Y Combinator Scraper

What does Y Combinator Scraper do?

This Y Combinator scraper turns the public YC startup directory into clean, structured YC companies data you can export, schedule, and reuse. Paste a filtered directory URL, a single company profile, or collect the full catalog — then pull company profiles, founders, open jobs, press mentions, and Launch YC posts in one run. ✅

As a YC companies scraper and Y Combinator directory scraper, it helps you extract YC company data without coding: sales teams doing startup lead generation, investors building pipelines, recruiters tracking hiring startups, and analysts maintaining a living startup database.

Open it in Apify Console, paste a URL, hit Start — results stream into your dataset as they arrive.

✨ What can this YC scraper do?

• 🔗 Flexible bulk input — mix directory search URLs and company profile URLs in one list with this YC scraper
• 🎛️ Choose what to include — founders, open jobs, news, and Launch YC posts, each on its own toggle
• 🎯 Refine your list — team size range, launch date window, newest-first sort, or max company cap
• 🌍 Full directory mode — collect thousands of YC-backed startups / YC portfolio companies when you need the complete picture
• 📊 Five tidy output views — Overview · Founders · Open Jobs · News · Launch Posts
• ⚡ Live results — watch companies land in Output while the run is still going
• 🧩 Apify platform powers — scheduling, monitoring, API access, webhooks, and 1,000+ integrations

📦 What data can you extract from Y Combinator?

🗂️ Section	📌 What you get
🏢 Company profile	Name, descriptions, batch, industry & sub-industry, stage, status, tags, regions, year founded, team size, location, website, socials, partner, hiring flag
🧑‍💼 Founders	Name, title, bio, email-availability flag, LinkedIn, X — founder contact data for research and outreach prep
💼 Open jobs	Title, description, location, remote, type, role, salary, equity, skills, experience, visa — a built-in startup job listings scraper for YC job postings
📰 News & press	Title, URL, date
🎉 Launch YC posts	Title, tagline, URL, date, upvotes, optional full body text

🌟 Why scrape the YC startup directory?

The YC startup directory is one of the richest public maps of early-stage companies. A dedicated Y Combinator startups scraper helps you:

• 📈 Build ICP lists of YC-backed startups by batch, industry, or team size for B2B lead generation and sales prospecting
• 💼 Monitor fresh YC batch data for venture capital data workflows and deal sourcing
• 🧭 Map industries and regions for startup market research and competitive intelligence
• 🧑‍💻 Find hiring companies and roles with focused YC job postings for recruiting pipelines
• 🚀 Archive Launch YC activity to see how startups position products over time

🚀 How to scrape Y Combinator companies

1. Open Y Combinator Scraper in Apify Console
2. Paste one or more YC directory or company URLs into YC Directory URLs — or turn on Scrape All Companies
3. Toggle Founders / Open Jobs / News / Launch Posts as needed
4. Set Maximum Companies (default 10) for a safe first run
5. Click Start and follow live progress in the log
6. Open Output, pick a view, and export JSON / CSV / Excel / HTML / XML — or pull via API

💡 Tip: apply filters on ycombinator.com/companies (batch, industry, region, hiring), copy the address bar URL, and paste it here — this Y Combinator companies scraper follows that filtered list.

📥 Input

Simple JSON — no coding required:

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202026" },
        { "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb" }
    ],
    "scrapeFounders": true,
    "scrapeOpenJobs": false,
    "scrapeNews": true,
    "scrapeLaunchPosts": true,
    "maxCompanies": 10,
    "scrapeAllCompanies": false
}

Field	Description
🔍 startUrls	Directory search URLs and/or company profile URLs. Not required if scrapeAllCompanies is on.
💯 maxCompanies	Stop after N companies. Default 10. Ignored in full-directory mode.
🧑‍💼 scrapeFounders	Include founders (YC founders scraper mode). Default true.
💼 scrapeOpenJobs	Include full open-job details. Default false.
📰 scrapeNews	Include press mentions. Default true.
🎉 scrapeLaunchPosts	Include Launch YC posts. Default true.
📝 includeLaunchBody	Include full Launch YC post text. Default false.
🚀 scrapeAllCompanies	Collect the entire directory. Default false.
🕒 sortByLaunchDate	Newest launch first. Default false.
👥 teamSizeMin / teamSizeMax	Team size filter.
📅 launchedAfter / launchedBefore	Launch date range (YYYY-MM-DD).

See the Input tab for every option with helpful defaults.

