# Y Combinator Scraper (`piotrv1001/y-combinator-scraper`) Actor

The Y Combinator Scraper exports the YC startup directory and Work at a Startup jobs — companies filtered by batch, industry, region, status and hiring, with founders, socials, team size, open roles, salaries and equity — and can track what changed since thelast run.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/piotrv1001/y-combinator-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [FalconScrape](https://apify.com/piotrv1001) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 companies

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### 🚀 Y Combinator Scraper

Export the whole **Y Combinator startup directory** and every open role on **Work at a Startup** as clean, structured rows — no account or login needed. The **Y Combinator Scraper** filters companies by batch, industry, region, status and hiring, returns founders, social links, team size and open jobs, and can **track what changed since the last run**: new companies, team-size and status changes, hiring switched on or off, new and removed jobs. Built for startup sales lists, recruiting pipelines, VC and market research, and anyone who wants a YC change feed instead of re-exporting 6,000 companies every week.

### ✨ Features

- 🏢 **Every YC company**: 6,000+ companies across all batches with name, one-liner, description, website, batch, status (Active / Public / Acquired / Inactive), stage, industry, tags, regions, location, team size, hiring flag, Top Company flag, launch date and former names.
- 🎯 **Directory filters**: batches (`Summer 2026` or `S26`), industries, regions, status, hiring only, Top Companies only, plus the same free-text search as the directory search box.
- 👤 **Company details**: founders with title, bio, LinkedIn and X, the company's LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Crunchbase and GitHub links, year founded, group partner, number of open roles, Launch YC posts and press coverage.
- 💼 **Every open role**: jobs mode walks all hiring companies matching your filters and returns each posting with title, role category, employment type, location, remote flag, salary range, equity range, minimum experience, visa policy, required skills, posting age and apply link — filter by role category and location.
- 📝 **Job details**: the full job description and interview process for each posting.
- 🔔 **Change tracking**: turn on `trackChanges`, schedule the run, and get only what changed — new companies or jobs as full rows, field-level company changes (`teamSize`, `status`, `isHiring`, `stage`, `tags`, `oneLiner`, `location`, `website`, `batch`, `topCompany`, `name`) with before and after values, and companies or jobs that disappeared. A run where nothing changed returns nothing and costs nothing.
- ⚡ **Fast**: the entire directory in under a minute, every open role at all 1,400+ hiring companies in about half a minute. No browser, no proxies.
- 💸 **Pay per row**: one price per company, job and change row; detail rows cost a little more.

### 🛠️ How It Works

1. **Pick a mode** – `companies` for one row per company, `jobs` for one row per open role at the matching hiring companies.
2. **Filter** – choose batches, industries, regions, status, hiring / Top Company flags or a search query. In jobs mode add a role category and a location word (`Remote`, `London`, `New York`).
3. **Optionally enrich** – turn on `scrapeDetails` for founders and links (companies) or the full description and interview process (jobs).
4. **Optionally track** – turn on `trackChanges` and give the memory a name. The first run saves a baseline and returns rows as usual; every later run with the same name returns only `change` rows plus full rows for anything new.
5. **Run** – every row lands in the dataset with a `type` of `company`, `job` or `change`, ready for JSON, CSV or Excel export or an API call.

### 💰 Pricing

| Event            | Price  | What you get                                                                                 |
| ---------------- | ------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `company`        | $0.002 | One company row with 25 directory fields                                                     |
| `company-detail` | $0.005 | The company row plus founders, social and Crunchbase links, year founded, launches and press |
| `job`            | $0.002 | One job row with salary, equity, experience, visa, skills, location and apply link           |
| `job-detail`     | $0.004 | The job row plus the full description and interview process                                  |
| `change`         | $0.001 | One change row: a new, changed or removed company or job, with before and after values       |

Examples: all 6,200 YC companies = **$12.40**; the 230 companies of one batch with founders = **$1.15**; every open engineering role (about 2,800) = **$5.60**; a daily change feed on a batch that adds 2 companies and changes 5 fields = 2 × $0.002 + 7 × $0.001 = **$0.011**.

