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Y Combinator vs Andreessen Horowitz: whose portfolio ships the better APIs?

a16z companies edge YC on score, but YC companies are far likelier to ship their own MCP server: 23% against 16%.

Y Combinator

21.8 average
emerging on average
Agent readiness 12.7 · agent-aware
706 scored providers · vc
VS

Andreessen Horowitz

23.9 average
emerging on average
Agent readiness 12.9 · agent-aware
761 scored providers · vc

Each sun is drawn from the cohort's averages: six facet rings, the mean Kin Score and mean agent readiness.

Check this first: the gap is partly our coverageAndreessen Horowitz scores 2.1 points higher than Y Combinator AND is the better-enriched cohort: 2.1 points less catalog_gap and 1 more artifact directories on the median member. The market difference and our coverage difference point the same way, so this delta cannot be attributed to the markets on its own. Close the enrichment gap, or report both figures together.

Two of the most-watched portfolios in software, as two cohorts on one rubric. Andreessen Horowitz’s 761 scored companies average 23.9 against 21.8 for Y Combinator’s 706. a16z also has the higher ceiling, with 24 exemplars against YC’s 13 and a top score of 91.6. Later-stage companies have had longer to build out a developer program, and it shows in operational transparency (14.8 against 11.2) and contract quality (18.1 against 14.5).

Agent readiness is close to a tie: 12.9 against 12.7. Underneath that tie the two portfolios get there differently. 23% of YC companies publish their own first-party MCP server, against 16% at a16z. YC’s younger companies are building for agents first and filling in governance later.

The delta is depth-confounded by a small margin (2.1 points less catalog gap at a16z), so treat the 2.1-point score gap as a direction, not a verdict. The MCP gap is large enough to stand on its own.

The distributions

Y CombinatorAndreessen HorowitzDelta
Kin Score, mean21.823.9-2.1
Kin Score, median14.618.3-3.7
Kin Score, highest81.391.6
Kin Score, std dev18.218.7
Agent readiness, mean12.712.9-0.2
Agent readiness, highest72.266.2

Delta is Y Combinator minus Andreessen Horowitz, as the tool returns it.

Where the providers sit

Y Combinator

exemplar 13strong 29developing 97thin 105emerging 185minimal 277

Andreessen Horowitz

exemplar 24strong 37developing 107thin 127emerging 214minimal 252

Facet averages

FacetY CombinatorAndreessen HorowitzDelta
Discoverability 58.5 58.2 +0.3
Contract Quality 14.5 18.1 -3.6
Contract Governance 4.7 6.1 -1.4
Operational Transparency 11.2 14.8 -3.6
Developer Ergonomics 24 26.4 -2.4
Access Clarity 26.6 25.9 +0.7

What they publish

Share of each cohort's providers publishing each artifact. mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.

ArtifactY CombinatorAndreessen HorowitzDelta
First-party MCP server23%16%+7
Any MCP artifact (incl. derived)24%17%+7
OAuth scopes11%9%+2
Spectral rules7%14%-7
Arazzo workflows3%4%-1
Agent skills0%0%0
Security artifact99%97%+2

How well we know each cohort

The coverage behind the averages. A cohort with a higher catalog gap and fewer artifact directories has been enriched less, so part of any difference is our coverage rather than the market.

