Venture capital is changing how founders get started, how investors find opportunities and who can access venture portfolios. Y Combinator helped establish the accelerator model; EF backs talent before a company exists; creator-led firms bring audience insight and distribution alongside capital. This map connects those approaches with systematic investing, founder-friendly financing, fund access, secondaries and investment infrastructure.
Select an organization for its model, access and liquidity details.
YC funded its first batch of eight startups in 2005. Open applications, a standard investment, advice, a peer group and Demo Day made very early-stage investing a repeatable program. It helped establish the modern accelerator model and a new route into venture capital for founders.
YC cofounder Jessica Livingston on the first batch · What happens at YC
DST invested $200 million in Facebook in May 2009 without a board seat or special observer rights. It also proposed buying at least $100 million of employees’ vested shares. The combination provided growth capital and a route to shareholder liquidity while leaving board control with the existing team.
Start Fund offered $150,000 in convertible debt to each company in a Y Combinator batch in January 2011. Conversion in a qualifying equity round had no valuation cap or discount. This batch-wide offer is an early example of systematic co-investment, separate from DST’s growth strategy and from an investable whole-market index.
Founded by Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford, Entrepreneur First moved the starting point earlier: select individuals before they have a company, help them find a cofounder and test ideas, then invest in the resulting startups. EF makes company formation part of the investment process.
EF: investing in talent · EF: how the program works · Dealroom investor profile
46 organizations. Forge, AngelList and OurCrowd appear in two categories for distinct offerings and are each counted once in Stats. Last checked 2026-09-24.
