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?
How did you hear about Y Combinator?
How 10 YC companies answered the "How did you hear about Y Combinator?" question from the YCombinator Application.
— 10 answers
MagicBell(W21)
Full applicationI have been building tech companies since 2007 and known about YC since then. In 2012, I applied with my last company (SupportBee) but didn’t make it in.
Virtually(S20)
Full applicationYCombinator hackathon + Startup School + YC Podcast
Prolific(S19)
Full applicationI heard about YC through my cofounder Phelim (psb31), who had heard about it from his friend Mark Moriarty (mbym).
InEvent(S19)
Full applicationWho doesn't know Y Combinator?
Slite(W18)
Full applicationIt's all over the startup ecosystem
Goodly(S18)
Full applicationReading PG's essay's over the years and being early employees at YC companies.
OpenPhone(S18)
Full applicationYellow Pages
Simple Habit(W17)
Full applicationSo many of my friends have gone through Y Combinator and they rave about it. Founders of Gusto, Flexport, Weave, Muse, Experiment, Tenjin, Innerspace, ProductHunt, Memebox.
Paystack(W16)
Full applicationbeen on hacker news since 2007
80,000 Hours(S15)
Full applicationWhen researching how to go into tech entrepreneurship. When the non-profit program was released, lots of our users sent it to us.
