# Launch YC Posts with Full Text, Upvotes and Company (`gubidonius/yc-launches`) Actor

Every Launch YC post with its whole body, upvotes, date and the company that shipped it. YC search hands back 1,000 of 3,271 and reports the stop as an empty page, so this slices by batch and gets the rest. Image links in the body are rewritten to full URLs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gubidonius/yc-launches.md
- **Developed by:** [Gregory Bolshakov](https://apify.com/gubidonius) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation, News
- **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

## Launch YC Posts with Full Text, Upvotes and Company

Every Launch YC post: headline, tagline, the whole body, upvotes, the date it went up and the
company that shipped it. No key and no login.

### The problem this solves

The launch feed is an Algolia index and Algolia will not serve a result past number 1,000. Ask
for hit 1,001 and it does not raise an error. It answers HTTP 200 with an empty result list
and a total of zero, which is exactly what a finished search looks like.

The index held 3,271 launches on 6 September 2026 and says so in the same response that hands
you the first 1,000. YC also keeps two copies of the feed, one ordered by date and one by
upvotes, so the order you pick would decide which thousand you could reach.

This Actor never asks for the page that lies. When a search is bigger than the ceiling it cuts
it into slices on the launching company's batch, which partitions the feed exactly: 31 values
adding up to all 3,271, the largest holding 328.

### The body arrives with broken images unless someone fixes them

YC writes image links inside a launch body relative to its own site, like
`![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=113860)`. 246 of 400 posts sampled carry at least one.
They are rewritten to full URLs here, so the markdown works wherever you paste it.

### What one row is

One launch post. A company that launched three times has three rows, each with its own date,
upvotes and text, joined to the company by `companyId`.

Zero upvotes is a real value, not a gap. One post in 400 had none.

`launchTotalReported` on every row is the count YC's own search gave for your filter, in
launches, the same unit as the rows. `RUN_SUMMARY` holds every slice with what it reported,
what it returned and why it stopped.

### What is not here

The author's profile. YC links it to its private founder network, which asks any outside
visitor to sign in, so publishing the link would give you a page you cannot open. The author's
name and photo are on the row.

### Billing

Two events: a start fee charged only once launches are returned, and a per-launch fee charged
after each post is written, body included. A run that matches nothing costs nothing.

# Actor input Schema

## `batches` (type: `array`):

The launching company's batch, exactly as Y Combinator writes it, for example Winter 2024. Not W24: a value no launch carries returns nothing, so every value is checked against the live list first and the run tells you the real spelling.

## `industries` (type: `array`):

The launching company's top-level industry, for example B2B, Fintech, Healthcare. Two thirds of all launches are B2B.

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Product tags on the launching company, for example Artificial Intelligence or Developer Tools. 282 of them appear across the index.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Words to search for in launch titles, taglines and bodies. This is a search and not a filter: it is typo tolerant and ranks by relevance.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Which of Y Combinator's two launch indexes to read. It decides the order rows arrive in, and for a search bigger than 1,000 it would decide which thousand you could reach at all, which is why this Actor slices the search instead.

## `minVotes` (type: `integer`):

Drop launches below this many upvotes. Zero upvotes is a real value, so leaving this at 0 keeps everything. Dropped launches are counted in the run summary and are never charged.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound on launches for the WHOLE run, across every slice. You are never charged for more than this.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "batches": [],
  "industries": [],
  "tags": [],
  "query": "",
  "sortBy": "date",
  "minVotes": 0,
  "maxResults": 50
}
```

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "batches": [],
    "industries": [],
    "tags": [],
    "query": "",
    "sortBy": "date",
    "minVotes": 0,
    "maxResults": 50
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gubidonius/yc-launches").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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "batches": [],
    "industries": [],
    "tags": [],
    "query": "",
    "sortBy": "date",
    "minVotes": 0,
    "maxResults": 50,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gubidonius/yc-launches").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 '{
  "batches": [],
  "industries": [],
  "tags": [],
  "query": "",
  "sortBy": "date",
  "minVotes": 0,
  "maxResults": 50
}' |
apify call gubidonius/yc-launches --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gubidonius/yc-launches"
        }
    }
}

```

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 <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` 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/MC2F9YMUVE8uoEUPr/builds/R4XGhNnxBHpoQbAh8/openapi.json