to process the tens of thousands of applications we receive every year. We’re looking for a Product Engineer to help us improve that software. In the last year we’ve rewritten our software to do video interviews (instead of in person), analyzed admissions data to understand how our <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/early-deadline-for-yc-winter-2022//">Early Deadline</a> performed, and changed how we ask questions in the application. We’re planning lots more improvements and looking for someone to own projects from idea to implementation. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=ef00c8d1-76e7-4cc3-82fe-7cc3e4679652\%22>Learn more.</a></p>\n<p><strong>CONTINUITY</strong><br />\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/e38a08e5-71e9-4165-b4bc-59254cf95bff/">First Data Engineer at YC</strong></a>: YC Continuity is hiring our first Data Engineer to help us identify promising investment opportunities using data. This is an innovative role for somebody to build YC’s data infrastructure from the ground up. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/e38a08e5-71e9-4165-b4bc-59254cf95bff/">Learn more.</a></p>\n<p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/8aa099e3-8dab-41db-946e-69a3a4209c11/">Research Associate</a></strong>: YC Continuity is seeking a Research Associate to evaluate investment opportunities, lead market research, and help our portfolio companies grow. This is a unique opportunity for somebody who loves data and startups to help us build definitive points of view to guide investment decisions. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/8aa099e3-8dab-41db-946e-69a3a4209c11/">Learn more.</a></p>\n<p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=c093ffa1-e638-4fd9-86bc-97663ab6d0b8\%22>Series A Program Manager</a></strong>: YC Continuity is seeking a Program Manager to lead the YC Series A Program. The program offers all YC founders resources to help them achieve the best possible outcomes when raising capital: year-round workshops, detailed fundraising guides & templates, and 1:1 support. This is a great role for someone who is passionate about startups and interested in learning more about them. Given the number of YC companies raising Series As every year, you’ll have an unparalleled understanding of how these financings happen and the early-stage funding ecosystem. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=c093ffa1-e638-4fd9-86bc-97663ab6d0b8\%22>Learn more.</a></p>\n<p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=242ef73e-c89e-4a50-9cd4-e91f275805f8\%22>Investment Associate</strong></a>: YC Continuity is seeking an Associate to help analyze and invest in growth stage companies. Our primary goal is to support YC alumni companies by investing in their subsequent funding rounds. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=242ef73e-c89e-4a50-9cd4-e91f275805f8\%22>Learn more.</a></p>\n<p><strong>SOFTWARE</strong><br />\n<strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=ef00c8d1-76e7-4cc3-82fe-7cc3e4679652\%22>Product Engineer</a></strong>: As YC has gone remote in the last year, our small-but-mighty software team has been busy building the OS that runs all of YC. In the last six months alone, we’ve rewritten our entire Demo Day experience (to connect founders with potential investors), re-created the batch experience with both in-house tools and 3rd party integrations, and written software to help founders connect with one another for advice, intros, deals, networking and so much more. We have a ton more to deliver, so we’re looking to hire multiple product engineers to join the team. This is a great role for somebody who loves helping startups, is eager to talk with YC founders (our customers!), and wants to own projects from start-to-finish. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/careers?ashby_jid=ef00c8d1-76e7-4cc3-82fe-7cc3e4679652\%22>Learn more.</a></p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104864","feature_image":null,"featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-07-20T02:15:35.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-06-27T17:42:05.000-07:00","published_at":"2021-07-20T02:15:35.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71177","name":"Jobs","slug":"jobs","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/jobs/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71177","name":"Jobs","slug":"jobs","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/jobs/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/come-work-at-yc-july-2021/","excerpt":"YC’s Admissions, Continuity and Software teams are hiring. Find out more about the open roles here.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bed","uuid":"da6d3299-6657-41bc-b16c-b74b0fe7a32e","title":"Y Combinator Top Companies — July 2021","slug":"top-companies-july-2021","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>YC companies raise money year round — leading to the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/">YC Top Companies list</a> becoming outdated almost as soon as it’s published. To combat this, moving forward the list will be refreshed every six months, in February and July. With that said, explore our newest list, which now includes more than 160 companies valued at $150M+. Together, the companies on July’s list are valued at more than $400B+ and have created more than 70,000 full-time jobs.</p>\n<p>We put this list together to help potential employees, partners, and late stage investors get to know a wider set of YC companies. One thing to note is that this is not an exhaustive list of the top YC companies; companies could opt out of being listed for any reason. To see a full list of YC companies, go <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/">here.
