Minority founders are getting a special kind of support from one of the most successful startup accelerators in Silicon Valley. Y Combinator — a business accelerator — has launched a new feature on its website called the YC Directory to help investors, customers, and prospective founders discover all Y Combinator-backed companies created by Black founders. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Y Combinator (@ycombinator) According to a company blog post , the directory lists over 2,000 publicly launched startup companies from the accelerator with three new built-in filters to highlight Black-founded companies, Latinx-founded companies, and women-founded companies. Courtesy Photo The idea for the new directory was inspired by internal conversations during the aftermath of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, according to the blog post. The consensus from the community was to then create landing pages to amplify Black, Latinx, and women founders in the Y Combinator fixture....

Y Combinator , a California-based investor that provides initial funding to startups, is offering a new schedule for the new year. According to TechCrunch, Y Combinator’s modified calendar will reflect updates to the once annual Startup School, which will now be offered several times per year . The move has the potential to push more startups through the investor’s online training process, which ultimately grooms them for Y Combinator’s accelerator program. Startup School is true to its name, offering startups video chats, lectures from industry leaders and company staff, access to other founders, and the ability to network with other startups. School culminates with a founder project demonstration, attended by investors and media representatives. Program alumni benefit not only from tutelage they receive, but also from their ability to apply to Y Combinator’s grant program. The program, which is currently being reassessed, has recently offered founders grants of $15K. Y Combinator...