YC Companies & Founders Scraper

Extract structured data from the official Y Combinator startup directory and YC founders directory - no browser rendering required. This Actor talks directly to the same Algolia search API that powers both directory pages, so it's fast, reliable, and returns every field the website itself uses (name, description, batch, industry, location, team size, founder titles, and more). Run it on the Apify platform to get scheduled runs, API access, webhooks, and proxy support out of the box.

Why use YC Companies & Founders Scraper?

• Lead generation & investor research - build a list of startups by batch, industry, or region to find investment targets or partnership leads.
• Recruiting & sales prospecting - pull founder names, titles, and current companies to build outreach lists.
• Market research - analyze YC's startup portfolio by industry, stage, or funding batch over time.
• Competitive intelligence - track which companies are hiring, which have shut down, and how industries trend across batches.

How to use YC Companies & Founders Scraper

1. Click Try for free.
2. On the Input tab, choose a Mode: companies or founders.
3. Optionally set a Search query (same as the search box on the directory page), a Max items limit, and pick from any of the narrowing dropdowns (Batch, Region, Industry, Tags, Status, Is Hiring, Role) - each is populated with the same real options shown in the filter panel on the site, so there's nothing to type.
4. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
5. Open the Dataset tab to browse, export (JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, and more), or download your results via the API.

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	String	companies to scrape ycombinator.com/companies, or founders to scrape ycombinator.com/founders.
query	String	Free-text search query. Leave empty to fetch the whole directory.
maxItems	Integer	Maximum number of records to scrape. 0 = no limit.
companyBatch	Array (dropdown)	Companies only - narrow by YC batch (e.g. Summer 2024).
founderBatch	Array (dropdown)	Founders only - narrow by YC batch, short code (e.g. S24).
companyRegions	Array (dropdown)	Companies only - narrow by region/location (e.g. United States of America).
founderRegions	Array (dropdown)	Founders only - narrow by current region/location.
industries	Array (dropdown)	Companies only - narrow by industry (e.g. Fintech).
tags	Array (dropdown)	Companies only - narrow by tag (e.g. B2B, AI).
status	Array (dropdown)	Companies only - narrow by status: Active, Acquired, Public, or Inactive.
isHiring	Boolean	Companies only - only return companies that are currently hiring.
ycTitles	Array (dropdown)	Founders only - narrow by role (e.g. Founder, CEO, CTO). Lists the most common roles.

All dropdown filters are populated with the actual values from the live directory (fetched at schema-build time), so you pick from a list instead of typing free text.

See the Input tab for the full schema and examples.

Output

Example item in companies mode:

{
  "id": 531,
  "name": "DoorDash",
  "slug": "doordash",
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
  "website": "http://doordash.com",
  "one_liner": "Restaurant delivery.",
  "batch": "Summer 2013",
  "status": "Public",
  "team_size": 8600,
  "industry": "Consumer",
  "industries": ["Consumer", "Food and Beverage"],
  "tags": ["Marketplace", "E-commerce"],
  "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
  "is_hiring": true
}

Example item in founders mode:

{
  "id": 14644,
  "full_name": "Tony Xu",
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/founders/tony-xu",
  "current_company": "DoorDash",
  "current_title": "CEO",
  "yc_titles": ["CEO"],
  "batches": ["S13"],
  "current_region": "United States of America"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Data table

Companies

Field	Description
name, slug, url	Company name and links to its YC profile page
website	Company's own website
one_liner, long_description	Short and full descriptions
batch, status, stage	YC batch, current company status (Active/Acquired/Public/Inactive), and growth stage
team_size	Reported employee count
industry, subindustry, industries, tags	Industry classification and tags
all_locations, regions	Headquarters location(s)
is_hiring, top_company, nonprofit	Flags

Founders

Field	Description
full_name, first_name, last_name, url, hnid	Identity and profile link
current_company, current_title, company_slug, all_companies_text	Current role
yc_titles, batches	Titles and YC batches across their companies
yc_industries, yc_parent_industries, yc_subindustries	Industry classification
current_region	Current location

How much does it cost to scrape the YC directory?

This Actor makes lightweight API calls (no browser, no proxies needed), so scraping the full directory (~6,000 companies or ~13,000 founders) typically takes under a minute and only costs a few compute units - fitting comfortably within the Apify free tier for most use cases.

Tips

• Leave maxItems at 0 to get the complete directory; set it lower for quick tests.
• Use the Batch/Region/Industry/Tags/Status/Role filters to scope a run instead of scraping everything and filtering afterwards.
• Schedule runs (e.g. weekly) via Apify's built-in Scheduler to track new YC batches and founder updates over time.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

This Actor only reads publicly available data exposed by YC's own directory search API and does not access any authenticated Bookface content. It is provided for research and lead-generation purposes; please review Y Combinator's Terms of Use before using the data. YC may change its underlying API at any time without notice, which could require an update to this Actor. If you hit an issue or need custom fields, open a ticket on the Issues tab.