🚀 Y Combinator Scraper + Traction Score: YC companies, Launch HN & Product Hunt

Which new AI startups are actually getting traction? This Actor scans the newest Y Combinator batches and recent Launch HN posts, checks each startup's public signals, and ranks them with a transparent 0–100 traction score and breakout alerts. One run replaces hours of scrolling YC's directory, Hacker News and Product Hunt.

• ✅ Every company in the latest YC batches (or any batch you pick), with one-liner, description, tags, team size, location, hiring status and YC profile link
• ✅ Recent Launch HN posts matched to their YC profiles, with points and comments
• ✅ Traction score 0–100 built from public signals: Launch HN reception, Hacker News coverage over the last year, stories in the last 30 days, Product Hunt, team size, hiring, YC top-company flag. Every component is returned, nothing is a black box
• ✅ Breakout flag for startups that are taking off (e.g. a Launch HN with 150+ points or 5+ stories in 30 days)
• ✅ Look up any company by name or website, YC or not
• ✅ Filters: AI only, keywords (agent, robotics, voice…), hiring only
• ✅ HTML radar report plus clean JSON, ready for Sheets, a CRM or an AI agent
• ✅ Fair billing: all candidates are scored for free, you pay only for the top N startups returned

🎯 Who is it for?

• VCs and scouts: a weekly shortlist of the YC and Launch HN startups people are paying attention to.
• Sales and partnerships: new AI companies that are hiring, with website and one-liner, ready to prospect.
• Founders and analysts: what the newest batch is building (tag breakdown) and who is breaking out.
• Newsletters and content creators: "10 AI startups to watch this week" in one run.

🚀 Quick start

1. Leave What to scan on Latest Y Combinator batches (or pick Recent Launch HN posts).
2. Optionally add keywords such as agent or robotics.
3. Click Start. Open the HTML report from the Storage tab, or download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel.

⬇️ Input examples

The newest YC batches, AI companies that are hiring:

{ "mode": "yc", "onlyHiring": true, "maxStartups": 50 }

Everyone who posted a Launch HN in the last 90 days, AI agents only:

{ "mode": "launches", "launchDays": 90, "keywords": ["agent"] }

Check specific companies:

{ "mode": "lookup", "companies": ["coveragecat.com", "Anthropic", "herdr"] }

⬆️ Output (one item per startup)

{
  "rank": 1,
  "name": "ProvenMetal",
  "website": "https://provenmetal.com",
  "oneLiner": "AI-native electronics manufacturing for the American industrial base",
  "batch": "Summer 2026",
  "tags": ["Hardware", "Manufacturing", "Electronics"],
  "teamSize": 4,
  "isHiring": true,
  "tractionScore": 49,
  "tier": "rising",
  "breakout": true,
  "signals": ["Launch HN: 237 points, 156 comments", "Hiring"],
  "scoreComponents": { "launchHn": 26, "hnBuzz": 14, "recentMentions": 0, "productHunt": 0, "team": 4, "hiring": 5, "ycTop": 0 },
  "hackerNews": {
    "launchPost": { "title": "Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks", "points": 237, "comments": 156, "date": "2026-08-06T15:59:15Z", "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49198464" },
    "mentions": 1, "mentions30d": 0, "points": 237
  },
  "ycUrl": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/provenmetal"
}

The key-value store also has OUTPUT (top 10, breakouts, tag breakdown) and REPORT (the HTML radar).

Tiers: hot (60+), rising (35–59), emerging (15–34), quiet (under 15).

💵 Pricing

Event	Price
Startup profile returned (scored and enriched)	$0.005 ($5 per 1,000)
Radar report (HTML + summary), once per run	$0.10

Example: a weekly radar of the top 50 AI startups costs $0.35. Candidates that are scored but not returned are free.

🤖 Use it from AI agents (MCP)

Add this URL as an MCP server in Claude, Cursor or any MCP client and ask "Which AI startups from the latest YC batch are getting the most traction?":

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=lsso/ai-startup-radar

❓ FAQ

Where does the data come from? Y Combinator's public company directory (via the open yc-oss mirror, refreshed daily), the official Hacker News search API (Algolia) and Product Hunt's public feed. No logins, no private data. This Actor is not affiliated with Y Combinator, Hacker News or Product Hunt; yc-oss is a community project that mirrors YC's public directory.

Is funding included? Not yet: there is no free, reliable funding source. We only use signals we can show you the source for.

Why is a well-known startup scored low? The score measures public developer-community traction (Hacker News, Product Hunt), not revenue. Companies that sell to enterprises quietly can score low while doing well.

How fresh is it? Every run fetches live data. Schedule it weekly and compare scores to see who is accelerating.

📝 Changelog

• 1.2 (2026-09-25): New lower price: $5 per 1,000 startup profiles; clearer data-source and not-affiliated note.
• 1.1 (2026-09-24): Launch HN posts are matched to the right company (the YC batch code or launch date must fit, so a 2026 startup no longer inherits a 2020 company's launch with the same name); very short names no longer match unrelated HN stories; report links are always absolute https links.
• 1.0 (2026-09-24): First release: YC batches, Launch HN, lookup mode, traction score with components, breakout flag, HTML radar.