ExploreYC - Open-source API for Y Combinator & a16z company data
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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.
Replies
DrDroid
Amazing man! You just unlocked the big power.
ExploreYC
@sidphoenix use it! :D
This is pretty useful for founder research. I like that it’s not just a directory, but something developers can actually build on top of.
ExploreYC
@monster1x yep, hope it can help you as well!
This is actually useful for pre-launch validation before building anything you can search your category, see which batches funded similar ideas, check if those companies are still alive ,and figure out where the graveyard is. Has anyone used it that way to kill an idea before wasting six months on it?
ExploreYC
@jasnoor_singh_oberoi idk, haven't gone out and ask people, but the platform got ton of attraction and i see people constantly running the idea vaildator
Merging YC and a16z into one dataset, the part I'd want documented before building on it is entity resolution. Last time I stitched company data across two sources, matching 'same company, different record' ate most of the effort: OpenAI vs OpenAI Inc vs matching on domain, then deciding which source wins when the funding stage disagrees. Do you expose a stable canonical company ID across both, and when YC and a16z conflict on a field, is there a documented precedence?
ExploreYC
@dipankar_sarkar this will be a challenge, there isn't conflict a the two don't have much conflicting companies... but will be big challenge once we start adding more sources
AgentKey
ExploreYC
@luki_notlowkey manually atm. don't have a flow for it, but it would be simple enough - database can enforce a constraint or once we detect a conflict, we can do some merger of the data, to add in missing pieces from the two platforms. this doesn't happen like almost at all atm with these two sources
Would love a heatmap of YC batches by problem space over time e.g. how many fintech vs. dev-tool vs. climate companies per batch. Founders could instantly see which spaces are getting crowded vs. underexplored before pitching a similar idea.
ExploreYC
Built for Devs
Very intrigued and looking forward to using this. What use case potential are you most excited about?
ExploreYC
the api layer is the right play. everyone building founder-facing tools rebuilds this dataset every time and it's silly.
real q: does exploreyc distinguish "raised $X" from "shipped something users pay for"? because those have drifted a mile apart and the data layer that solves the second one eats the first.
ExploreYC
@thenameisarian you can make the distinguish by adding your touch to the code with Claude 👀 https://github.com/KonstantinMB/exploreyc
The open-source plan mentioned in the comments is the interesting part to me is that just the app layer, or the enriched dataset too? Curious how you're thinking about keeping funding/hiring data in sync once other people are touching the codebase.
amazing - no more unverified scraping ig?
ExploreYC
@fastspeech2text welll , kinda yea :d