The Unaccelerator Manifesto

In the past year alone, both U Combinator and KY Combinator have launched, joining the growing list of regional accelerators trying to capture some of Y Combinator's magic. But here's what strikes me as odd: Y Combinator doesn't exclusively take Bay Area startups. It's open to everyone in the country, even international founders who can get in by simply creating a US entity to tick a box.

So why is it that overlooked regions feel the need to create something that evokes Y Combinator in name, if not in purpose?

The Geographic Inequality Paradox

Out of Y Combinator's 20 years and 5,000+ companies, I'd be curious to know how many have come from places like Utah, Kentucky, or the dozens of other states that seem disproportionately underrepresented. KY Combinator wasn't a business development initiative funded by state or city government. It was a grassroots effort by high-agency individuals trying to create a density of top performers in their region.

This tells us something important: the real value people are seeking isn't just access to Y Combinator's program—it's something deeper about community, representation, and local ecosystem building.

The Funding Illusion

But let's examine what Y Combinator actually offers today. They now provide $500,000 in funding to every company accepted into their cohort—more money than ever before. Yet it's never been less expensive to start a company.

What would you even spend that money on?

For $20 a month (or free if you do some extra work with open source tools), you can have software development capabilities that are better than 95% of developers. You can access AI counsel that outperforms 90% of lawyers. You can get accounting guidance that surpasses 90% of accountants.

How do we know AI is good enough to substitute for these high-dollar licensed professions? Because those professionals are already using bespoke AI tools in their own industries. The cat is out of the bag.

The Community Dilution Problem

What else does Y Combinator offer? In the early days, when a cohort was 6, 10, or 20 companies, there was a genuine sense of community shared among founders. There was energy derived from being in a place where everyone was working toward goals just as ambitious as yours.

But when a cohort swells to 200+ companies and the program is described as founders working 14 hours straight in a mad rush to build products for demo day (where they'll raise even more money—again, for what?), is there truly any value to be had from that community?

Communities absolutely have value. That's why influencers like Pat Walls at Starter Story, Greg Isenberg, and others can charge hundreds of dollars per month for access to their communities, private events, and insider knowledge—despite already freely giving away more than enough information for anyone to start and grow a six, seven, or eight-figure business.

The Relevance Gap

Y Combinator founders do get something special: they hear the unpolished, true stories of the early days from some of YC's biggest successes. The founders of Airbnb will speak in the first few days of a cohort and tell stories that have never made it into publication.

But this reveals two critical issues:

First, founders need to be more transparent about the tough parts of starting a company if they want to build real community and add value for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. Why don't they do this already? Fear and maintaining appearances. You can't have the people funding your next round—or the public when you IPO—knowing all the bad parts of the story.

But if you accept that you don't need VC money to build a multimillion-dollar company and you don't need an IPO, those reasons disappear.

Second, how valuable is the experience of someone who founded a company 20 years ago when they didn't have access to today's tools and technologies? Today's founders have a different set of resources and constraints. They're playing a fundamentally different game than Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple.

Don't let survivorship bias fool you. The most valuable insights you're going to get right now are not from people at the finish line of a different race. They're from people one step ahead of you—maybe even right beside you in the trenches.

Building Real Density

So yes, let's build density. Let's build community. Let's create cohorts that actually actively engage with each other and turn inward for mentorship instead of placing others on pedestals based on past experience that's no longer relevant.

Join the Unaccelerator

Here's what we can offer you:

Zero funding in exchange for 0% equity
Zero monthly fees in exchange for no information kept behind a paywall
A community that is as valuable as you choose to make it
Complete transparency about the real struggles of building companies today
Peer-to-peer learning from founders playing the same game you are
And maybe a free t-shirt

The future of startup success isn't about getting accepted into the right accelerator or raising the most money. It's about building sustainable, profitable companies with the incredible tools available to us today, supported by a community of peers who are honest about both the victories and the failures.

The question isn't whether you can get into Y Combinator. The question is: do you even need to?