uh
all right so now Serbia and I are going
to talk a bit about the past and future
of YC bio
we have a clicker cool
look at that look at that
so those of you who've had me as their
group partner know that I like to cut to
the Chase and talk about the elephant in
the room so Jared I'm gonna do that with
you right now okay I I feel like there's
this misconception that YC doesn't
really invest in BIO or healthcare
companies that we don't care as much
about our YC and bio program is that
true tell us a little bit about the
state of YC bio yeah I get this a lot
from people not in this room who are
like wait why see invest in BIO
companies really so um here are some
stats to share with everyone this is
sort of the uh the current state of the
world for YC bio so we've now invested
in over 500 Healthcare and bio companies
which I believe is actually the largest
Healthcare portfolio in the world of any
Venture investor nine of those companies
are worth over a billion dollars and 50
of them are worth over 100 million
a combined valuation of all the YC bio
companies is 30 billion dollars and
they've raised over 8 billion dollars
from investors so yes I would say we do
invest in BIO and Healthcare companies
uh okay I see I see I mean looking at
this list here it seems like we must
have been doing this for a long long
time right actually we've only been
doing this for seven years we only
started funding bio companies in 2014.
that's incredible and you know why I see
it's a household name in the tech
industry for a long time you guys are
absolutely you know crushing it in that
sector why take the risk and reach out
into the bio world into the healthcare
world yeah it's a good question so um
before 2014 YC had really only invested
in software companies why did we wake up
one morning and decide to become the
world's largest Healthcare investor that
was a pretty interesting decision if you
think about it that way and um I think
to understand why we did that you really
have to
go back to the beginning of how YC
itself got started back in 2005 and YC
got started back in 2005 by by Paul
Graham and Paul Graham really had one
big Insight which was that at the time
the founders that were starting tech
companies were business people and the
founders that VCS wanted to fund were
business people they were experienced
executive types and Paul Graham had this
then heretical idea that the people who
would start successful companies in the
future would be Engineers who would
build the product themselves and he
created y combinator to inspire those
people to start companies and then to
fund them
and in 2014 we looked at the healthcare
and biotech landscape and the people who
were starting companies and the people
who were funding them and we saw the
same pattern that the people who were
starting biotech companies were business
people and Executives they were not
scientists and we believed that in the
future scientists would commercialize
their own research they would take
research they had done in school and
they would start companies themselves
and run them themselves and
um everybody thought that we were crazy
my friends who were how do you know
you're on to something yeah exactly and
so we decided to do it anyway yeah
fantastic so what did the first couple
of batches look like you know going from
Tech into hardcore Sciences yeah
so the first YC bio batch was summer
2014 we funded 10 companies in that
batch and you know we didn't know what
we were doing we were figuring out as we
went along
um we didn't have any real Healthcare
expertise on the team we didn't have all
the things that you've now built at YC
that are sort of like healthcare
Healthcare specific resources and
support and all that stuff but it didn't
matter
the thing that we realized was that the
companies in the early batches had a
great experience anyway and the reason
is simple it's because they helped each
other like what really worked with YC
bio was it turns out that when you get a
bunch of companies who are working on
something similar together they help
each other and they were also able to
benefit from like the other YC Founders
and the YC Network that we had built up
over the years of Founders and investors
and
um we also realized like today from
Othello said earlier that combining
biotech and Healthcare founders with
Founders working on software companies
turned out to be a feature not a bug
that they actually benefited a lot from
that and were inspired to move faster
and Inspire to build their companies in
a Nimble and flexible way
that's fantastic so can you give us an
example of one of the first bio
companies you invested in yeah
um I want to take a a minute to
recognize a few of the the pioneering YC
bio companies that took a bet on us when
we were just getting started at this
um so the first one is a company called
Ginkgo bioworks which probably everyone
has uh has heard of
um
this is a photo of Jason the CEO on
stage at demo Day in 2014 he's wearing a
Jurassic Park t-shirt
um and yeah that's that's where it all
got started and today of course Ginkgo
bio works is this huge public company
with all these awesome robots and like
the pioneering synthetic biology company
but it got started with
Jason and a band of Founders and a crazy
idea
um the next company that I want to call
out is a company called lucera This is
the the founder on stage at demo day
again making a rapid diagnostic test for
uh
gonorrhea I think and during the
pandemic they pivoted to cobit and they
actually became the first FDA approved
at-home covet test
which is um awesome their their test is
great incidentally you can buy it on
Amazon now Serbia and I use it all the
time he's taken hundreds and hundreds of
the Sierra tests yeah
um and the last one that I want to call
out is shasky which was the very first
Therapeutics company that YC funded from
Winter 15.
