Michael Seibel is leaving Y Combinator

Michael Seibel announced late Wednesday on X that after greater than 12 years at Y Combinator, he’s transitioning to a “companion emeritus” function.

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan shared the information individually in an organization blog post, highlighting Seibel’s lengthy historical past with the accelerator. Seibel first joined YC as a founder, going via this system twice — as soon as with the streaming startup Justin.TV and later with the streaming app Socialcam. Seibel later served as a bunch companion, managing director, and CEO of the YC accelerator.

Notably, Seibel had already stepped again into a bunch companion function. In a YC weblog publish final 12 months, he wrote that he was able to “hand over my management tasks,” with the transition changing into “efficient” after the accelerator’s winter batch of startups accomplished this system.

A dozen years is a protracted tenure for anybody, however Seibel’s departure could have been set in movement as early as 2022, when Tan was appointed CEO. The transfer reportedly shocked some YC workers — partly as a result of Tan was working a separate enterprise fund on the time exterior of YC, but in addition as a result of many anticipated Seibel to be subsequent in line for the function.

We’ve reached out to Seibel for remark. Within the meantime, he shared in his X publish that after taking this coming summer season to loosen up, he’s desperate to “assist authorities higher serve its residents.” He added, “Authorities was the fervour of my youth, and I’m excited to reengage.” Seibel signed off by thanking Y Combinator founders Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston for “altering my life.”

The information comes roughly two weeks earlier than YC’s spring batch of founders get to work; this system will run from April via June.