Here are interesting stats about this list:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>We now have more than 160 companies valued at $150M+ and more than 40 companies at $1B+.</li>\n<li>59% of the companies are headquartered in the Bay Area. 17% of the companies are headquartered in the U.S. but outside of the Bay Area. 14% of the companies are headquartered outside of the U.S. 10% of the companies are remote. </li>\n<li>27 of the companies received growth-stage capital and company building support through <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/continuity//">YC Continuity</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Here’s a sector breakdown of the companies on the list:<div class=\"wptb-table-container wptb-table-1104836\"><div class=\"wptb-table-container-matrix\" id=\"wptb-table-id-1104836\" data-wptb-version=\"1.3.11\" data-wptb-pro-status=\"false\"><table class=\"wptb-preview-table wptb-element-main-table_setting-1104641 edit-active\" data-reconstraction=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); float: left;\" data-wptb-table-tds-sum-max-width=\"377\" role=\"table\" data-wptb-td-width-auto=\"138\" data-wptb-even-row-background-color=\"#ffffff\" data-wptb-odd-row-background-color=\"#ffffff\" data-wptb-header-background-color=\"#ffffff\" data-wptb-responsive-directives=\"eyJyZXNwb25zaXZlRW5hYmxlZCI6ZmFsc2UsInJlc3BvbnNpdmVNb2RlIjoiYXV0byIsInByZXNlcnZlUm93Q29sb3IiOmZhbHNlLCJyZWxhdGl2ZVdpZHRoIjoiY29udGFpbmVyIiwiaGVhZGVyRnVsbHlNZXJnZWQiOmZhbHNlLCJtb2RlT3B0aW9ucyI6eyJhdXRvIjp7InRvcFJvd0FzSGVhZGVyIjp7ImRlc2t0b3AiOmZhbHNlLCJ0YWJsZXQiOnRydWUsIm1vYmlsZSI6dHJ1ZX0sInJlcGVhdE1lcmdlZEhlYWRlciI6eyJkZXNrdG9wIjp0cnVlLCJ0YWJsZXQiOnRydWUsIm1vYmlsZSI6dHJ1ZX0sInN0YXRpY1RvcFJvdyI6eyJkZXNrdG9wIjpmYWxzZSwidGFibGV0IjpmYWxzZSwibW9iaWxlIjpmYWxzZX0sImNlbGxTdGFja0RpcmVjdGlvbiI6eyJkZXNrdG9wIjoicm93IiwidGFibGV0Ijoicm93IiwibW9iaWxlIjoicm93In0sImNlbGxzUGVyUm93Ijp7ImRlc2t0b3AiOjEsInRhYmxldCI6MSwibW9iaWxlIjoxfX19LCJicmVha3BvaW50cyI6eyJkZXNrdG9wIjp7Im5hbWUiOiJkZXNrdG9wIiwid2lkdGgiOjEwMjR9LCJ0YWJsZXQiOnsibmFtZSI6InRhYmxldCIsIndpZHRoIjo3MDB9LCJtb2JpbGUiOnsibmFtZSI6Im1vYmlsZSIsIndpZHRoIjozMDB9fX0=\" data-wptb-adaptive-table=\"0\" data-wptb-table-alignment=\"left\" data-table-columns=\"2\" data-wptb-extra-styles=\"LyogRW50ZXIgeW91ciBjdXN0b20gQ1NTIHJ1bGVzIGhlcmUgKi8=\"><tbody><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"0\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>B2B Software and Services</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"0\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\" data-wptb-cell-vertical-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>44%</p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"1\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Financial Technology and Services</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"1\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>16%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"2\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Consumer</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"2\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>16%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"3\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Healthcare</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"3\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>9%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"4\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Industrials</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"4\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>6%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"5\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Real Estate and Construction</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"5\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>4%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"6\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Education</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"6\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>4%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"7\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Government</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"7\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>1%</p><p></p></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>\n</p>\n<p>We are honored to have worked with the founders behind these companies and be part of their stories — from idea stage to a YC top company.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104834","feature_image":null,"featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-07-01T02:00:26.000-07:00","updated_at":"2021-10-20T10:51:55.000-07:00","published_at":"2021-07-01T02:00:26.