um shasky has a a new technology for
localized drug delivery that they're
applying initially to oncology and the
founder Jose is here with us in the
audience a wave high Jose so I can
embarrass you there's Jose hi Jose I'm
going to embarrass Jose by
congratulating him publicly because his
drug just moved to phase two clinical
trials and also because
[Applause]
and also because the research that his
drug is based on was called click
chemistry just won the Nobel Prize for
chemistry a couple weeks ago and shasky
is the leading company commercializing
it so congratulations Jose
[Applause]
so with that initial success I mean you
didn't know then that these Technologies
are were going to be as revolutionary as
they are today but you clearly saw
promise in the founders what did you
decide to do with that yeah so after the
first few batches of YC bio we we knew
that we were on to something
um and so we decided to scale up the
program and here's some more stats for
you this is the growth of the YC bio
companies from the 10 companies in the
first batch in summer 2014 to now
funding over 500.
um perhaps more strikingly this is the
total valuation of the YC bio companies
over time so we started in 2014 and just
three three years later by 2017 we had
crossed um over a billion dollars in
Market valuation and today we're over 30
billion dollars
um these are the nine YC bio companies
that are worth over a billion dollars
now
um and as you can see like they're doing
sort of all kinds of different things
you've got Diagnostics and Therapeutics
and patents and synthetic biology
um all kinds of things uh this is
actually the sector breakdown of the
companies that we funded we've always
had sort of a sector agnostic approach
investing we don't think about investing
in sectors we just think about investing
in Founders and so uh his breakdown is
really effectively a representation of
what the best Founders want to be
working on
um I I do want to point out that these
these awesome results are really due to
the amazing work of the founders that we
funded quite a few of whom are here in
the audience today so um for those of
you who are out building YC companies
like you're awesome you're crushing it
um but if there's one stat that I want
everyone to take away from it today it's
this one which is a really simple one
which is uh today actually YC funds more
bio and Healthcare investors per year
than any other investor of any kind in
the world which is pretty crazy so that
earlier misconception again not quite
true yeah
um so a few years ago
actually about four or five years ago it
became clear to us that Health Care was
going to be a really important part of
YC's Core Business going going forward
but we had a bit of an issue which is
that we didn't actually have a
healthcare partner running the program
and that was clearly the next step and
so we set out to find
the person with the right with the right
expertise and skills and background who
could take what we had started and
really take it to the next level and
turn it into a world-class program and
it took us several years actually to
find the perfect person to do that but
we found her and she's sitting right
next to me of course it's survey sarna
and there is a really special moment in
October 2021 when we finally got to
announce that we had hired serbi to run
YC bio and that was when I knew that it
was really in good hands and was really
going to succeed
um and so in a moment I want to have
Siri tell you a bit about what she's
working on now and her plans for the
future but before we do that um I want
to take a moment to recognize the people
who came before us because before a
Serbian I worked on YC bio there were um
really seven key people who got it off
of the ground and a bunch of them are
here in the audience today uh Diego and
URI
um and also in particular Jeff and Paul
bukite who are standing over there I can
confidently say that if Jeff and Paul
had not believed in YC bio at the very
beginning when it was far from obvious
that it was going to work we would all
not be sitting here today so let's have
a round of applause for Japanese
thank you
so
Serbia
tell us about what you're working on now
how Wi-Fi works today
great
um
you know there are some concrete things
over the last couple of years that we've
implemented understanding that though a
lot of the fundamental lessons of what
it takes to be a fast-moving
entrepreneur directly translates over
from Tech we also know that for those
companies that have to do clinical
studies or go through regulatory or sell
into hospitals that perhaps there are
unique challenges correct so we have put
