---
title: 'Editorial Researcher at Y Combinator'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/editorial-researcher-y-combinator-san-francisco-b2mfgk3rf8bn'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Editorial Researcher at Y Combinator

- **Company:** Y Combinator
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-10-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ycombinator/e3b471e6-1870-4f7b-bf75-a9f5dcfdb982

## Job description

Y Combinator is the leading startup accelerator for entrepreneurs. Since 2005, YC has invested in over 6,000 companies, including Airbnb, Dropbox, OpenAI, Stripe, Reddit, DoorDash, Coinbase, and Instacart. Today, YC has built the most powerful startup community in the world and is committed to supporting founders for the life of their company.

Job Description: Y Combinator is looking for an Editorial Researcher to join the YC Media team. We make content for people who are curious about startups, technology, AI, science, and the future. That includes videos and podcasts, essays, original research, and new projects built around the enormous amount of knowledge and data that exists inside YC.

We're looking for someone who is unusually curious, technically inclined, and a very good writer. You should be able to understand a complicated idea, figure out what's actually interesting about it, and explain it simply without dumbing it down.

This isn't a traditional writing or editing job. You'll research stories, analyze data, develop ideas with YC partners and founders, help shape videos and podcasts, write and edit articles, and experiment with new kinds of editorial projects.

What you'll do:

- Research, write, and edit YC’s written content.
- Develop ideas and do research for YC videos, podcasts, interviews, and other media.
- Work directly with YC partners, founders, and the rest of the Media team to turn interesting ideas into great content.
- Dig into data to find surprising trends about startups, technology, founders, and what people are building.
- Find interesting people, projects, papers, companies, and ideas before everyone else is talking about them.
- Help us figure out what YC should be covering and why.
- Take complicated technical subjects and make them clear, accurate, and interesting.
- Experiment with new editorial formats and ways of telling stories.

You might be a good fit if:

- You're deeply curious about technology and understand the culture around startups, AI, engineering, and the internet.
- You're an excellent writer and editor. You can make complicated things simple without making them simplistic.
- You're technical enough to talk to engineers and researchers and understand what they're actually saying.
- You like going down rabbit holes, reading papers, digging through datasets, talking to experts, and figuring things out for yourself.
- You have strong editorial judgment. You can recognize when something is genuinely interesting rather than merely popular.
- You're comfortable working across formats. An idea might become a Substack post, a YouTube video, a podcast conversation, a chart, or something we haven't tried yet.
- You're opinionated about media and the internet and have good instincts about what smart people actually want to read and watch.
- You don't need someone to hand you a story. You find them.

There isn't one obvious background for this role. You might be an engineer who loves writing, someone from developer relations, a technical journalist, a data journalist, a researcher, a former founder, or someone who has worked at a think tank. We're much more interested in how you think, how you write, and what you've made than what your previous title was.

Above all, we're looking for someone who is smart, curious, technically adventurous, and wants to make things that smart people genuinely want to read and watch.

Location: YC is headquartered in San Francisco, and candidates must reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our Media Team works from our Dogpatch offices in San Francisco at least three days per week, with additional in-office days as filming schedules require. Some projects may also require travel and weekend work.

Compensation: $180,000-$200,000 salary (depending on skills and experience).

Benefits: Our full benefits package includes medical, vision, and dental plans, an infertility benefit, STD/LTD, life insurance, commuter benefits, a flexible spending account, a health savings account, a 401(k) with 4% matching, generous parental leave, paid holidays, and a flexible paid time off policy.

Work Authorization: This position does not support work authorization/visa sponsorship.

Y Combinator considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law, including San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance. Y Combinator is committed to protecting the privacy of job applicants' personal information and to complying with the California Consumer Privacy Act. The privacy policy of Ashby, Inc., the hiring platform used by Y Combinator, governs the collection of such data and is available [here](https://www.ashbyhq.com/resources/privacy).

## About Y Combinator

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that provides seed funding, intensive mentorship, and a powerful alumni network to early-stage startups, helping them launch and scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (startup accelerator)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2005
- **Founders**: Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, Trevor Blackwell

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Startup accelerator, venture capital, startup community
- **Target customers**: Early-stage startup founders (B2B and B2C, across all industries)
- **Mission**: “Make something people want” – to help startups get into dramatically better shape in three months and set them up for long-term success.