📤 Output

Every company becomes one dataset item — ready for CRM import, spreadsheets, or your own startup database / YC alumni dataset:

{
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/example",
    "company_id": 12345,
    "company_name": "Example Inc.",
    "company_image": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/example.png",
    "short_description": "One-line pitch",
    "long_description": "Longer description...",
    "batch": "Summer 2026",
    "industry": "B2B",
    "subindustry": "Developer Tools",
    "stage": "Early",
    "status": "Active",
    "tags": ["Artificial Intelligence", "Developer Tools"],
    "regions": ["United States of America", "America / Canada"],
    "website": "https://example.com/",
    "year_founded": "2026",
    "team_size": "4",
    "company_location": "San Francisco",
    "company_country": "US",
    "company_linkedin": null,
    "company_x": "https://x.com/example",
    "primary_partner": "Jane Doe",
    "top_company": false,
    "is_hiring": true,
    "number_of_open_jobs": 1,
    "open_jobs": null,
    "news": null,
    "launch_posts": [
        { "title": "Example Inc. Launch", "tagline": "...", "url": "...", "date": "2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z", "upvotes": 10 }
    ],
    "founders": [
        {
            "id": 1,
            "name": "Jane Founder",
            "title": "Founder/CEO",
            "bio": "...",
            "emails": { "available": true, "email": null, "status": null },
            "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/example/",
            "x": null
        }
    ]
}

ℹ️ Founder emails: YC public pages only show whether an email is on file (emails.available). Addresses are not exposed. Pair LinkedIn / X with your own enrichment if you need verified emails.

🗂️ Output views

View	Shows
🏢 Overview	Full company record
🧑‍💼 Founders	Founder-focused columns
💼 Open Jobs	Job listings (when enabled)
📰 News & Press	Press mentions
🎉 Launch Posts	Launch YC posts

🤖 Use via API (Y Combinator API style)

Call the Actor like a lightweight Y Combinator API and get dataset items back:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<YOUR_USERNAME>~y-combinator-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202026" }],
           "scrapeFounders": true
         }'

Prefer one view? Append ?view=founders (or jobs, news, launches, overview) to the dataset items URL. Schedule runs, connect Zapier / Make / n8n, or pipe results into agents via Apify MCP.

🎯 Best use cases for this startup data scraper

• 🧲 Startup lead generation & B2B lead generation — filter by batch, industry, or team size; export to CRM for sales prospecting
• 🧑‍💼 YC founders scraper workflows — names, titles, bios, LinkedIn / X for founder outreach research
• 🏦 Venture capital data & deal sourcing — watch new batches and flag companies for deeper diligence
• 📊 Startup market research — industry, sub-industry, team-size, and regional trends across YC batch data
• 🕵️ Competitive intelligence — track peers by batch, tags, and Launch YC momentum
• 🧑‍💻 Recruiting — surface hiring YC portfolio companies and detailed YC job postings

🔗 Integrations & related Actors

This Y Combinator directory scraper works with Apify’s API, schedules, webhooks, and popular destinations (Sheets, Slack, HubSpot, warehouses, and more).

Actor	What it helps with
Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper & API	Competitor ad creatives and brand ad tracking across Google surfaces

Need a custom pipeline (enrichment, CRM sync, or a private YC alumni dataset feed)? Email hello.insights.data@gmail.com.

❓ FAQ

Can I scrape every company in a YC batch?

Yes. Paste a directory URL like ?batch=Summer%202026, or enable newest-first sorting for fresh YC batch data.

Can I scrape just one company?

Yes. Put its profile URL (e.g. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb) in startUrls.

Is this good for startup lead generation?

Yes. Many teams use this startup data scraper as a lead generation source for YC-backed startups, then enrich websites or founder profiles downstream.

Does it include a founder email finder?

No. It reports exactly what YC publishes (emails.available). Use your own enrichment for verified addresses.

Why is open_jobs null when number_of_open_jobs is greater than 0?

Turn on scrapeOpenJobs to fetch full listings; otherwise only the count is included.

Can I get results in Python or JavaScript?

Yes. Use the Apify API / SDKs to pull YC companies data into Python, Node.js, or any HTTP client — the same pattern as calling a lightweight Y Combinator API.

Is scraping Y Combinator allowed for research?

This Actor collects only publicly available directory and profile pages. Use the data responsibly and in line with Y Combinator’s terms and applicable laws. For compliance questions on a custom deployment, contact hello.insights.data@gmail.com.

🛟 Support & custom solutions

Bugs or feature ideas? Open an issue on this Actor’s Issues tab in Apify Console.

For custom scrapers, private enrichment, scheduled startup database syncs, or enterprise exports of YC companies data, email hello.insights.data@gmail.com — we build tailored solutions on top of this Actor.

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Data is collected only from Y Combinator’s publicly available directory and company pages. Intended for legitimate startup market research, competitive intelligence, recruiting, and B2B lead generation.