# YC Companies & Founders Scraper (`axlymxp/yc-companies-founders-scraper`) Actor Scrape the full Y Combinator startup directory — company profiles plus founder names, LinkedIn, Twitter and bios, jobs and launches. Filter by batch, industry, region, status or hiring, or export all 6,000+ companies as structured JSON. Pay only for the results you get. - **URL**: https://apify.com/axlymxp/yc-companies-founders-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [axly](https://apify.com/axlymxp) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, AI - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $10.00 / 1,000 dataset items This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. - **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use). - **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`. - **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`. - **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`. - **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Y Combinator Companies & Founders Scraper Export the entire **Y Combinator startup directory** — every public company and its **founders** — as clean, structured JSON. Search or filter by batch, industry, region, status and hiring, or export all **6,000+ companies** in one run. Each company can be enriched with founder **names, titles, bios, LinkedIn and Twitter**, company socials, open jobs, launches and news. It reads Y Combinator's **own Algolia index and page data** — an official, unauthenticated path with **no anti-bot** — so runs are fast and reliable where HTML scrapers break. ### Who uses this - **Investors & analysts** — track every batch, industry and region; monitor hiring, status (Active / Acquired / Public) and new launches for deal flow. - **Sales & lead-gen teams** — build targeted lists of founders with LinkedIn / Twitter and company websites, filtered by batch, industry or hiring status. - **PropTech / SaaS & AI builders** — a stable JSON directory for enrichment pipelines, market maps, RAG and internal tools. - **Researchers & journalists** — the full YC population, segmented by cohort. ### Output fields | Field | Type | Description | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `name`, `slug`, `url` | string | Company name, YC slug, YC profile URL | | `website` | string | Company website | | `oneLiner`, `longDescription` | string | Short and full company descriptions | | `batch`, `batchName` | string | YC batch (e.g. `Winter 2024`) | | `industry`, `subindustry`, `industries` | string / array | Industry classification | | `tags`, `regions`, `allLocations` | array / string | Tags, regions, locations | | `status`, `stage` | string | Company status and stage | | `teamSize`, `yearFounded`, `launchedAt` | number | Size, founding year, launch epoch | | `topCompany`, `isHiring`, `nonprofit` | boolean | YC flags | | `linkedinUrl`, `twitterUrl`, `facebookUrl`, `crunchbaseUrl`, `githubUrl` | string | Company socials | | `logoUrl`, `logoThumbUrl` | string | Company logo | | `founders` | array | `{name, title, bio, linkedinUrl, twitterUrl, avatarUrl}` per founder | | `numFounders` | number | Founder count | | `jobs`, `numJobs` | array / number | Open roles at the company | | `launches`, `numLaunches` | array / number | Launch YC posts | | `news`, `numNews` | array / number | News items | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO-8601 UTC timestamp | Founder and social fields are populated when **Include founders & full detail** is enabled (the default). ### High-value use cases 1. **Founder lead lists** — filter by batch + industry, enable founders, and export name + title + LinkedIn straight into your CRM or outreach tool. 2. **Deal-flow monitoring** — schedule a daily run sorted by launch date to catch every new YC company the day it goes public. 3. **Market maps** — export a whole vertical (e.g. `Healthcare`, `Fintech`, or the `Artificial Intelligence` tag) with team size, stage and status. 4. **Hiring signals** — filter `isHiring` to find companies actively growing, then pull their open roles from the `jobs` field. 5. **Cohort research** — export one or more batches end-to-end for analysis. ### Input parameters | Field | Type | Default | Description | | -------------------- | ------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | `searchQuery` | string | `""` | Free-text search; empty browses everything | | `batches` | array | `[]` | Filter by YC batch(es) | | `industries` | array | `[]` | Filter by industry | | `subindustries` | array | `[]` | Filter by sub-industry | | `regions` | array | `[]` | Filter by region | | `tags` | array | `[]` | Filter by tag | | `status` | array | `[]` | `Active`, `Acquired`, `Public`, `Inactive` | | `isHiring` | boolean | `false` | Only hiring companies | | `topCompany` | boolean | `false` | Only YC top companies | | `nonprofit` | boolean | `false` | Only nonprofits | | `sort` | enum | `relevance` | `relevance` or `launch_date` (newest) | | `scrapeAllBatches` | boolean | `false` | Export the whole directory (bypasses the 1,000-per-query limit) | | `includeFounders` | boolean | `true` | Enrich with founders, socials, jobs, launches, news | | `maxItems` | integer | `100` | Cap the number of companies | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | direct | Optional Apify proxy | #### Example input ```json { "industries": ["Fintech"], "isHiring": true, "sort": "launch_date", "includeFounders": true, "maxItems": 200 } ``` #### Example output (one row, truncated) ```json { "name": "Airbnb", "slug": "airbnb", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb", "website": "http://airbnb.com", "batch": "Winter 2009", "industry": "Travel, Leisure and Tourism", "status": "Public", "teamSize": 