### ⚠️ Good to know

- Batch names accept both forms: `Summer 2026` or `S26`, `Winter 2025` or `W25`, `Fall 2026` or `F26`, `Spring 2026` or `X26`. Industry and region names must match the directory spelling (`B2B`, `Fintech`, `Healthcare`, `United States of America`, `Europe`, `Remote`).
- Jobs mode always uses hiring companies. Role and location filters are applied to each posting; the `location` word is matched anywhere in the posting's location text, so `Remote` keeps remote-friendly roles.
- Job postings show their age as reported by YC (`postedAgo`, e.g. `4 days`); YC does not publish exact posting dates. New jobs are detected by their id, so change tracking does not depend on these strings.
- With `trackChanges` on, the run always scans everything that matches the filters so removals can be detected reliably. `maxItems` only caps how many rows are saved, so raise it on the baseline run if you want the full export in the dataset — the saved memory covers the whole set either way.
- A removal is reported only after a complete scan; if some pages could not be fetched, the run reports new rows and field changes but skips removals rather than guessing.
- Change rows reflect what the YC directory shows, not verified corporate events: a `status` change to `Acquired` means YC updated the listing.
- Founder emails are not available on the public directory and are not collected.

### 📊 Sample Output Data

One company row with details, one job row and two change rows:

```json
[
    {
        "type": "company",
        "id": 33969,
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/opentag",
        "name": "OpenTag",
        "slug": "opentag",
        "oneLiner": "Model Agnostic AI coworker in Slack",
        "description": "OpenTag is an AI coworker in your Slack with full context on your company. It answers questions and takes real work off your plate. It also keeps your wiki up t…",
        "website": "https://www.tryopentag.com/",
        "batch": "Summer 2026",
        "status": "Active",
        "stage": "Early",
        "industry": "B2B",
        "subindustry": "B2B",
        "industries": ["B2B"],
        "tags": ["AIOps", "Artificial Intelligence", "B2B", "Workflow Automation", "Enterprise Software"],
        "regions": ["United States of America", "America / Canada"],
        "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
        "teamSize": 3,
        "isHiring": false,
        "topCompany": false,
        "nonprofit": false,
        "launchedAt": "2026-08-18T22:54:31.000Z",
        "formerNames": ["Gini Agent", "Gini", "OpenTag", "Open Tag"],
        "logoUrl": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3523399de943bf46e546a3bb703261d27fd2fa69.png",
        "yearFounded": 2026,
        "city": "San Francisco",
        "country": "US",
        "linkedinUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/109881466",
        "twitterUrl": null,
        "facebookUrl": null,
        "crunchbaseUrl": null,
        "githubUrl": null,
        "founders": [
            {
                "name": "Tony Kam",
                "title": "Founder/CEO",
                "bio": "Co-founder and CEO at OpenTag. Previously at Tesla and founded Lilac Labs (S24). Studied EECS at Ber…",
                "linkedinUrl": "https://linkedin.com/in/tonyshekkam",
                "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/kamikariat",
                "isActive": true
            }
        ],
        "groupPartner": "Jared Friedman",
        "openJobs": 0,
        "launches": [
            {
                "title": "OpenTag - Model Agnostic Claude Tag",
                "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/T8R-opentag-model-agnostic-claude-tag",
                "date": null
            },
            {
                "title": "Gini: AI coworker that lives in Slack",
                "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Sz9-gini-ai-coworker-that-lives-in-slack",
                "date": null
            }
        ],
        "news": [],
        "scrapedAt": "2026-09-19T11:04:25.910Z"
    },
    {
        "type": "job",
        "id": 110036,
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nitrode/jobs/KZbQlmq-game-developer",
        "title": "Game Developer ",
        "companyId": 30286,
        "companyName": "Nitrode",
        "companySlug": "nitrode",
        "companyUrl": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nitrode",
        "companyBatch": "Winter 2025",
        "companyOneLiner": "Frontier AI research to advance game development",
        "role": "Engineering",
        "roleType": "Full stack",
        "jobType": "Full-time",
        "location": "San Francisco, CA, US / Remote (US)",
        "isRemote": true,
        "salaryRange": "$95K - $145K",
        "equityRange": null,
        "minExperience": "3+ years",
        "visa": "US citizen/visa only",
        "skills": ["Unreal Engine", "Unity", "Blender"],
        "postedAgo": "4 days",
        "lastActiveAgo": null,
        "hiringManager": null,
        "applyUrl": "https://account.ycombinator.com/authenticate?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.workatastartup.com%2Fapplication%3Fsignup_job_id%3D110036&defaults%5BsignUpActive%5D=true&defaults%5Bwaas_company%5D=30286",
        "scrapedAt": "2026-09-19T11:04:32.423Z"
    }
]
```