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71170","name":"Startups","slug":"startups","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startups/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71170","name":"Startups","slug":"startups","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/startups/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/top-companies-july-2021/","excerpt":"YC companies raise money year round — leading to the YC Top Companies list becoming outdated almost as soon as it’s published. To combat this, moving forward the list will be refreshed every six months, in February and July. With that said, explore our newest list, which now includes more than 160 companies valued at $150M+. Together, the companies on July’s list are valued at more than $400B+ and have created more than 70,000 full-time jobs.","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bea","uuid":"e7ad6a9e-3b64-4d9a-bf2f-97db21e57274","title":"Come Work at YC","slug":"come-work-at-yc","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>Y Combinator’s legal and software teams, and YC Continuity are hiring. Learn more about the open roles below:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.workable.com/ycombinator/j/E529695C01//">Legal Analyst</strong></a>: YC’s newly established Legal Analyst Program has two open positions, starting immediately. The roles are particularly well-suited for recent college graduates who are considering law school. We are especially interested in meeting candidates who are academically accomplished, team-oriented, self-motivated and who possess excellent organizational skills. This is an exciting opportunity to work side by side with our legal and finance teams on all aspects of the onboarding and diligence process for our portfolio companies. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.workable.com/ycombinator/j/E529695C01/">Learn more</a>.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/ef00c8d1-76e7-4cc3-82fe-7cc3e4679652/">Product Engineer – Y Combinator</strong></a>: Join a small-but-mighty software team that builds the OS that runs all of YC. Work on everything from our Demo Day experience, internal financial systems and tools to help founders connect with one another for advice, intros, deals, networking and more. You’ll have access to all the talks and resources our founders get, and learn how to build a startup at a place that incubated Airbnb, Dropbox, Instacart and more. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/ef00c8d1-76e7-4cc3-82fe-7cc3e4679652/">Learn more</a>.</p>\n<p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/242ef73e-c89e-4a50-9cd4-e91f275805f8/">YC Continuity – Investment Associate</a></strong>: YCC is seeking an Associate to help analyze and invest in growth stage companies. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/242ef73e-c89e-4a50-9cd4-e91f275805f8/">Learn more</a>.</p>\n<p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/4dbfa9f1-41ae-4b55-98cc-2d5af2d12852/">YC Continuity – Program Associate</a></strong>: YCC’s Program Associate will provide operational and administrative support for YC’s growth-stage founder programs. This is a phenomenal role for someone who is interested in learning more about startups, is excited to interact with founders, has excellent project management skills, is meticulously organized, and is obsessive about details. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/4dbfa9f1-41ae-4b55-98cc-2d5af2d12852/">Learn more</a>.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/c093ffa1-e638-4fd9-86bc-97663ab6d0b8/">YC Continuity – Series A Program Manager</strong></a>: YCC is seeking a Program Manager to lead the YC Series A Program. The program offers all YC founders resources to help them achieve the best possible outcomes when raising capital: year-round workshops, detailed fundraising guides & templates, and 1:1 support. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/c093ffa1-e638-4fd9-86bc-97663ab6d0b8/">Learn more</a>.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104827","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Artboard-32-copy.png","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-06-08T05:00:56.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-06-27T17:46:18.000-07:00","published_at":"2021-06-08T05:00:56.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Y Combinator's legal and software teams, and YC Continuity are hiring. Learn more about the open roles.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71177","name":"Jobs","slug":"jobs","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/jobs/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71171","name":"Work at a Startup","slug":"work-at-a-startup","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/work-at-a-startup/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71181","name":"YC Continuity","slug":"yc-continuity","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-continuity/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71182","name":"#ycc","slug":"hash-ycc","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71177","name":"Jobs","slug":"jobs","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/jobs/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/come-work-at-yc/","excerpt":"Y Combinator’s legal and software teams, and YC Continuity are hiring. Learn more about the open roles below:","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bd0","uuid":"18dec0dd-7f4e-4042-8a1b-83a987ab7a23","title":"Y Combinator Top Companies — 2021","slug":"yc-top-companies-2021","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>We’re excited to share the newest <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/">YC Top Companies</a> list. We put this list together to help potential employees, partners, and late stage investors get to know a wider set of YC companies. If you’re looking for a job at one of our top companies, you can hit the Jobs button to be taken to their careers page.