6132, "isHiring": false, "linkedinUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/airbnb/", "founders": [ { "name": "Brian Chesky", "title": "Co-founder & CEO", "linkedinUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianchesky/", "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/bchesky" } ], "numFounders": 3, "scrapedAt": "2026-08-17T12:00:00Z" } ``` ### Export the whole directory Set `scrapeAllBatches: true` to export every public company. The Actor iterates each YC batch behind the scenes to bypass the search API's 1,000-result-per-query limit and deduplicates by company, giving you the complete ~6,200-company dataset. ### Scheduling & integrations - **Schedule** daily/weekly runs from the Apify Console to keep a fresh dataset. - **Webhooks** can trigger on run completion to push new rows into your systems. - Export to **JSON, CSV, Excel or Google Sheets**, or pull results via the Apify **API**, or connect to **Make**, **Zapier** and **n8n**. ### Use it from an AI agent (MCP) This Actor works with the **Apify MCP server**, so assistants like Claude or ChatGPT can run it as a tool and receive the structured company/founder data directly — handy for research and enrichment agents. ### FAQ **How many companies can I get?** The full public directory is ~6,200 companies. Enable `scrapeAllBatches` to export them all; otherwise a single query returns up to 1,000 results. **Are founder contacts included?** Yes — with `includeFounders` on (default), each company includes its founders with title, bio, LinkedIn and Twitter where YC publishes them. **How fresh is the data?** Every run reads the live directory, so results reflect YC's current data at run time. **Is it reliable?** It uses YC's own official data endpoints (no HTML scraping and no anti-bot to fight), so it is stable and fast. **Is this legal?** The Actor collects only publicly available information from Y Combinator. You are responsible for using the data in line with YC's terms and applicable laws (e.g. GDPR/CCPA) — especially for personal data such as founder contacts. **Support?** Issues and feature requests are welcome on the Actor's Issues tab. # Actor input Schema ## `searchQuery` (type: `string`): Free-text search across the Y Combinator company directory (name, description, tags). Leave empty to browse everything and rely on the filters below. ## `batches` (type: `array`): Only include companies from these YC batches, e.g. "Winter 2024", "Summer 2023". Combined as OR. ## `industries` (type: `array`): Only include companies in these top-level industries, e.g. "B2B", "Fintech", "Healthcare", "Consumer". ## `subindustries` (type: `array`): Only include companies in these sub-industries, e.g. "B2B -> Engineering, Product and Design". ## `regions` (type: `array`): Only include companies in these regions, e.g. "America / Canada", "Europe", "Asia". ## `tags` (type: `array`): Only include companies with these tags, e.g. "Artificial Intelligence", "Open Source", "Developer Tools". ## `status` (type: `array`): Only include companies with these statuses. ## `isHiring` (type: `boolean`): Only include companies that are currently hiring. ## `topCompany` (type: `boolean`): Only include companies flagged by YC as "top companies". ## `nonprofit` (type: `boolean`): Only include nonprofit organizations. ## `sort` (type: `string`): How to order results. ## `scrapeAllBatches` (type: `boolean`): Iterate every batch to export the complete directory (~6,200 companies), bypassing the 1,000-result per-query limit. Combines with the filters above. When on, "Max results" acts only as an optional overall cap. ## `includeFounders` (type: `boolean`): Enrich each company with founders (name, title, bio, LinkedIn, Twitter), company socials (LinkedIn, Twitter, Crunchbase, GitHub), open jobs, launches and news. Adds one request per company. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Stop after this many companies. In whole-directory mode this is an optional overall cap (set 0 or leave high to export everything). ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Optional Apify proxy. The YC API works without a proxy; use one only if you need a specific egress region. ## Actor input object example ```json { "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence", "batches": [ "Winter 2024", "Summer 2023" ], "industries": [], "subindustries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [], "status": [], "isHiring": false, "topCompany": false, "nonprofit": false, "sort": "relevance", "scrapeAllBatches": false, "includeFounders": true, "maxItems": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `dataset` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence", "batches": [], "industries": [], "subindustries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("axlymxp/yc-companies-founders-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence", "batches": [], "industries": [], "subindustries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [], } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("axlymxp/yc-companies-founders-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}") for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence", "batches": [], "industries": [], "subindustries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [] }' | apify call axlymxp/yc-companies-founders-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,axlymxp/yc-companies-founders-scraper" } } } ``` The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer ` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations). ## OpenAPI specification Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bMtgG4jyZGc8pnRra/builds/daMvLukmHJdR05Jde/openapi.json