Michael Seibel, after over 12 years at Y Combinator (YC), announced his transition to the role of "honorary partner." This decision was shared by YC CEO Garry Tan in a company blog post, highlighting Seibel's extensive history with the accelerator. Seibel initially joined YC as a founder, participating in projects like Justin.TV and Socialcam, and later served as group partner, managing director, and CEO. Recently, he stepped back to a less operational role, expressing readiness to hand over leadership responsibilities. The announcement surprised some YC employees, as Seibel was seen as a potential successor to Tan. This change occurs shortly before the start of YC's spring batch program.

PANews March 20 news, according to Techcrunch, Michael Seibel announced at X on Wednesday night that after more than 12 years at Y Combinator (YC), he will move to the role of "honorary partner". Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan also shared the news separately in a company blog post, emphasizing Seibel's long history of cooperation with the accelerator. Seibel initially joined YC as a founder and participated in the project twice-once for the streaming startup Justin.TV and the other time for the streaming app Socialcam. Subsequently, Seibel served as the group partner, managing director and CEO of the YC accelerator. It is worth noting that Seibel has recently retreated to a less operational group partner role. In a blog post at YC last year, he wrote that he was ready to "hand over my leadership responsibilities" and "officially take effect" after the completion of the accelerator's winter startup batch.
 The move reportedly came as a surprise to some YC employees — in part because Tan was running a separate venture fund outside of YC at the time, but also because they thought Seibel was the next in line to take over the role. The news comes about two weeks before founders for YC’s spring batch are set to start; the program will run from April to June.

Michael Seibel Transitions to Honorary Partner at Y Combinator