Y Combinator is the investment firm that pioneered the current Silicon Valley vogue for investing seed money ($18,000 on average) in nascent startups and then helping them turn their ideas into companies. The partners, all successful entrepreneurs, offer individualized attention during a three-month program held each winter and summer in Mountain View, California. But the secret of YC’s success--more than 25 of its grads have been acquired and the firm has fostered breakout stars such as Airbnb and Dropbox--is its network. "One of the loneliest things in the world is starting and running a company," says YC alum Matt Brezina, who went through the program in 2006. "YC puts a bunch of like-minded people together to support each other."
To read the full, original article click on this link: Y Combinator: The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012 | Fast Company
