Y Combinator Adds Four New Partners, Including Stripe CEO Patrick Collison

Y Combinator is announcing today the addition of four new partners to its roster, as part of its larger push for more growth under new president Sam Altman.

Altman announced in a blog post this afternoon that YC’s current outreach director Kat Manalac has been promoted to take on a partner position at the organization, and joining YC as part-time partners are Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, Science Exchange CEO Elizabeth Iorns, and AeroFS CEO Yuri Sagalov. Collison, Iorns, and Sagalov are all Y Combinator alums. You can read more about the additions here.

The new additions come less than a month after Y Combinator added YC alums Justin Kan and Aaron Harris to its roster of partners. It all seems to be playing into the vision of growth that YC founder Paul Graham shared with me earlier this year, when he explained his handing over the reins to Altman: “Now that we’ve got this new structure… all we have to do is hire more partners and get more startups. We could probably grow by 10x in our current form.”

We’ll be able to hear more about Y Combinator’s growth strategy next month, when Sam Altman joins us for an on-stage discussion at Disrupt NY. You can buy your tickets here.

AOL Launches Premium Video In UK, With Mainstream Partners Like Endemol, ITN

Today AOL UK launches its ‘AOL On‘ Network in the UK. This is a premium video syndication platform that includes both curated and original content. The UK is the first market outside of North America for AOL On. A dedicated app will be available in the UK in Apple Store and Google Play in early April.

The platform has 750,000 pieces of video. UK content providers at launch include Endemol beyond, Channel 4 News, ITN, Scripps Networks International, MyMovies, Zoom. In and Parentchannel.tv. Little Dot Studios will be providing clips from UK reality shows such as Supernanny and Embarrassing Bodies.

AOL On UK covers news, entertainment, style and tech, and this is distributed through a network of publishers including Trinity Mirror, Telegraph Media Group, TalkTalk, Local World, Videojug and TVGuide.co.uk.

AOL’s owned and operated destinations, The Huffington Post UK, AOL, Parentdish, MyDaily and – of course – TechCrunch, are also part of network.

In the US, AOL On hit the number one spot in comScore’s video category with four billion ad streams, and a billion content streams, in part down to the use of original programming with celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Richie.

AOL On is an extension of Be On (end-to-end video platform for brands) and its video trading platform Adap.tv.

Ask A VC: Javelin Venture Partners’ Alex Gurevich On The Enterprise Messaging Opportunity In Emerging Markets

Javelin Venture’s Alex Gurevich | Ask A VC

In this week’s episode of Ask A VC Javelin Venture Partners’ Alex Gurevich stopped by the studio to talk about messaging, marketplaces and more.

Gurevich, who helped establish one of the first venture capital funds focused on high tech investments in Russia with DFJ Aurora, is particularly fascinated by the opportunity messaging has in the enterprise world, particularly in developing markets like Africa, India and others. As he explains in the video, he sees the next WhatsApp as being one that caters to the potential businesses.

Check out the video above for more.