yc-application

A Claude Code skill that helps founders apply to Y Combinator with the best application they can honestly write.

• Better applications: good teams shouldn't be rejected for a bad write-up.
• More founders applying: one question at a time, plain language, so the form stops feeling intimidating.
• Respect for the partners' time: YC partners put huge care into reading thousands of applications. Clear, short, honest, number-backed answers make their job easier, and that's what helps you most too.

It interviews you like a co-founder who has read a thousand YC applications: at least 20 questions, one at a time, no half-answers. Every key answer needs a name, a number, a date, or something a real person did. Then it writes every answer on the live YC form.

It digs deepest on what YC actually funds:

1. Team: what each founder has built, how long you've worked together, who writes the code
2. Problem: a specific customer, what it costs them today, evidence they want it solved
3. Market: bottom-up sizing, competitors, and the insight they're missing

…then covers progress, revenue, equity, and why YC.

You get:

• Every field on the current YC application, in form order, in plain and specific language
• A 50-character description (counted)
• A 1-minute founder video script
• A Partner Read: interview odds, a Team / Problem / Market scorecard, weak answers with exact fixes, the top 3 things to do before the deadline, and the 5 interview questions you'll likely get

It was written by a founder whose company (Per Diem) went through YC W21, and it includes that accepted application, annotated, as a reference.

How it works

1. Kickoff: what you're building, which batch, and a mode: guided interview, context dump (paste your deck or an old application), review my draft, or just one part.
2. Interview: 20+ questions, one at a time, in the order YC weighs them: Team → Problem → Product → Progress → Market → Equity → Why YC. Vague answers get a sharper follow-up ("Name one.", "What's the number?", "What did they do?").
3. Readiness check: Team, Problem, and Market each get 🟢 / 🟡 / 🔴 before anything is written, with what to fix before the deadline.
4. Draft: every field on the live form, in YC's own wording, saved to yc-application-<company>.md.
5. Partner Read: a skeptical 2-minute read of your application, plus an offer to rehearse the 10-minute interview.

Example: the 50-character description

| Before | After | |---|---| | "Per Diem is a subscription ecommerce platform." | "Subscriptions for local shops, no code needed" (45) |

The "after" says who it's for and doesn't spend characters on the company name.

Install

npx yc-application

This copies the skill to ~/.claude/skills/yc-application, so it's available in every project.

npx yc-application --project   # install into ./.claude/skills (this project only)
npx yc-application --force     # overwrite an existing install (e.g. to update)

Prefer a manual install? Copy SKILL.md and references/ into ~/.claude/skills/yc-application/.

Use

Start a new Claude Code session and say something like:

• "Help me with my YC application"
• "We're applying to YC W27, interview me"
• "Review my YC answers" (and paste them)
• "Write our 50-character description"
• "Script our YC founder video"

Modes: Guided interview, Context dump (paste your deck or old application), Review my draft, or Just one part. Say "pause" any time to save progress.

Files

• SKILL.md: how the session runs
• references/questions.md: the 30-question interview and the quality bar
• references/yc-form.md: the live YC form, verbatim
• references/writing-guide.md: how partners read and how to write each answer
• references/accepted-example.md: an accepted application (YC W21), annotated
• references/application-template.md: the output template

YC changes its form between batches. If yours looks different, paste it in and the skill will follow it.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome, especially when YC changes the form. Update references/yc-form.md and open a PR.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator.

License

MIT