Y Combinator's 'board of overseers' plucks top execs from Airbnb, Dropbox, & others

Months into his new job as Y Combinator’s president, Sam Altman now has a bunch of tech leaders at his back.

The 29 year-old Altman, who replaced Paul Graham as Y Combinator’s president earlier this year, today named the organization’s new “board of overseers.” The roster is full of Silicon Valley heavyweights: Dropbox chief executive Drew Houston, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Homejoy CEO Adora Cheung, Stripe cofounders John and Patrick Collison, Weebly CEO David Rusenko, Justin.TV chief technology officer Emmett Shear, and YCombinator cofounder Jessica Livingston will all join Altman on the board.

Together, these tech executives will help the young Altman lead the accelerator and invest in promising startups. Their expertise will be crucial in helping Altman maintain the consistent results and reputation YCombinator accrued under Graham’s leadership.

Unlike a board of directors, however, these “overseers” aren’t directly responsible for the firm’s fiduciary responsibilities, management plans, or executive compensation, explained Altman in a comment thread on Y Combinator-operated news portal Hacker News.

“Our board of overseers is modeled after what universities do,” he said. “It should be much lighter touch than a board of directors.”