The Facebook-Y Combinator partnership is designed to be mutually beneficial for both companies.
Y Combinator has a reputation for producing top notch startups that go on to attract high profile investors, including Justin.tv, Reddit, Scribd and Dropbox. Under the new partnership, Facebook will gain insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, an advantage that will help it build better social products and cherry pick the best startups before competitors like Google have a chance.
On the flip side, Facebook will provide Y Combinator startups with a bevy of resources including priority access to Facebook Credits and other beta features, product and design support, and technical assistance for those interested in building social products or Facebook applications.
Y Combinator will use its winter 2011 class to seek out social startups looking to benefit from the Facebook partnership.
"In the near future, we think it will be hard to imagine a web experience that is not personalized. Startups that can build in these interactions from the beginning -- not simply add them to existing products -- will be the examples of transformative social experiences others will follow," said Facebook Platform lead Carl Sjogreen.