in place a couple of things
that are specific for bio and health
care companies so we've talked today a
lot about speed right and speed
especially when you're in the YC program
but always the for those three months we
want you to have a handbook as you enter
the program of the different functional
areas and how you can show progress in
each one so we've done that that's been
established and is actually part of our
handbook now we also have group office
hours that occur every other week where
we have bio specific and Healthcare
specific curriculum in place and in
those during those group office hours
you're surrounded by section mates who
are often working on things very similar
to you a couple of batches ago in fact
we had five sections total working on
either health care or bio in a
diagnostic section a sin Bio Section A
therapeutic section so as you grow
you'll be working with more and more
companies who do what you do and
therefore there's going to be even more
opportunity to learn and then starting
two batches ago
we had YC alums come back from our
sector to speak in the batch right on
our Tuesday Morning events so now not
only do bio Founders get to benefit from
the incredible stories of you know the
founders of Brian chesky and Airbnb but
you get to hear from incredible folks
like Ivana who started and took you know
Asher bio forward within the YC program
and they're also existing elements of uh
YC that we've noticed our bio companies
taking advantage of and benefiting from
even more than our tech companies do so
one of those things is co-founder
matching so with Co it turns out that's
a bit hard right to pull people out of
Academia it's a bit hard to find other
scientists who are like-minded who will
you know sort of leave the comfortable
jobs and so as a result of co-founder
matching you can see here that several
companies that have used it
yeah so um if anyone here is looking for
a co-founder or
thinking about yeah you should sign up
and try co-founder matching um it's
actually built by Kat Lee who's here in
the audience I'll embarrass her she was
the person who created co-founder
matching and um it's really working and
so if you're looking for a co-founder
you should sign up and use it yeah
incredible work cat and then we noticed
that healthcare companies also use work
at a startup to find the initial members
of their team and that's again something
you have access to at work at a
startup.com
this is a site that we built
specifically to find jobs at YC
companies and I actually just when I was
hanging out here earlier I met two
people in the audience here today who
found jobs at YC bio companies from work
at a startup so yes it actually works it
works
and then after our bio and healthcare
companies have that initial data or
traction that they need we do have a
series a program that will refine your
pitch further and help sort of introduce
you to the right investors and kind of
look at the landscape for you so that's
pretty incredible
so all of these different aspects of
course strengthen the YC bio and Health
Care program but what really really
drives the success of the program is all
of you it's the YC Community I cannot
tell you how many times I've had a
Founder stuck on a problem who then
reaches out to an Alum that helps bring
them forward and we have a lot of
interest like I said there's over a
hundred YC Alum here today and we had a
WhatsApp group that we had to move off
of WhatsApp when it exceeded a thousand
people I mean guys this is the size of
the community that's growing and so
similar to Tech where companies kind of
grew together that is what's going to
happen within YC bio as well
and I also want to announce some big
plans for next year
we want to officially announce that we
will be doing a YC bio tour across the
country at different colleges and
companies to expand that Community
further and to find those scientists and
Engineers who want to translate their
ideas into Research into startups and as
we do this as we're on the road we're
going to continue to develop our
relationships with payers and strategics
so that our companies have the resources
and relationships that they need to move
forward
also officially announced today and also
decided yesterday is that we will be
doing an event at JPMorgan this year so
I hope to see all of you then and so one
key thing to remember really as you're
thinking about the future of YC bio the
future is really all of you who are
willing to take that leap of faith right
and make a positive impact on this world
and yes absolutely build multi-billion
dollar companies while doing so thank
you guys
[Applause]
thank you