I'm Caitlin Gleason, founder and CEO of Eligible, a healthcare infrastructure company that processes medical eligibility and claims. I was part of Y Combinator in summer 2012, raised about 1.6 million, grew the company to profitability, and recently raised a little over 20 million.

I'm Aarthi Ramamurthy, founder and CEO of Lumoid, a try-before-you-buy service for consumer electronics. We were part of Y Combinator in summer 2013 and have raised about 3.5 million so far, with another round closing soon.

After selling my company, I was invited to be the first healthcare and biotech partner at Y Combinator, where I could share my story and help other founders.

As we neared our launch, we officially became a couple and launched our company in 2015, aiming to raise a million dollars through crowdfunding.

I co-founded Bellabeat, a company focused on designing beautiful and user-friendly technology for tracking women's health.

Recognizing the benefits of founders having colleagues, we decided to invest in batches, which has become a core part of YC's approach. At Y Combinator, we treat founders like family and prioritize their interests, fostering a strong sense of community even among over 2,000 alumni.

I co-founded Y Combinator, the first startup accelerator, which began with a hypothesis about what people wanted, and it turned out they did want it, leading us to fund over 1,800 startups valued at over a hundred billion dollars.

Joining Y Combinator turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made, especially as we faced severe financial challenges before receiving their support. Starting and running a company as a founder can be a very lonely experience, where you often feel responsible for everyone's future and only you know the reality of the low times.

We raised two and a half million dollars on a twelve million dollar valuation after nine months of fundraising post-Y Combinator demo day.