Achieved a net portfolio IRR of 44-59% on mature investments, outperforming the S&P 500
Novelty Rating:
5
/5
Finance
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Operations
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Recommendation Systems
Predicting long-term success of Y Combinator startups using a proprietary dataset and non-linear machine learning models.
The system uses AI to assess early-stage startups and predict whether they’ll grow big, stay small, or fail—helping investors make smarter bets.
It's like having an advanced fantasy football algorithm that drafts startup "players" by analyzing their personality profiles and weird correlations instead of only relying on their stats.
Rebel Theorem 3.0 is a non-linear machine learning algorithm developed by Rebel Fund to classify early-stage YC startups into outcome categories—"Success," "Zombie," or "Dead"—based on structured and inferred founder and company attributes. It uses a highly granular dataset comprising millions of data points, including founder education, past startup experience, inferred personality traits, and company metadata. The model leverages over 150 decision trees and accounts for nuanced interdependencies between variables, such as ideal co-founding experience combined with industry sector and personality alignment. Trained on historical YC data from 2012–2020, the model demonstrated backtested internal rates of return (IRRs) up to 59%, significantly outperforming both random investment strategies and public market benchmarks.
Timeline:
3–4 months
Cost:
$150,000
Headcount:
4