Two New YC Partners: Kirsty Nathoo and Carolynn Levy

[Cushman]

Based on this and the biannual stories of how many great teams there wasn't room for, I wonder: how long until the YC partners aren't advisors so much as the deans and department heads of YC University?

I realize that's a hugely loaded question, just curious what people's thoughts are.

[pg]

We wouldn't have to do anything like that till we had such a large number of partners that they had to be organized in some sort of structure. YC is intrinsically very parallelizable, so we probably have room to grow several x before we'd have that many.

[brudgers]

A law (or other professional) firm might be a better analog for YC than a university - each partner may be responsible for one portion of the firm's portfolio and support resources may be shared while benefiting from economies of scale. As the firm adds to its portfolio additional partners may be recruited to maintain the ratio of projects to partners and by adding partners with expertise in different areas, the firm my diversify its business interests.

[aaronblohowiak]

These are SMEs not GMs, so I would suggest quite some time. Further, these are promotions of existing contributors, not 'true' staff expansions.

[guynamedloren]

Can somebody please explain what it means to be a YC partner?

[tptacek]

Traditionally, the difference between a "partner" and an "employee" is that partners share a formally-defined portion of the earnings of the business. A partnership is a business in which all the profits of the business which aren't simply invested back into the business flow to the partners.

I have no idea if that's exactly what it means at YC; partnership at YC might have as much to do with how portfolio-company-facing or visible a team member is.

[mattmaroon]

Congrats. Carolynn had been our lawyer for almost 5 years and was excellent.

[jermaink]

Kirsty is a very nice person who always had an open ear and fast feedback for yc applicants. Thank you for that and congratulations!

[rdl]

I didn't realize Kirsty wasn't a partner before.

[renownedmedia]

Ditto; I always saw her around and accidentally assumed the same. She was always doing a lot to help.

[larrys]

I don't know Carolynn but I would assume she has some significant business skills in addition to legal skills. From my experience it typically wouldn't make sense to make a partner out of a legal adviser for this type of business (as opposed to a business where you may be regularly fighting legal battles) and certainly not in the same percentage as a non-legal skills partner. Once again I don't know this particular situation. But a mistake I have often seen entrepreneurs in IRL make is becoming partners with their attorney or teaming up with an attorney in a business dealings. Attorneys tend to frame everything in legal risk which can often get in the way of certain risks you inevitably need to take in business.

One example might be the tendency that I have seen for a company to present a sales prospect with a multi page legal document to sign for even the smallest of dealings. This creates friction and isn't always necessary for small transactions and it gets in the way of closing deals. Every situation is different of course.

[opminion]

http://paulgraham.com/julian.html

[lsb]

In addition to the 7 on http://ycombinator.com/people.html who are the other two?

[alagu]

Garry and Aaron (http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-garry-and-aaron)

[ddt]

Woo! We would be about three months behind where we are now if it weren't for Kirsty and Carolynn's help.

[rokhayakebe]

More women (qualified) in tech. Kudos.

[Vaismania]

Congrats Kirsty - she's a major force behind YCs success.

[leeb]

Even with these new additions, Paul Graham is still the only YC partner without a set of double letters in his name :) Congrats to Kirsty and Carolynn!

[zbruhnke]

Congrats Kirsty! You deserve it for all the hardwork and time you put in dealing with all of our questions and accounting issues. thanks for all you do!

[samstokes]

Congratulations Kirsty, much deserved!

[asdf333]

Congratulations Kirsty!!!

[ericfrenkiel]

congrats Kirsty and Carolynn!

[vaksel]

is this partners where you just give them the title.

or is this like what you have with law firms, where they have to buy their way in as well?

[lowglow]

Congratulations, Kirsty and Carolynn!

[itsprofitbaron]

Congratulations Kirsty & Carolynn

[modarts]

Great work you guys, keep it up

[felixchan]

Congrats Kirsty and Carolynn!