One open-source API for startup data across Y Combinator AND a16z - 6,600+ companies with funding, stage, IPO/M&A exits, and founders. Filter by VC (yc/a16z/all), batch, industry, country, or search. Grab a free API key, read the docs (curl/Node/Python + Swagger), and build in 30 seconds. Plus the full web app: map, analytics, funding data, a live hiring board, and AI tools.
Just shipped an improved version of the vector search for companies! Take a look & let me know what you think!
I also put it as main agentic search bar on the main page of ExploreYC, from reading all comments this is one of the most loved features and I think it deserves more visibility
how do you actually check if your idea's been done before? like - gpt it, google it, ask friends, dig through YC's directory, or just.. cross fingers and build?
asking because i built ExploreYC trying to fix exactly that... through semantic search on over 8.6k startups, but genuinely curious what people reach for before a tool. what's your move?
I was prepping my YC application. I wanted to know: has anyone already done this idea?
YC's search gave me nothing useful. So I spent a weekend scraping their Algolia API, built a local database, ran embeddings against my pitch... and found 3 companies that had tried it.
Used the GStack by Garry Tan [https://github.com/garrytan/gstackv] from Y Combinator to build a list of issues, improvements, features, fixes everyone can work on!
If you would like to contirbute, you can find it all at: https://github.com/KonstantinMB/...
Today we are writing up an email to YC and hopefully getting their eyes on the project! I think it would be a good addition to their website and if we can get some more official or helpful APIs to hit and extract data from for YC it would be amazing!
Please help me spread ExploreYC and get YC's eye on the project! Share on X, LinkedIn, ProductHunt and let's do this together!
before my last two launches I wasted weeks building before checking who else was in the space. don t be me. here s the 30-min competitor check I do now, all free tools:
1. search PH archives (5 min)
search your keywords on Product Hunt. sort by launch date. note how the top 5 positioned themselves the gaps in their taglines are your opening.
Since launching ExploreYC, the #1 request in my inbox has been some version of: "This is great, but can I get the underlying data?" Founders wanted it for competitor research. Investors wanted it for sourcing. Job-seekers wanted to filter every company that's hiring. Data nerds just wanted to play. So today we're launching the YC Companies Database
What it is:
A single searchable, sortable table of every Y Combinator company with the columns that actually matter:
