All Questions
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- Please enter the url of a 1 minute unlisted (not private) YouTube video introducing the founder(s).
- Who writes code, or does other technical work on your product? Was any of it done by a non-founder?
- How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person?
- Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together.
- Please tell us in one or two sentences about something impressive that each founder has built or achieved.
- Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
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- How far along are you?
- How long have each of you been working on this? How much of that has been full-time?
- When will you have a prototype or beta?
- How many active users or customers do you have? How many are paying? Who is paying you the most, and how much do they pay you?
- We're interested in your revenue over the last several months. (Not cumulative and not GMV).
- Anything else you would like us to know regarding your revenue or growth rate?
- If you are applying with the same idea as a previous batch, did anything change? If you applied with a different idea, why did you pivot and what did you learn from the last idea?
- If you have already participated or committed to participate in an incubator, "accelerator" or "pre-accelerator" program, please tell us about it.
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- Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you're making?
- What's new about what you're making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn't exist yet (or they don't know about it)?
- Who are your competitors? What do you understand about your business that they don't?
- How do or will you make money? How much could you make?
- How do users find your product? How did you get the users you have now? If you run paid ads, what is your cost of acquisition?
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- Have you formed ANY legal entity yet?
- Please list all legal entities you have and in what state or country each was formed (e.g. Delaware C Corp, Mexican SAPI, Singapore Pvt Ltd, etc.).
- Please describe the breakdown of the equity ownership in percentages among the founders, employees and any other stockholders. If there are multiple founders, be sure to give the equity ownership of each founder and founder title (e.g. CEO).
- Have you taken any investment yet?
- How much money do you spend per month?
- How much money does your company have in the bank now?
- How long is your runway?
- Is there anything else we should know about your company?
If you have a demo, what's the url?
How 20 YC companies answered the "If you have a demo, what's the url?" question from the YCombinator Application.
— 20 answers
Metlo(S21)
Full application[Didn't have one at the time, sent an update later]
MagicBell(W21)
Full applicationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeL-GcGmN7E
Dendron(W21)
Full applicationhttps://www.loom.com/share/a409a621763548d395e48c9d4380cbe7
Virtually(S20)
Full applicationhttps://www.tryvirtually.com/
InEvent(S19)
Full applicationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25stHHHoick
Prolific(S19)
Full applicationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ6dP0JNaNQ
Goodly(S18)
Full applicationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYeR55ccjwE
OpenPhone(S18)
Full applicationhttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openphone/id1241817309?ls=1&mt=8
bxblue(S17)
Full applicationhttps://bxblue.com.br/contratar-emprestimo-consignado-online
Paystack(W16)
Full applicationhttp://www.gingerbox.com.ng, www.jekalo.com, www.diylaw.ng
Shotput(S15)
Full applicationhttp://shipping.derivatived.com/#/dashboard
GitLab(W15)
Full applicationhttp://demo.gitlab.com/users/sign_in
Standard Treasury(S13)
Full applicationNo online demo yet. It might be awhile before we have a dashboard and mocking up a fake API for you doesn't seem worth it.
Apptimize(S13)
Full applicationyc.apptimize.com/admin
Lollipuff(W13)
Full applicationNo. The site is currently being migrated (from localhost development) to the cloud (Heroku + AWS).
One Month(S13)
Full applicationhttp://onemonthrails.com/lectures Most users currently sign up through http://www.skillshare.com/Teach-Yourself-to-Code-One-Month-Rails/1289605848/1921775376/ which has somewhere around a 10-13% conversion rate.
The Muse(W12)
Full applicationWe don't have an online demo for our more sophisticated job products yet; they're still in the whiteboard stage.
OwnLocal(W10)
Full applicationOur first product was a print-to-web conversion system that immediately generates revenue for small newspapers: http://newspaperdemo.com We are currently working on our next product, which is an online directory system. We do not have a demo for that right now, but we will by the time YC interviews roll around.
Mixpanel(S09)
Full applicationhttp://mixpanel.com/user/demo
Dropbox(S07)
Full applicationHere's a screencast that I'll also put up on news.yc: http://www.getdropbox.com/screencast/ If you do have a Windows box or two, here's the latest build: http://www.getdropbox.com/u/2/DropboxInstaller.exe
— advice from YC partners
Paul Graham (Co-Founder & Partner at Y Combinator)
SourceThe demo can matter a lot. It depends on the type of startup. If you’re in a situation where you ought to have something to show for your work so far, it’s bad not to. And no matter what your situation, it helps greatly if you have a great demo. For the demo we greatly prefer a link to the actual thing.
Paul Graham (Co-Founder & Partner at Y Combinator)
SourceOne good trick for describing a project concisely is to explain it as a variant of something the audience already knows. It’s like Wikipedia, but within an organization. It’s like an answering service, but for email. It’s eBay for jobs. This form of description is wonderfully efficient.