</p>\n<p>The companies in this list are sorted by valuation as of January 2021, including YC companies that have been acquired or gone public.<sup id=\"footnoteid1\"><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"#footnote1\">1</a></sup> Why do we use valuation? We have always said that valuation is a poor way to measure a company’s value in the short term, and we still believe this to be the case. We consistently warn our companies not to over-optimize their fundraising for a high valuation. That said, it’s the most commonly available metric to compare companies in the startup world. Other metrics, like revenue, are more often kept private. We have a number of impressive companies who would appear on the list or rank even higher if we counted other metrics (revenue, revenue/employee, secondary valuation, etc).</p>\n<p>Another thing to note is that this is not an exhaustive list of the top YC companies. We allowed companies to opt out of being listed for any reason. To see a full list of YC companies, go to the <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/">YC Startup Directory</a>.</p>\n<p><strong>Here are some interesting stats about this year’s list:</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>We now have more than 125 companies valued at $150M+ and more than 25 companies at $1B+.</li>\n<li>64% of the companies are headquartered in the Bay Area. 15% of the companies are headquartered in the U.S. but outside of the Bay Area. 14% of the companies are headquartered outside of the U.S. 7% of the companies are remote. </li>\n<li>39 of the companies on the list went through the YC Growth Program. This program is designed for founder-CEOs who are leading rapidly growing companies approaching 50 employees. The program focuses on specific issues that every startup has to overcome in order to scale successfully. Read more about the YC Growth Program <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/growth-program//">here./n/n Here’s a sector breakdown of the companies on the list:</strong> <div class=\"wptb-table-container wptb-table-1104641\"><div class=\"wptb-table-container-matrix\" id=\"wptb-table-id-1104641\" data-wptb-version=\"1.3.11\" data-wptb-pro-status=\"false\"><table class=\"wptb-preview-table wptb-element-main-table_setting-1104641\" data-reconstraction=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); float: left;\" data-wptb-table-tds-sum-max-width=\"376.98295400000006\" role=\"table\" data-wptb-td-width-auto=\"138\" data-wptb-even-row-background-color=\"#ffffff\" data-wptb-odd-row-background-color=\"#ffffff\" data-wptb-header-background-color=\"#ffffff\" data-wptb-responsive-directives=\"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\" data-wptb-adaptive-table=\"0\" data-wptb-table-alignment=\"left\" data-table-columns=\"2\"><tbody><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"0\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>B2B Software and Services</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"0\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\" data-wptb-cell-vertical-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>47%</p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"1\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Financial Technology and Services</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"1\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">15%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"2\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Consumer</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"2\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">13%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"3\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Healthcare</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"3\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">9%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"4\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Real Estate</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"4\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">4%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"5\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Aerospace</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"5\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">3%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"6\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Automotive</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"6\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">3%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"7\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Education</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"7\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">3%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"8\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Industrials</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"8\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">2%<p></p></div></div></td></tr><tr class=\"wptb-row\" data-wptb-bg-color=\"#ffffff\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"9\" data-x-index=\"0\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 244px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\"><p>Construction</p></div></div></td><td class=\"wptb-cell\" data-y-index=\"9\" data-x-index=\"1\" style=\"border: 1px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); padding: 20px; width: 50px;\"><div class=\"wptb-text-container wptb-ph-element wptb-element-text-1\" style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><div class=\"\" style=\"position: relative;\">1%<p></p></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>\n</p>\n<p>We are thrilled to have worked with the founders behind these companies and be part of their stories.