I wish there were some publicly available numbers to analyze here, but it seems likely that YC's late stage funds have lost a lot of money (on paper) doing late-stage investments at sky-high valuations over the years leading up to 2022 that are now down significantly as a result of the current startup downturn.
Folks who are thinking about these YC changes as a layoff are missing the point -- YC is exiting what had been a major part of their business (especially if measured by total dollars invested).
And from the outside it seems likely that the reason for the layoff is probably less that YC is in troubled financial straights and needs to cut costs on its operations, but because their late-stage investing business was losing money and YC has decided to give up on it and no longer has work for specialists in that work.
Folks who are thinking about these YC changes as a layoff are missing the point -- YC is exiting what had been a major part of their business (especially if measured by total dollars invested).
And from the outside it seems likely that the reason for the layoff is probably less that YC is in troubled financial straights and needs to cut costs on its operations, but because their late-stage investing business was losing money and YC has decided to give up on it and no longer has work for specialists in that work.