Y Combinator Companies Scraper

Scrape the complete Y Combinator company directory — 5,000+ startups across every batch from 2005 to today. Get company profiles, founders, open jobs, industry tags, batch, status, funding stage, team size, and social links. HTTP-only; no login, no cookies, no proxy required.

Output (per company)

• type = yc_company
• id (slug), slug, url, name, kind (startup / non-profit / etc.)
• shortDescription, longDescription, pitch (full pitch text when present)
• batch (e.g. S24), industry, subIndustry, status (Active / Inactive / Acquired / Public), stage (Seed / Series A / etc.)
• location, allLocations, regions, foundingYear, launchedAt (unix), teamSize
• website, linkedin, twitter, facebook, crunchbase, wellfound, github
• logo, logoThumb, demoDayVideo
• isHiring, isCompanyHiring, jobCount
• tags — when Algolia returns them
• formerNames — list, when the company has rebranded
• topCompany, topCompanyBadge, ycdcBadgeName, nonprofit — when flagged
• questionsAndAnswers — [{ question, answer }] short founder Q&A blocks
• teamHighlights — list of blurbs about the team
• highlightBlackFounders, highlightWomenFounders, highlightHispanicFounders — only when Algolia explicitly flags them
• founders — [{ name, title, bio, email, linkedin, twitter, hackerNews, github, instagram }] when scrapeFounders = true
• openJobs — [{ title, url, applyUrl, location, remote, type, role, team, yearsExperience, salaryMin, salaryMax, compensationCurrency, equity, equityRange, skills, experience, visa, visaSupported, englishFluent }] when scrapeOpenJobs = true
• scrapedAt

If zero companies match the filters, a single yc_company_blocked sentinel record is emitted so runs always exit 0.

Input

Field	Type	Description
directoryUrl	string	YC directory URL. Default: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies.
query	string	Optional free-text search (?q=<query>).
batch	enum	any, S24, W24, F24, S23, W23, S22, W22, S21, W21.
industry	string	Exact-match industry filter (e.g. B2B, Consumer, Fintech, Healthcare).
status	enum	any, Active, Inactive, Acquired, Public.
scrapeFounders	boolean	Fetch founder details per company. Default true.
scrapeOpenJobs	boolean	Fetch open job postings per company. Default true.
regions	string[]	Optional region filter (case-insensitive) — matched against location.
tags	string[]	Optional tag filter (case-insensitive) — matched against industry, subIndustry, tags.
highlightBlackFounders	boolean	Only include companies flagged with Black founders.
highlightWomenFounders	boolean	Only include companies flagged with women founders.
highlightHispanicFounders	boolean	Only include companies flagged with Hispanic / Latino founders.
maxItems	integer	Max companies per run (1–5500). Default 3.

How it works

1. Query Y Combinator's public Algolia search index (YCCompany_production) for companies matching your filters. Pagination is handled transparently.
2. For each company, optionally fetch its detail page (/companies/<slug>) and parse the Inertia data-page JSON blob to get founders and open jobs.
3. Jobs expose salary range, equity, skills, visa policy, and the apply URL.
4. Output uses a strict no-nulls contract — every field present is non-empty.

FAQ

Do I need a proxy? No. YC is publicly accessible from datacenter IPs.

Does the scraper need YC credentials? No. All data comes from public endpoints.

How many companies are in the directory? About 5,800 across all batches (growing each cycle). maxItems caps per run at 5,500.

Are historical founders included? Yes — every company's founder list is preserved on its public profile, including exits.

Why does jobCount sometimes differ from the directory badge? YC's directory badge counts only open job postings; we return the exact set embedded in the profile page.

What's the yc_company_blocked record? When your filter returns zero matches (e.g. a typo in industry), we emit one sentinel record so downstream pipelines never see an empty output.