Since YC was set up in 2005, it has spawned more than 1,400 companies that now have a combined valuation of US$80 billion (S$108.6 billion). Success stories include Dropbox, Airbnb, Reddit and Stripe.

Mr Michael Seibel went through YC's programme twice - as the co-founder of video broadcast platform Justin.tv and the co-founder of Socialcam, a mobile social video application.

Both companies eventually sold for a total of more than US$1 billion.