Y Combinator will hold an investor day for meetings with startups after demo day

Y Combinator announced today that it has made a change in how investors can meet with startups participating in its program. In an email sent out to investors, chief operating officer Qasar Younis shared that there will be an “Investor Day” that gives venture capitalists more face-to-face time with interesting companies. This is considered an experiment and isn’t guaranteed to be a standard for the future.

During Y Combinator’s demo days, investors can indicate their preferences by tapping on a “request to meet” button on the event app. The founders will receive a list of those investors who wish to meet with them and can rank according to their own criteria. Once feedback from both founders and VCs have been gathered, Y Combinator’s software will produce a schedule for “Investor Day.”

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1998183,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"A"}']

Each startup will meet between 10 to 15 investors, and each meeting will last 20 minutes. Only those investors in attendance during demo day will be able to participate in this added event. Y Combinator is allowing not just investing or general partners to attend investor day, but also junior members. However, an investing or general partner is needed for the meeting or else it will be canceled.

Younis explained that this new format “streamlines what is already happening in a less efficient way for weeks after every Demo Day with investors and founders driving up and down the valley to meet in office parks and coffee shops.” Likely the goal is to provide a relaxed time that gives investors a single place to meet with all of the startups they’re interested in within a day without having to sort through schedules. It also benefits founders, who can show off their work to a maximum number of investors, and perhaps accidentally more.

This is the latest experiment Y Combinator has done around its startup program. It recently enlisted the help of the Hacker News community to pick startups that it could benefit through its Fellowship program.