Y CombinatorAndreessen Horowitz
Declared members7991099
Scored (in the averages)706 (89%)761 (73%)
Thinly covered672688
Median artifact directories78
Mean catalog gap (points we could add)80.478.3
The full compare_cohorts response
{"a":{"kind":"vc","slug":"y-combinator","name":"Y Combinator","members":792,"stats":{"kind":"vc","slug":"y-combinator","name":"Y Combinator","tier":"report","coverage":{"declared_members":799,"resolved_members":792,"scored_members":706,"agent_scored_members":706,"scored_share_pct":89,"unexamined_members":83,"enrichment_depth":{"mean_catalog_gap":80.4,"median_artifact_dirs":7,"n":706,"thinly_covered":672,"thinly_covered_of":706,"thin_coverage_note":"672 of 706 scored members had under half their catalog-attributable points satisfied at all (catalog_earned / catalog_max < 0.5). They are INCLUDED in the mean above. A large share here means the cohort mean is partly a measurement of how far our enrichment reached, not only of how these providers publish.","note":"Rubric points API Evangelist could add to the average member with no action by the providers, and the median count of artifact directories we hold on them. A cohort with a higher gap and thinner artifacts has been enriched less, so part of any difference between its mean and another cohort's is our coverage rather than the market. Compare two cohorts only when this figure is comparable. It is an upper bound on our backlog: it says who CAN close a gap, not who did."},"unexamined_note":"Excluded from the distribution: these carry a catalog-owned needs_work flag (never enriched, or no resolvable host). They are listed as members and keep their own page and score; they do not vote in the averages, because their score measures our coverage rather than their posture."},"sufficient":true,"kin_score":{"mean":21.8,"median":14.6,"min":0,"max":81.3,"stdev":18.2},"agent_readiness":{"mean":12.7,"median":0,"min":0,"max":72.2,"stdev":17.6},"band_distribution":{"exemplar":13,"strong":29,"developing":97,"thin":105,"emerging":185,"minimal":277},"facet_averages":{"discoverability":{"mean":58.5,"n":706},"contract_quality":{"mean":14.5,"n":706},"contract_governance":{"mean":4.7,"n":706},"operational_transparency":{"mean":11.2,"n":706},"developer_ergonomics":{"mean":24,"n":706},"access_clarity":{"mean":26.6,"n":706}},"adoption":{"mcp_pct":24,"mcp_first_party_pct":23,"mcp_note":"mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.","skills_pct":0,"scopes_pct":11,"security_pct":99,"arazzo_pct":3,"rules_pct":7}}},"b":{"kind":"vc","slug":"a16z","name":"Andreessen Horowitz","members":1040,"stats":{"kind":"vc","slug":"a16z","name":"Andreessen Horowitz","tier":"report","coverage":{"declared_members":1099,"resolved_members":1040,"scored_members":761,"agent_scored_members":761,"scored_share_pct":73,"unexamined_members":258,"enrichment_depth":{"mean_catalog_gap":78.3,"median_artifact_dirs":8,"n":761,"thinly_covered":688,"thinly_covered_of":761,"thin_coverage_note":"688 of 761 scored members had under half their catalog-attributable points satisfied at all (catalog_earned / catalog_max < 0.5). They are INCLUDED in the mean above. A large share here means the cohort mean is partly a measurement of how far our enrichment reached, not only of how these providers publish.","note":"Rubric points API Evangelist could add to the average member with no action by the providers, and the median count of artifact directories we hold on them. A cohort with a higher gap and thinner artifacts has been enriched less, so part of any difference between its mean and another cohort's is our coverage rather than the market. Compare two cohorts only when this figure is comparable. It is an upper bound on our backlog: it says who CAN close a gap, not who did."},"unexamined_note":"Excluded from the distribution: these carry a catalog-owned needs_work flag (never enriched, or no resolvable host). They are listed as members and keep their own page and score; they do not vote in the averages, because their score measures our coverage rather than their posture."},"sufficient":true,"kin_score":{"mean":23.9,"median":18.3,"min":0,"max":91.6,"stdev":18.7},"agent_readiness":{"mean":12.9,"median":2.5,"min":0,"max":66.2,"stdev":16.8},"band_distribution":{"exemplar":24,"strong":37,"developing":107,"thin":127,"emerging":214,"minimal":252},"facet_averages":{"discoverability":{"mean":58.2,"n":761},"contract_quality":{"mean":18.1,"n":761},"contract_governance":{"mean":6.1,"n":761},"operational_transparency":{"mean":14.8,"n":761},"developer_ergonomics":{"mean":26.4,"n":761},"access_clarity":{"mean":25.9,"n":761}},"adoption":{"mcp_pct":17,"mcp_first_party_pct":16,"mcp_note":"mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.","skills_pct":0,"scopes_pct":9,"security_pct":97,"arazzo_pct":4,"rules_pct":14}}},"comparable":true,"delta":{"kin_score_mean":-2.1,"kin_score_median":-3.7,"agent_readiness_mean":-0.2,"facets":{"discoverability":0.3,"contract_quality":-3.6,"contract_governance":-1.4,"operational_transparency":-3.6,"developer_ergonomics":-2.4,"access_clarity":0.7},"adoption":{"mcp_pct":7,"mcp_first_party_pct":7,"mcp_note":null,"skills_pct":0,"scopes_pct":2,"security_pct":2,"arazzo_pct":-1,"rules_pct":-7},"enrichment_depth":{"mean_catalog_gap":2.1,"median_artifact_dirs":-1}},"depth_confounded":true,"depth_note":"Andreessen Horowitz scores 2.1 points higher than Y Combinator AND is the better-enriched cohort: 2.1 points less catalog_gap and 1 more artifact directories on the median member. The market difference and our coverage difference point the same way, so this delta cannot be attributed to the markets on its own. Close the enrichment gap, or report both figures together."}

Result read 2026-10-27. Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz each have their own page with the full roster and leaderboard.

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Everything above came from one call to compare_cohorts. Swap in any two tags, industries, regions, areas or VC portfolios and you get the same answer for your own shortlist. It is an Understanding tool, included in the Understanding and Influence plans, or pay per call.

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