As promised, startup accelerator Y Combinator’s upcoming Demo Day will be held in person. In fact, YC appears to have begun its IRL return to demo days at the end of the long Thanksgiving weekend, holding an in-person alumni demo day for its fall 2024 startup class on Sunday.
Squad founder (and later Twitter and Meta product manager) Esther Crawford praised the “high energy” that came from hearing presentations from 93 startups in person, while Milo founder and CEO Avni Patel Thompson called it a “dress rehearsal.” It was expressed as follows. It’s a beautiful reward not only for the founders but also for the alumni to come back and support the current batch.”
The “dress rehearsal” is probably for the main demo day, when the founders present to an audience of investors and media. That demo day is scheduled for later this week, Wednesday December 4th.
Virtual Demo Days have been a sticking point as we transitioned remotely during the pandemic. At YC’s September Demo Day, CEO Garry Tan said this presentation would be the last to be held entirely online.
Now, YC describes Demo Day as “getting back to face-to-face,” with an invite-only audience of about 1,500 people. If you can’t make it to San Francisco, you should use the Demo Day website. It contains information about the company that made the announcement.”