</p>\n<p><strong>Notes</strong><br />\n<b id=\"footnote1\">1.</b> <strong>Top Exits</strong>: For acquisitions we counted only the money that went to the cap table at the time of acquisition. We did not include retention bonuses or the value founders and investors received from an acquiring company’s stock post-liquidation event. For public companies, we used the company’s market cap as of December 31, 2020. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"#footnoteid1\">↩</a></p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104634","feature_image":null,"featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-01-12T00:57:49.000-08:00","updated_at":"2021-10-20T10:52:16.000-07:00","published_at":"2021-01-12T00:57:49.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/yc-top-companies-2021/","excerpt":"We’re excited to share the newest YC Top Companies list. We put this list together to help potential employees, partners, and late stage investors get to know a wider set of YC companies. If you’re looking for a job at one of our top companies, you can hit the Jobs button to be taken to their careers page.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bbe","uuid":"d28b9b3e-a876-45c6-ae96-aa6a35db823b","title":"Understanding Startup Stock Options","slug":"understanding-startup-stock-options-berbix","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p><em><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbeltzer//">Benjamin Beltzer</a> is an early engineer at <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/1951/">Berbix (S18)</a>, a startup building identity verification and fraud deterrence as a service. He previously founded his own company and worked at both Apple and other startups.</em></p>\n<p><em>Ben wrote a great resource on understanding and evaluating stock options. With his permission, we’ve shared an excerpt from his piece covering the basics. If you want to learn more about stock options — including valuing them, questions to ask your employer and more. Read <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://medium.com/swlh/understanding-startup-stock-options-4bf9cc26089e?sk=6af3444dee83e6c5f4c09c674e32bbd8\%22>the full article on his Medium</a>.</em></p>\n<p><em>Find Ben on Twitter <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/benbeltzer7/">@benbeltzer7, and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/1951/">work with him at Berbix</a>.</em></p>\n<hr />\n<p><strong><em>Disclaimer: This is not legal or tax advice. Consult your own professionals before making any decisions.</em></strong></p>\n<p>If you’ve recently received stock options at a startup, are thinking about joining a startup, or are currently negotiating an offer, you’ve come to the right place. Equity can be a huge incentive for joining a startup early, but knowing when to exercise your options, how to get paid out, how much you’ll make, and how much you’ll get taxed is not at all obvious. It’s important to have a solid understanding of how options work, because the way you use them can have huge financial consequences.</p>\n<p><strong>What is a Stock Option?</strong></p>\n<p>A stock option is a contract that gives you the right, but not obligation, to buy a stock at an agreed-upon price and date. The price at which you can purchase the stock is called the exercise price, or strike price. So if your employer grants you 100 options, you do not own 100 shares. Rather, you have the option to buy 100 shares at the aforementioned strike price. Doing so is called exercising your option.</p>\n<p>Most startups give employees Incentive Stock Options (ISOs), though some use Non-qualified Stock Options (NSOs). For this post we’ll assume that we’re only dealing with ISOs, but you can read about the difference here.</p>\n<p><strong>Understanding the Equity Component of an Offer</strong></p>\n<p>There are a few key components to an equity offer that you should always look for.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Number of Options.</em> The number of shares you have the right to purchase.</li>\n<li><em>Percentage Ownership.</em> Your percentage ownership of the company’s total outstanding equity, assuming that you exercise all of your options. This is calculated as (number of options) / (total outstanding shares issued by the company).</li>\n<li><em>Strike Price.</em> The per-share price that you pay to exercise your options.</li>\n<li><em>Vesting Schedule.</em> Typically your equity grant will be subject to vesting, which means that you don’t receive all your options right away, but that you’ll receive them over time. A typical vesting schedule is four years with a one-year cliff. This means that if you leave the company within your first year, you’ll walk away with nothing. If you stay, 1/4th of your shares will vest on your one-year anniversary, after which 1/48th of your shares will vest monthly. There are plenty of other vesting schedules too. Some companies have a five-year vest with a six month cliff. At Amazon, 5% of your shares vest after year one, 15% after year two, then 40% after years three and four.</li>\n<li><em>Post-Termination Exercise (PTE) Window.