Sam Altman continues to drive Y Combinator in new directions. I for one am impressed. This proposed acquisition of Sequoia Capital augments Y Combinator’s stream of potentially viable companies that they mentor through their bi-annual batches; it now also gives them a strong venture capital arm to invest in those same startups.
The acquisition will enable our firms to realize a number of operational synergies. We have a blog and Sequoia doesnt. Sequoias day-long Monday partner meetings will be replaced with Tuesday night dinners. And now YC companies will automatically receive a Sequoia term sheet to negotiate better terms from other firms. Sequoia will become the new YCVC group*, where they will take a hands-on role of turning YCs best companies into enduring franchises, which they have been doing anyway.
It’s interesting that Sam mentions the blog — marketing — and franchising as synergistic opportunities. I’m especially interested to see how those two change and evolve.