Build your YC startup list, hiring pipeline or change feed with the **Y Combinator Scraper** today! 🚀

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

**Companies** returns one row per YC company matching the filters. **Jobs** returns one row per open role at the hiring companies matching the same filters.

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

Optional free-text search over company names, descriptions and tags, exactly like the search box on the YC directory (e.g. `AI agents`, `fintech`, `Berlin`).

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

Limit to these YC batches. Either form works: `Summer 2026` or `S26`, `Winter 2025` or `W25`, `Fall 2026` or `F26`, `Spring 2026` or `X26`. Leave empty for all batches.

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

Limit to these industries or sub-industries as named on the directory, e.g. `B2B`, `Fintech`, `Healthcare`, `Consumer`, `Industrials`, `B2B -> Infrastructure`.

## `regions` (type: `array`):

Limit to companies based in these regions or countries as named on the directory, e.g. `United States of America`, `Europe`, `India`, `Remote`.

## `status` (type: `string`):

Limit to companies with this status.

## `isHiring` (type: `boolean`):

Only companies currently marked as hiring on the directory. Jobs mode always uses hiring companies.

## `topCompany` (type: `boolean`):

Only companies on YC's Top Companies list.

## `role` (type: `string`):

Jobs mode only. Keep roles in this category.

## `location` (type: `string`):

Jobs mode only. Keep roles whose location mentions this text, e.g. `San Francisco`, `New York`, `London`, `Remote`.

## `scrapeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Open each company page for founders (names, titles, bios, LinkedIn/X), LinkedIn, X, Crunchbase and GitHub links, year founded, launches and press — or each job page for the full description and interview process. Slower and priced as a detail row.

## `trackChanges` (type: `boolean`):

The first run saves a snapshot and returns the rows as usual. Every later run with the same filters and memory name returns only what changed: new companies or jobs (full rows), changed company fields (team size, status, hiring, stage, tags, one-liner, location, website) and companies or jobs that disappeared. Schedule the run to get a change feed.

## `memoryName` (type: `string`):

Runs that share this name compare against the same saved snapshot. Use a different name for each set of filters you track.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of rows to save in this run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "companies",
  "batches": [
    "Summer 2026"
  ],
  "status": "any",
  "isHiring": false,
  "topCompany": false,
  "role": "any",
  "scrapeDetails": false,
  "trackChanges": false,
  "memoryName": "default",
  "maxItems": 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": [
        "Summer 2026"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("piotrv1001/y-combinator-scraper").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": ["Summer 2026"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("piotrv1001/y-combinator-scraper").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": [
    "Summer 2026"
  ]
}' |
apify call piotrv1001/y-combinator-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,piotrv1001/y-combinator-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/hbh4tktHBWMkdMxrp/builds/MklDxSvHfdfhiUwfd/openapi.json