However, although their are obviously exceptions, YCombinator typically invests in founders who don’t have a ton of financial skin in the game.<p>Which founders have kids that won’t eat if the company fails? If you aren’t looking at being thrown out of the family home, you aren’t really taking on a huge amount of risk. The typical thing at stake for most founders is opportunity cost:<p>“With my grades and experience, I could have been making $200,000 - $300,000 consulting or at BigCo, but I chose to found a startup instead.&quot;