# Y Combinator Founders with LinkedIn, Titles and Bios (`gubidonius/yc-founders`) Actor One row per founder of a Y Combinator company: name, title, bio, LinkedIn and Twitter, with the company beside them. The directory search YC publishes holds no people at all, so this reads the company pages. Filter by batch, industry, region or tag, or name the companies yourself. - **URL**: https://apify.com/gubidonius/yc-founders.md - **Developed by:** [Gregory Bolshakov](https://apify.com/gubidonius) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, Jobs - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event 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 Founders with LinkedIn, Titles and Bios One row per founder of a Y Combinator company. Name, title, bio, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the company beside them. No key and no login. ### Why this is its own Actor The YC directory is an Algolia index and it holds no people. Every field about a founder lives on the company's own page, so the only way to get a founder list is to open the pages. This Actor picks the companies the same way the directory search does, then reads each page once. One page is one request and yields two or three founders. ### Three fields that mislead if you take them at face value `avatarUrl` is a signed link that stops working about an hour after the run. It looks like an ordinary image URL. `avatarUrlExpiresAt` is the moment it dies, read out of the signature itself, so you can download the photo during the run or ignore the column. `founderBio` is missing for most founders of older batches. On a 47-founder sample of 2013 and 2015 companies, 31 had none. YC writes a missing bio as null on one record and as an empty string on the next, and both arrive here as empty, so filtering on blank finds all of them. `latestYcCompanyName` is the founder's most recent YC company, which is usually but not always the company on the row. One founder in that same sample was listed on Cleanly with a latest company of Optery. `latestYcCompanyIsThisOne` is false for exactly those people, which is how you find serial founders. ### The filter values are words, not slugs The batch is `Winter 2024`, not `W24`. Case does not matter, spelling does, and a value the directory does not use returns zero companies with no explanation. Every value you pass is checked against the live list before any search runs, and a wrong one stops the run with the real spelling and charges you nothing. ### What one row is One founder at one company. A founder of two YC companies has one id and appears once per company, which is correct: the title and the bio are per company. `RUN_SUMMARY` in the key-value store lists every company read, how many founders it published, which pages could not be read, and `complete` with `limitedBy`. ### Billing Two events: a start fee charged only once founders are actually returned, and a per-founder fee charged after each row is written. A run that returns nothing costs nothing. # Actor input Schema ## `companySlugs` (type: `array`): Read these companies and no others, by the slug at the end of their Y Combinator URL, for example airbnb or razorpay. When this is filled the directory search below is skipped entirely. ## `batches` (type: `array`): Batch names exactly as Y Combinator writes them, for example Winter 2024. Not W24: a value the directory does not use returns zero companies, so every value is checked against the live list first and the run tells you the real spelling. ## `industries` (type: `array`): Top-level industries, for example B2B, Fintech, Healthcare. Several values are ORed together and combined with the other filters using AND. ## `regions` (type: `array`): Regions as YC groups them, for example United States of America, Europe, South Asia. ## `tags` (type: `array`): Product tags, for example Artificial Intelligence, Developer Tools, Climate. ## `statuses` (type: `array`): One or more of Active, Inactive, Acquired, Public. Leave empty for all four. ## `query` (type: `string`): Words to search for in company names, taglines and descriptions. This is a search and not a filter: it is typo tolerant and ranks by relevance. ## `hiringOnly` (type: `boolean`): Keep only companies whose directory record says they are hiring. That flag is intent rather than open roles. ## `topCompaniesOnly` (type: `boolean`): Keep only the 91 companies YC marks as top companies. ## `maxCompanies` (type: `integer`): How many company pages the run may open. One page is one HTTP request and yields about two founders, so this is the work budget. ## `maxResults` (type: `integer`): Upper bound on founders for the WHOLE run. You are never charged for more than this. ## Actor input object example ```json { "companySlugs": [], "batches": [ "Winter 2024" ], "industries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [], "statuses": [], "query": "", "hiringOnly": false, "topCompaniesOnly": false, "maxCompanies": 25, "maxResults": 100 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (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 = { "companySlugs": [], "batches": [ "Winter 2024" ], "industries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [], "statuses": [], "query": "", "maxCompanies": 25, "maxResults": 100 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("gubidonius/yc-founders").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 = { "companySlugs": [], "batches": ["Winter 2024"], "industries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [], "statuses": [], "query": "", "maxCompanies": 25, "maxResults": 100, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("gubidonius/yc-founders").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 '{ "companySlugs": [], "batches": [ "Winter 2024" ], "industries": [], "regions": [], "tags": [], "statuses": [], "query": "", "maxCompanies": 25, "maxResults": 100 }' | apify call gubidonius/yc-founders --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gubidonius/yc-founders" } } } ``` 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/FqlWqWDu7Ii1wuGFJ/builds/61OBP78lipls6JIad/openapi.json