Y Combinator announced Thursday it will launch the YC Growth Program, its first formal program to assist later stage startups. The program, which will fully launch in April 2018, is geared toward founder-CEOs of post Series-A companies still in their early stages with between 50-100 employees.
“If we imagine Y Combinator as the university degree for startups, the Growth Program is grad school,” YC wrote in statement.
The programs involves a 10-week dinner series, each of which will concentrate on challenges faced by every start-up and solutions for overcoming them.
Y Combinator is a company that provides seed money to innovative start-ups. Out of more than 1,200 active YC companies today, it found only 160 within the range of 50-100 employees.
“Founders whose startups reach this stage tell us that their YC network thins over time, especially within their batch,” said YC’s statement. “Our hope is that the Growth Program can ‘re-batch’ startups, giving founders a new set of batchmates who are all facing similar problems.”
YC will announce application details and criteria for admissions in January.