Michael Sabel announced late Wednesday at X that he was moving to the “Partner Honor” role after more than 12 years with the famous accelerator Y-combinator.
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan shared the news individually in a company blog post, highlighting Seibel's long history with his costume. Seibel first joined YC as the founder and passed the program twice. One on streaming startup Justin.TV, then on streaming app SocialCam. Seibel later served as group partner, managing director and CEO of YC Accelerator.
In particular, Seibel has recently returned to the role of a group partner that is already less operational. In a YC blog post last year, he wrote that he was ready to “hand over my leadership responsibilities,” and the transition became “effective” after the accelerator winter startup completed the program.
Although it's been a long tenure for everyone, it's possible that Sabel's departure may have already started in 2022, when Tan was appointed president and CEO. The move reportedly surprised some YC employees. This is because Tan also ran another venture fund outside of YC, but he believed Seibel would line up next in the role.
I contacted Seibel for comment. In the meantime, he shared in his X post that he is eager to “help the government to provide better services to its citizens” after relaxing this next summer. He added: “The government is my youth's passion and I'm excited to be engaged again.” Sabel signed off to Y Combinator founders Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston in gratitude for “changing my life.”
The news comes about two weeks before YC's Spring Batch of Founders began its own mission tour. The program runs from April to June.