Founder describes Y Combinator in 2016 vs 2025

Quang Hoang attended Y Combinator twice: in 2016 with Birdly and again in 2025 with Vybe. Much stayed the same, he says, but the first experience in Mountain View felt more family-style—partners sometimes cooked, employees were not visible, and Paul Graham was present.

The batch then had about 100 people, roughly three times smaller than today's cohorts, and everything was in person; Hoang recalled coming from France and renting a house for the program. His first startup was a Slack bot to save receipts; during the YC interview they installed the bot, it pinged the YC Slack, and people began using it.

That company was bought two years ago by Coda, which was later acquired by Grammarly. Afterward he discovered vibe coding and decided to build Vybe, convinced that platforms like Notion, Airtable, Coda, and Retool would be incumbents while a new category would emerge, and a YC partner and friend, Nicolas Dessaigne, urged him to apply.

United States, Mountain View

y combinator, quang hoang, birdly, vybe, paul graham, slack bot, coda, grammarly, notion, airtable