After Y Combinator
- 26%Founded something5
- 32%Joined a big company6
- 42%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Y Combinator most often go to a long tail of companies. Of them, 26% found something next. The median tenure is 6m
Not Y Combinator's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 42 people on a map of 67,181, No. 580 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 420.1% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 1229% of the people here
- Moved on
- 3071% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 6mmiddle half 2m to 3y
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move.
Not enough recorded moves to draw a river for Y Combinator yet.
How long people stay
61%<1y
7%1-2y
15%2-4y
17%4-7y
0%7y+
41 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
0<315
<3<316
4317
<3<318
4319
3320
3<321
5322
3323
<3<324
91025
5<326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2015 to 2026: 42 joined, 31 left.
Caliber
Not enough scored profiles here yet (22).
Titles held here
- AI Startup School3
- Founder3
- Product Engineer3
3 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 5% of people here.
Where they studied
- Stanford21.4%
- MIT16.7%
- Carnegie Mellon9.5%
- Georgia Tech9.5%
The 4 most listed schools among the 42 people here with a school on file.
9 of the 42 people here with a school on file list Stanford, 7 list MIT and 4 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
36%have a public GitHub account on their profile
15 of the 42 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
55% of the people who have worked at Y Combinator and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Y Combinator
Everyone on the map
- 55%SF Bay Area23 · map 41%
- 21%Los Angeles9 · map 5%
- 7%New York3 · map 18%
- 17%Somewhere else7
All 42 people who worked at Y Combinator list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Y Combinator: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Y Combinator, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 42 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Y Combinator: 12 are there now, 30 have moved on.
- Median tenure at Y Combinator: 6m, middle half 2m to 3y.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Y Combinator, 26% went to a founder title next, fewer than 3 joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 32% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Most common title held here: AI Startup School, then Founder.
- Top school: Stanford, listed by 9 of the 42 people here with one on file (21.4%). Then MIT (7).
- 55% of the 42 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 36% of the 42 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at Y Combinator? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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