Want to pitch directly to the CEO of Y Combinator? Here’s your chance

Photo credit: Robert Scoble.

Disclosure: Y Combinator is an investor in Tech in Asia.

Y Combinator (YC) has become a household name. Having invested in more than 1,400 companies, the combined market capitalization of YC companies is over US$80 billion. And getting into YC is no walk in the park. In 2015, their acceptance rate was at 1.5 percent. To put things in context, Stanford’s 2014 acceptance rate was 5.1 percent and Harvard’s was 5.9.

The company has expressed great interest in Asia over the last few years. So, they’ve partnered with the Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition. While it’s too late to apply for the competition (the 30+ finalists will be competing for the grand prize on September 14, 2017), SMU is giving other startups the opportunity to pitch to the CEO of YC, Michael Seibel, directly. Siebel is the keynote speaker and grand finals judge of the competition.

Startups looking to apply can send their pitch decks to the designated email address, answering the following questions:

• How long has the team known each other? Is there an equal equity split?
• What is the team’s unique insight into the problem that the startup is addressing?
• What is your addressable market? Can this become a billion-dollar company?
• Are you moving faster than your competitors?
• Is there an MVP? How long did it take?
• Is the startup dependent on investment to move forward?

This year’s Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition has the timely theme of “Smart Cities,” considering the nation’s push toward its Smart Nation initiative. In Singapore, the competition is the largest and most global, outlasting the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) now defunct Start-Up@Singapore National Business Plan Competition and the Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Ideas.Inc.

Applications for the pitch will close on September 7, 2017. SMU will inform successful applicants by September 11, 2017.