## Products & Services
- **[YC Program](https://www.ycombinator.com/about)**: A three-month, in-person (San Francisco) accelerator program. Y Combinator invests $500k per company ($125k for 7% on a post-money safe + $375k on an uncapped safe with MFN). Startups receive group and one-on-one office hours, weekly meetups, access to alumni talks, Demo Day, and ongoing support.
- **[Bookface](https://www.ycombinator.com/about)**: A private social platform for YC founders to connect, ask questions, share expertise, and find co-founders or hires.
- **[Hacker News](https://www.ycombinator.com/about)**: A news aggregator and community where YC alumni and the tech world discuss technology, startups, and job postings.
- **[Work at a Startup](https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs)**: A job platform connecting job seekers with thousands of roles at YC-backed companies.
- **[YC Continuity](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/come-work-at-yc)**: A program offering resources and investment for growth-stage YC companies, including a Series A Program and investment associates.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private organization)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding deployed – YC has invested in over 6,000 startups (as of 2025). Portfolio includes companies like Airbnb (went public at over $100B valuation), Stripe, DoorDash, Coinbase, and OpenAI.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: YC itself is the investor. Partners include Sam Altman (former president, now CEO of OpenAI), Jessica Livingston, and other YC alumni who serve as partners.
- **Growth Signals**: YC now runs four batches per year (winter, spring, summer, fall). The alumni community is described as “probably the most powerful community in the startup world.” YC Continuity was launched to support growth-stage companies.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Brand and track record**: YC’s name alone signals quality to investors, early adopters, and press, giving portfolio companies instant credibility.
- **Alumni network**: 6,000+ founders who actively help each other through Bookface, intros, and deals – a powerful, self-reinforcing moat.
- **Intensive program**: The compressed three-month timeline forces rapid progress; founders often call it the most productive period of their lives.
- **Access to capital**: Demo Day creates price competition among top investors, leading to higher valuations for YC startups.
- **Perpetual support**: Office hours and community access continue for the life of the company and beyond.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the accelerator**: Running four batches per year and expanding the number of companies per batch (recently ~200 per batch).
- **Supporting later-stage companies**: YC Continuity helps portfolio companies raise Series A and beyond with workshops, templates, and 1:1 support.
- **Building internal tools**: The software team builds the “OS that runs all of YC” (Demo Day experience, financial systems, founder tools) to improve operational efficiency.
- **Global reach**: While the program is in San Francisco, YC attracts founders from all over the world and has specific channels for international, women, Black, and Hispanic/Latino founders.

## Why Work Here
- **Impact**: Work directly on products used by thousands of the world’s most ambitious founders. You get to see the inner workings of the startup ecosystem and learn from top entrepreneurs.
- **Culture**: Small team (~100 people) with a strong sense of mission. The environment is described as high-urgency, collaborative, and founder-focused.
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Most roles are based in San Francisco, CA. Job postings indicate on-site presence is expected, though some roles may offer flexibility.
- **Perks**: Access to all YC talks and resources (same as founders), exposure to the startup community, and the opportunity to learn how to build a startup from the inside.
- **Compensation**: For engineering roles, salary ranges from $160K – $485K (based on job postings). The team includes product engineers, software engineers, and legal analysts.

## Sources
1. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/) – Company overview and program details
2. [ycombinator.com/companies/y-combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/y-combinator) – Team size, founding info, job listings
3. [ycombinator.com/about](https://www.ycombinator.com/about) – Detailed program description, community, and benefits
4. [ycombinator.com/careers](https://www.ycombinator.com/careers) – Careers page and open roles
5. [ycombinator.com/blog/come-work-at-yc](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/come-work-at-yc) – Blog post about working at YC and YC Continuity

## Other roles at Y Combinator

- [Associate Video Producer](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-video-producer-y-combinator-san-francisco-5tsff1eb084n) — San Francisco, CA
- [Front Desk Receptionist](https://feeny.ai/job/front-desk-receptionist-y-combinator-san-francisco-yt2y2ywg59dr) — San Francisco, CA
- [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-y-combinator-san-francisco-r6vq8hmg5h46) — San Francisco, CA
- [Events Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/events-manager-y-combinator-san-francisco-jq9swn4y1swr) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Engineer, New Products](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-new-products-y-combinator-san-francisco-xp72ynj2xrpm) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Engineer, Applications Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-applications-operations-y-combinator-san-francisco-c5wqb7fnbex2) — San Francisco, CA
- [Investment Associate & Product Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/investment-associate-product-engineer-y-combinator-san-francisco-q5kamb7f9pak) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Engineer, Internal Tools](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-internal-tools-y-combinator-san-francisco-q1j2978ye0t8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Product Design Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-product-design-engineer-y-combinator-san-francisco-54mwpg0b5fm2) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Engineer, Bookface](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-bookface-y-combinator-san-francisco-31xdwazj7ysw) — San Francisco, CA