African Startups Can Benefit From The Second Edition Of Y Combinator’s Startup School
Following the successful conclusion of its maiden edition last year, Y Combinator’s Startup School is back on the radar with the second edition of its accelerator program. The program is a free ten-week online course for startup founders who need help with some of the most difficult challenges bedeviling the establishment and thriving of today’s businesses.
As reported by the program’s facilitators, the first edition of the program drew entries from more than 13,000 startups from around the globe, out of which 2,800 were accepted, and over 1,500 completed the online course. Out of startups that successfully completed the course, 37 were subsequently admitted into Y Combinator’s core acceleration program. At the time, as many as 95 YC alumni had volunteered their time to coach the selected startups who were drawn from over 100 countries.
Y Combinator looks set to go one better in the latest edition of the course by offering an incentive in the form of equity-free funding to the tune of USD 10 K, to 100 promising startups that will go all the way to complete the online course. And in that regard, promising African startups that are making waves in the ecosystem can leverage the opportunity to further the growth of their enterprises.
As indicated in Y Combinator official website, the 100 successful startups will also be afforded the opportunity to speak with a Y Combinator partner in a video interview through which they can gather invaluable insight, advice, and/or assistance in vying for a position in a future YC batch.
As pointed out by Geoff Ralston, a Partner at Y Combinator, during the announcement of the latest installment of the course via a blog post, “Startup School is designed for any startup founder who would like to get help through the earliest, most-difficult challenges of starting a company.”
He is further quoted as saying; “Founders may choose to join the Startup School community and meet with an advisor on a weekly basis or to simply follow along with the course by watching the lectures and going through other course materials. In both cases, the class is completely free.”
YC’s trio of Paul Graham, Sam Altman, and Michael Seibel, alongside other founders and members of the startup community, will be amongst the speakers on the course.
The selected startups will also be entitled to discounts for some Stripe products, as well as an invitation to Stripe Atlas to facilitate the incorporation of their respective businesses in the United States and the opening of bank accounts. Over USD 50 K in credits will also be doled out to the successful startups, including other different services from Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services, and Clerky.
As spelled out on the program’s official website, the second edition of Y Combinator’s startup school is open to all founders currently working on a startup, or founders about to start one.”
