Neon is offering Y Combinator startups a special deal of $100,000 in credits for their first year, along with a promise to match any competitor's offer, to support their need for rapid development and scalability on tight budgets. Neon’s serverless platform enhances development velocity by allowing developers to create and manage database branches quickly, facilitating efficient onboarding, feature experimentation, and testing processes. The platform's branching system supports simultaneous testing of multiple solutions, minimizing conflicts, and is resource-efficient due to its copy-on-write mechanism. This allows teams to develop, test, and debug collaboratively in an environment that mirrors production, ensuring smoother and faster deployment cycles.