Y COMBINATOR TRADED PRESTIGE FOR GROWTH

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Reputation and prestige are everything. The reason Harvard doesn't accept a higher percentage of applicants isn't because it can't scale, but because it chooses not to. Its success lies in exclusivity. Y Combinator is trading its reputation capital for money - it now looks like it is willing to fund just about anything, which means that the accelerator isn't doing any real due diligence and doesn't care about its existing portfolio companies. It is no longer an exclusive club that signals legitimacy.