Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad Join Y Combinator as General Partners

Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad Join Y Combinator as General Partners Y Combinator has appointed former Visiting Partners Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad as General Partners to advise founders from their batch entry through subsequent years of company building. Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad have joined Y Combinator as General Partners after serving as Visiting Partners for two batches. Shen co-founded Juni Learning and Acely, generating over $50 million in combined revenue across millions of users. Schaad founded calendar app Cron, which was acquired by Notion in 2022, and previously contributed to Flipboard and iA Writer. Vivian Midha Shen's Background Prior to becoming a General Partner, Shen co-founded Juni Learning (YC W18) and the AI tutoring platform Acely, growing Acely from zero to a $10 million run rate with a lean team. Her earlier career includes software engineering at Google, consulting at McKinsey, and serving as Director of Product at Operator, backed by degrees in computer science and creative writing from Stanford. Raphael Schaad's Background Schaad founded Cron (YC W20), which was acquired by Notion in 2022, after which he scaled Notion Calendar to millions of users and led design for growth and new products. He also worked on Flipboard and iA Writer, and holds a computer science degree from Bern University of Applied Sciences alongside a master's degree from MIT.

Vivian Midha Shen 与 Raphael Schaad 加入 Y Combinator 担任通用合伙人 Y Combinator 宣布 Vivian Midha Shen 与 Raphael Schaad 正式加入并担任通用合伙人。两人此前已在两个批次中以客座合伙人身份协助创始人，未来将全程陪伴团队从入营初期到后续多年的业务构建。 Vivian Midha Shen 与 Raphael Schaad 正式晋升为 YC 通用合伙人，此前曾任两期客座合伙人。 Vivian 曾联合创办 Juni Learning 并创立 Acely，旗下公司总营收超 5000 万美元，其中 Acely 年化营运率由零增至 1000 万美元。 Raphael 是日历工具 Cron 的创始人，该产品被 Notion 收购后发展为数百万用户的 Notion Calendar。 Vivian Midha Shen 的创业与技术背景 Vivian 联合创办了青少儿编程与数学在线学院 Juni Learning（YC W18），并创立了针对大学升学的 AI 辅导工具 Acely。两家公司累计服务数百万用户并创造逾 5000 万美元营收，其中 Acely 仅凭精简团队便实现 1000 万美元年化营运率。在全职创业前，她曾在 Google 担任软件工程师、在麦肯锡担任顾问，并任 Operator 产品总监，毕业于斯坦福大学计算机科学与创意写作专业。 Raphael Schaad 的设计与工程历练 Raphael 创办了日历应用 Cron（YC W20），该产品于 2022 年被 Notion 收购，他随后主导将产品拓展为拥有数百万用户的 Notion Calendar，并担任增长设计及新产品负责人。在此之前，他曾参与新闻应用 Flipboard 和 Markdown 编辑器 iA Writer 的开发。他拥有伯尔尼应用科学大学计算机科学学士学位与麻省理工学院媒体艺术与科学硕士学位，擅长在设计与工程之间协同推进复杂软件的简化。

We’re thrilled to announce that Vivian Midha Shen and Raphael Schaad are joining Y Combinator as our newest General Partners. Vivian and Raphael have spent the last two batches working closely with YC founders as Visiting Partners. We’ve seen firsthand what makes each of them exceptional: they combine deep technical experience with strong product judgment, and they know how to help ambitious founders turn an early idea into something users love. Vivian co-founded Juni Learning (YC W18), an online academy for kids’ coding and math, and later founded Acely, an AI tutor for college readiness. Across the two companies, she built businesses with more than $50 million in revenue and millions of users. Acely alone grew from zero to $10 million in run rate with a lean team, showing what small, AI-native companies can accomplish. Vivian has done nearly every job inside a startup: engineering, product, design, marketing, and whatever else needed to get done. Before becoming a founder, she worked as a software engineer at Google, a consultant at McKinsey, and Director of Product at Operator. She studied computer science and creative writing at Stanford. That range helps her judge both how well a product works and how much it matters to users. Raphael founded Cron (YC W20), a next-generation calendar beloved for its craft, speed, and attention to detail. Notion acquired Cron in 2022, and Raphael went on to grow Notion Calendar to millions of users. He then served as Head of Design for Growth and new products. Raphael moves fluently between design and engineering. Before Cron, he worked on the popular news reader Flipboard and the award-winning Markdown editor iA Writer. With his Swiss eye for design, he has spent his career making complex software simple. Raphael holds a BS in Computer Science from Bern University of Applied Sciences and an MS in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Founders building new products benefit from his instinct for what matters and his insistence on craft. Vivian and Raphael have built companies from the ground up, and they’ve already shown how much they can help other founders do the same. As General Partners, they’ll work with companies from their first weeks in the batch through the years of building that follow. We couldn’t be more excited to have them on the team. Welcome, Vivian and Raphael!