Y Combinator comes to India with Startup School, draws a crowd, faces some teething troubles

Backpacks slung over shoulders, some in shorts, some in crisp summer shirts, elevator pitches ready — founders as young as 16 scrambled for seats in a crowded hall in Bengaluru. All to hear what founders such as Zepto's Aadit Palicha, Emergent’s Mukund Jha, and Meesho’s Vidit Aatrey had in common in order to be backed by Y Combinator (YC).

Anyone building in India or globally will know the heft of the Silicon Valley accelerator's imprimatur. On a Saturday afternoon, many of the 2,000+ developers and builders who travelled from across the country for YC's first startup school in India had something to take back. Some found potential hires, some were promised summer internships, and some secured new clients.

Jared Friedman, managing partner at YC who flew in from the US, could barely take a few uninterrupted steps before cofounders buttonholed him, pitching their startups between handshakes and hurried introductions.

Friedman told ET on the sidelines of the event that the scale and intensity of the turnout was unlike any he had seen before. “We decided to do Startup School in India for the first time because we believe that we are at the dawn of the second wave of Indian startups, with AI-native companies like Emergent and Giga ML targeting world markets, not just India,” he said.

Sharing a piece of advice for the builder community, he added, “We want more founders in India to be building at the edge of AI. If you are working on ideas that are 3-6 months old then you will not be able to build one of the best companies in the world.”

Also Read: Regulations slow growth but reward patient founders: Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur at YC Startup School

Opportunities abound

"Building for India and building from India for the globe are both equally hard, so why not build for the world. But few startups are doing this,” vibe-coding startup Emergent’s founder Mukund Jha told ET.

Students from BITS Pilani, IITs, and IIITs landed internships on the spot, quickly exchanging LinkedIn profiles for follow-ups. At least one in three founders had previously applied to Y Combinator but didn’t make the cut. They saw the event as a second shot, hoping for a direct conversation with the right people.

Divyanshu Bhargava, cofounder of Stac.dev, a developer tool which helps mobile apps update faster, said, “We applied for YC last year but couldn’t get in, so here we are. The best part of the event is the networking. I never thought I would find clients here.”

Another draw for attendees was the shortened feedback loop. With many working on similar or adjacent problems, founders didn’t have to rely on emails or scheduled calls. They were able to get instant, in-person feedback from peers.

Also Read: Every rupee saved in supply chain costs goes back to customers: Zepto's Aadit Palicha at YC Startup School

Talking about YC, which has backed companies like Meesho, Groww, Zepto, and India's potential, YC partner Ankit Gupta said, “I see that young founders have no ceiling to their ambitions. They are fighting with the best companies in the world with an aim to beat them.”

“I am sure there were some Harshita Aroras in the crowd today,” Gupta added. Arora, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, became YC’s youngest general partner earlier this month. She started her journey after going to the US at the age of 16 to build her own startup.

Social media abuzz

Where there’s Gen Z, there are memes. Some budding entrepreneurs, tired of repeating the same pitch, turned to humour instead. They printed one-line startup-related memes on their backs or showed up in quirky t-shirts designed to spark a conversation. Strangers stopped, laughed, asked questions, and had a chat — often much the same as a formal pitch.

Satyam M, an 18-year-old founder, said this is how it happened with him: “I actually walked up to a person because of his T-shirt. It started as a joke, but we ended up discussing voice AI and technical implementation.” He added that this type of event goes beyond gathering feedback. People proactively say what you should build even before you ask.

Many took to social media to also call out the event planning and criticised it for poor crowd management, limited seating, and poor ventilation.

An attendee said, “This is YC’s first time in India, they should have chosen a better venue. We came to hear from the founders, get some advice. In this hall built for community events like marriages you can barely hear them in the back, so we just stuck to networking.”

Another attendee added that the food arrangements were badly executed. Only a sandwich, a motichoor laddu, and a small juice pack were served for lunch. Many ended up ordering online from restaurants nearby.