YC deadline in <2 weeks; Who's applying?
If you're applying, reply below with what you're building so we can cheer you on!
If you're doing a startup and not applying, why aren't you applying?
If I were starting a company today, I would 100% apply even though I've done it before with @Tandem (S19) for a few key reasons:
The partners help. A lot. (this isn't common. Most people who say they help startups are neutral or harmful)
The network is insane, especially for b2b companies. It will accelerate your G2M like nothing else.
You'll learn what real speed looks like, by grinding alongside the top early stage founders. Every time I talk to a current or recent YC company or go to the events, I'm reminded what top speed looks like. And I'm also reminded that the speed that start-ups are capable of gets faster every year, especially with AI.
As for hesitations...sometimes people balk at the dilution, but generally speaking, the higher price that startups command in their next round at Demo Day more than compensates.
Replies
Hey @rajiv_ayyangar Love to hear your thoughts on this.
We are building a Cashflow-first project tool for clients & contractors in the post AI era-knowledge economy. It helps clients avoid the pain of overhead costs, uncertainty and poor results, and contractors the agony of uncertain & delayed payments.
The current invoice-based payments, 90-day billing cycles and system of payables and receivables were designed for factories during the industrial-revolution era, and not for modern knowledge work. This is a huge trillion dollar market that hasn't grown beyond this.
We want to challenge this with a projects tool built around speed, human trust and clarity, with deep cashflow integration, task-level payment release and a light weight escrow for all projects.
Yes we are going to apply with Schedise.
It’s a scheduling and internal ops platform for service-based businesses (think agencies, salons, consultants). Most tools are either overly complex or too basic Schedise hits the sweet spot with calendar scheduling, booking links, client CRM, team management, AI-powered social media tools, and even internal workflows and performance tracking.
We built it after seeing small teams and solo professionals constantly switching between 4–5 apps just to keep the lights on, juggling calendars, onboarding clients, managing their staff, and posting online.
Schedise simplifies all of that so you can focus on doing the actual work, not running the backend manually.
Will apply with LazSales (lazsales.net) - sales quote automation software. Many sales reps spend too much time on quote generation and tracking rather than actual selling, also missing a goldmine of sales data by not properly managing quotes. We are very early, so desperate for the insane network + insane GTM!
I'm applying with my AI-powered furniture e-commerce platform Dollhouse! Very early in our dev, but our mission is to bake AI interior design and 3D room building into the furniture browsing process, as opposed to how IKEA or others have their 3D tools hidden deep in their user journeys.
Launching as an online store, but will probably apply as a B2B website integration for retailers nationwide.
We haven't got any sales for many reasons relating to the products we sell, but our user engagement metrics are through the roof. Not sure whether YC is looking for ecommerce startups anymore though
Haimeta
Thanks for sharing these insights! 💡 As a small team, we're inspired by the collaborative energy here and will absolutely give this approach our best shot. The breakdown of YC's network effects and speed benchmarks is particularly motivating - exactly the push we needed to refine our own application strategy. Wishing everyone the best in their applications! 🚀
I've thought a couple of times to apply, but I think I need to get more advanced with ActorDo AI Assistant to make sense for the business.
Need to go through the rules again
Finden
We are applying too, I am currently building Finden, your AI memory for everything digital. Basically it helps you find anything across your drives, tools, files, chats etc without digging or remembering what you called it. Just started building out our Product Hunt coming soon page. Pumped to learn from the best + pick up speed alongside other AI teams. Feels like the perfect time.
Hi, applying with @Earendel !
Earendel is an AI-powered platform for managing academic and technical conferences. It helps organizers handle everything from abstract submissions and peer review to ticketing, scheduling, email communication, and event analytics, all in one place.
Instead of juggling outdated tools and endless spreadsheets, organizers get a white-labeled conference site, smart reviewer matching, engagement tracking, and even a check-in app for the event itself.
Our goal is simple: make running academic and technical conferences as smooth as possible, and eventually replace the dinosaurs like Cvent and EventsAir.
Not applying this round since we’re still refining our MVP and getting early user feedback, but YC is definitely on our roadmap. We want to hit a bit more traction first so we can really take advantage of the program when we apply.
Unicorns Club
@oliviarey Makes sense to wait until you can really benefit from YC’s momentum.
We see many founders approach VCs too early — before they have even one strong signal (sticky usage, early revenue, or a sharp product insight).
Would love to hear what milestone you’re targeting: what would make you feel confident that you're ready to move ahead?
Bult.ai
We’ve applied to Y Combinator with Bult.ai — a platform that helps developers instantly deploy, manage, and scale apps without the headache of infrastructure setup, and at a fraction of the cost.
But that’s just the beginning. We’re also building the world’s first AI DevOps copilot — an AI-powered teammate for DevOps — launching later this year.
Big milestone ahead: our Product Hunt launch is on September 17th. Follow us to get notified!
👉 Try it now: https://bult.ai/
Good luck to everyone else applying — let’s go!