</em> If you leave your job, you’ll often have just 90 days to decide if you want to exercise your options. Once those 90 days are up you forfeit all your options, causing many employees to find themselves in “golden handcuffs”. Luckily, some companies like Pinterest and Asana are starting to do 5, 7, or 10 year PTE windows. Be aware, though, that even if your PTE window is more than 90 days, your ISOs will convert into NSOs after 90 days.</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>When should I exercise my options?</strong></p>\n<p>Exercising your options can be expensive, so deciding when to exercise is going to depend on your personal financial situation. However, it’s important to understand all possibilities and the enormous tax implications that come with each one. After explaining each scenario, I’ll go through a set of examples.</p>\n<p><em>Exercising one year before IPO</em></p>\n<p>One of the best times to exercise your options is one year before the IPO, as described by Wealthfront <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.wealthfront.com/when-to-exercise-stock-options//">here. If you exercise your options one year before selling and your grant date was at least two years prior to the date you sell, you’ll only have to pay long term capital gains tax on your profit, rather than the much higher typical income tax rate.</p>\n<p>If the fair market value (determined by the most recent 409a valuation) of your company’s shares has risen above your strike price, you may also have to pay Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) at the time you exercise your options. The federal AMT rate is 28% of the spread between the fair market value of your shares and the value of your shares at your strike price.</p>\n<p>The problem preventing many people from using this approach is that it often requires fronting a significant amount of cash to exercise your options. If that’s the case, you can wait until after the IPO to exercise your options.</p>\n<p><em>Exercising and Selling Post-IPO</em></p>\n<p>If you can’t afford to exercise your stock options, but your company has already gone public, you can arrange a cashless exercise. In a cashless exercise, your employer or a brokerage firm will give you a loan to exercise the options, then sell the stock at market price immediately. You then use the proceeds from the sale to repay the loan. This is quite common at startups where employees can’t afford to exercise their options. Typically the mechanics of the process of receiving the loan, selling the stock, and repaying the loan is hidden from the employee, and he or she will simply receive the proceeds after the whole transaction is complete. The downside to this approach is that your gain from selling the stock will be taxed as ordinary income because you’ve held the stock for less than a year.</p>\n<p><em>Early Exercising</em></p>\n<p>Many startups allow their employees to exercise their options before they’ve vested, which is referred to as early exercising. Early exercising is a good idea when you either have high confidence that the company will have a successful exit or the total cost to exercise is affordable. This approach has 2 major advantages:</p>\n<hr />\n<p><em>Read the Ben’s full article <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://medium.com/swlh/understanding-startup-stock-options-4bf9cc26089e?sk=6af3444dee83e6c5f4c09c674e32bbd8\%22>Medium. Come Work at YC - July 2021 by Y Combinator7/20/2021 YC’s Admissions, Continuity and Software teams are hiring. Find out more about the open roles here. Y Combinator Top Companies — July 2021 by Y Combinator7/1/2021 YC companies raise money year round — leading to the YC Top Companies list becoming outdated almost as soon as it’s published. To combat this, moving forward the list will be refreshed every six months, in February and July. With that said, explore our newest list, which now includes more than 160 companies valued at $150M+. Together, the companies on July’s list are valued at more than $400B+ and have created more than 70,000 full-time jobs. Come Work at YC by Y Combinator6/8/2021 Y Combinator's legal and software teams, and YC Continuity are hiring. Learn more about the open roles. Y Combinator Top Companies — 2021 by Y Combinator1/12/2021 We’re excited to share the newest YC Top Companies list. We put this list together to help potential employees, partners, and late stage investors get to know a wider set of YC companies. If you’re looking for a job at one of our top companies, you can hit the Jobs button to be taken to their careers page. Understanding Startup Stock Options by Y Combinator9/16/2020 Benjamin Beltzer is an early engineer at Berbix (S18), a startup building identity verification and fraud deterrence as a service. He previously founded his own company and worked at both Apple and other startups. Next steps by Y Combinator6/9/2020 Within our organization and community of over 5,000 founders, we have begun a conversation about what we can do to help improve racial and social justice in America. An Update on YC S20 International Interviews by Y Combinator3/17/2020 The Summer 2020 batch is still on, however due to safety concerns relating to COVID-19, YC staff will no longer be traveling to do interviews. We will still be interviewing startups from all over the world (with safety modifications), but local interviews in Bangalore, Paris and São Paulo are canceled.
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