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
Hello Aria
The best advice I've seen about YC applications: don't overthink it. The application is a filter for clarity of thought, not polish. If you can explain what you're building, who it's for, and why now in plain language - that's 80% of it. The founders who spend weeks perfecting their application usually would've been better off shipping another feature.
Applied to YC Spring 2026! Building CatsMe — an AI app that reads cat facial expressions to detect pain and stress. Co-developed with Nihon University's veterinary researchers in Japan.
We've grown to 31,000+ users across 50 countries with zero ad spend. Cats hide pain by instinct, so most owners don't notice until it's too late. Our AI catches what humans miss.
Solo founder, based in Tokyo. Whether YC says yes or not, we're shipping every day. Good luck to everyone applying — rooting for all of you.
Hello Aria
Considering it for Hello Aria — we're an AI productivity assistant that runs through WhatsApp, launching on PH April 10th.
Honest question for those who've applied or gone through YC: at what stage did you apply? We're post-launch, ~3k users, growing organically, but pre-Series A stage. Is that the right timing or is earlier always better?
Murror
Applying with Murror, an AI app to help young people who feel lonely or isolated. We think the loneliness epidemic is one of the biggest underserved problems right now and Gen Z is hit the hardest.
Honestly not sure if it's too early stage for YC but the reasoning you laid out here made me think it's worth the shot anyway. The network and the speed alone seem worth it.
Good luck to everyone applying. Would love to cheer each other on.
Hey! I'm applying with CVBER
we help artists stop AI companies from stealing their art.
Artists work really hard on their drawings and paintings. But right now, AI companies can just grab that art off the internet and use it to train their robots. No permission. No payment. Nothing.
CVBER gives every artist a way to fight back. We put a special tag inside their art files (it's called C2PA the same thing Adobe and Microsoft use). Then we watch the internet 24/7 and send takedown notices when we find stolen art. All for free.
We already have real users and zero paid ads. Just artists finding us because they needed this.
Super excited to see who else is applying. This batch is going to be really good! 🎨
The “network + speed” case for YC always sounds compelling, but I’m curious what people who have been through it found most valuable in practice:
product velocity, distribution, fundraising, or simply clarity on what not to do.
I just signed up here, but was able to sneak my application in just in time (not launched on PH yet). Self-Hosted, Open-Source, Realtime MultiCloud Cost Alerting (which is a mouthful). Instead of getting asked by the CFO "what caused our bill to jump" and having to do any more investigations, I get a notification as soon as a resource (in any of our cloud accounts) is causing a price-increasing event. Super excited about it!
we applied with Martinloop.com
The ultimate OS for coding agents and agent teams. A lot of early organic traction so far stemmed from problem itself around rogue coding agents. Can't wait to hear back. Also would love feedback as we shipped the core OSS already for free on github for anyone interested in helping out that is actually token-maxxing and pushing API limits spending thousands on coding agents.
The partners point is so underrated. Most people who claim to "help" startups actually just slow them down or give advice that's detached from reality.
Not applying this round but building something in the same space as a lot of YC companies — helping solo founders get their first believers without giving up equity. The YC model is incredible for the companies that get in but the 99 percent who do not need alternatives that are not go raise a pre-seed from angels who will ghost you. Curious what everyone here is building though — drop your one-liner.