Y Combinator Companies Scraper

Overview

This Apify actor efficiently scrapes company listings from the Y Combinator directory. It provides comprehensive data on YC-funded startups, including basic company information, founders, and open job opportunities. Perfect for market research, investment analysis, and talent scouting.

Features

• Comprehensive Company Data: Extracts detailed information about Y Combinator companies, including names, descriptions, locations, and funding details.
• Flexible Scraping Options: Choose to scrape all companies or focus on specific batches via custom URLs.
• Founder Information: Optionally retrieve founder details including names and social media profiles.
• Job Opportunities: Discover open positions at YC companies with full job descriptions.
• Pagination Handling: Automatically navigates through directory pages to collect the desired number of results.
• Proxy Support: Built-in proxy configuration for reliable data extraction.
• Structured Output: Saves all data in a clean, consistent JSON format to an Apify dataset.

Input Parameters

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
url	string	Specific Y Combinator directory URL to start scraping from (e.g., https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202025). If provided, overrides the default directory URL.	-
scrape_all_companies	boolean	If true, scrape companies from the entire directory. If false, use the provided url or default to the main directory page.	false
scrape_founders	boolean	If true, visit individual company pages to extract founder information.	true
scrape_open_jobs	boolean	If true, visit individual company pages to extract open job listings.	true
results_wanted	integer	Maximum number of companies to collect. Set to a high number or leave empty to collect all available.	100
max_pages	integer	Maximum number of directory pages to visit as a safety limit.	20
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings for the scraper. Recommended to use Apify Proxy for best results.	{"useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]}

Output Data

The actor outputs structured data for each company to an Apify dataset. Each record contains:

Basic Company Information

• company_image: URL of the company's logo
• company_id: Unique identifier for the company
• company_name: Official company name
• url: Link to the company's Y Combinator profile page
• short_description: Brief company description
• long_description: Detailed company description
• batch: Y Combinator batch (e.g., "S25", "W24")
• status: Current company status (e.g., "Active", "Acquired")
• tags: Array of industry or technology tags
• company_location: Geographic location of the company
• year_founded: Year the company was founded
• team_size: Number of team members
• primary_partner: Main Y Combinator partner associated with the company
• website: Company's official website URL
• company_linkedin: LinkedIn profile URL
• company_x: X (formerly Twitter) profile URL

Founders (when scrape_founders is enabled)

• founders: Array of founder objects, each containing:
  • id: Founder identifier
  • name: Founder's full name
  • linkedin: LinkedIn profile URL
  • x: X profile URL

Open Jobs (when scrape_open_jobs is enabled)

• open_jobs: Array of job objects, each containing:
  • id: Job posting identifier
  • title: Job title
  • description_url: URL to the full job description
  • description: Job description text
  • location: Job location
  • salary: Salary information
  • years_experience: Required years of experience

Example Output Record

{
  "company_image": "https://example.com/logo.png",
  "company_id": "company-123",
  "company_name": "Example Startup",
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/example-startup",
  "short_description": "Building the future of AI",
  "long_description": "Example Startup is revolutionizing artificial intelligence with cutting-edge machine learning solutions.",
  "batch": "S25",
  "status": "Active",
  "tags": ["AI", "Machine Learning", "SaaS"],
  "company_location": "San Francisco, CA",
  "year_founded": "2023",
  "team_size": "15",
  "primary_partner": "John Doe",
  "website": "https://examplestartup.com",
  "company_linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/company/example-startup",
  "company_x": "https://x.com/example_startup",
  "founders": [
    {
      "id": "founder-1",
      "name": "Jane Smith",
      "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/in/jane-smith",
      "x": "https://x.com/janesmith"
    }
  ],
  "open_jobs": [
    {
      "id": "job-456",
      "title": "Senior Software Engineer",
      "description_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/example-startup/jobs/senior-software-engineer",
      "description": "We are looking for a talented software engineer to join our growing team...",
      "location": "Remote",
      "salary": "$150k - $200k",
      "years_experience": "5+"
    }
  ]
}

Usage

Basic Usage

1. Run the Actor: Start the actor from the Apify platform or via API.
2. Configure Inputs: Set your desired parameters in the input form.
3. Monitor Progress: Track scraping progress in real-time.
4. Access Results: Download the dataset in JSON, CSV, or other formats.

Advanced Configuration

• Target Specific Batches: Use the url parameter to focus on particular Y Combinator batches (e.g., Summer 2025, Winter 2024).
• Large-Scale Scraping: Increase results_wanted and max_pages for comprehensive data collection.
• Performance Optimization: Adjust proxy settings based on your Apify plan for faster, more reliable scraping.

Configuration Examples

Scrape Summer 2025 Batch Companies with Founders

{
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202025",
  "scrape_founders": true,
  "scrape_open_jobs": false,
  "results_wanted": 50
}

Scrape All Companies with Full Details

{
  "scrape_all_companies": true,
  "scrape_founders": true,
  "scrape_open_jobs": true,
  "results_wanted": 1000,
  "max_pages": 50
}

Quick Company Overview

{
  "scrape_founders": false,
  "scrape_open_jobs": false,
  "results_wanted": 100
}

Limitations

• The actor respects Y Combinator's website terms of service and implements appropriate delays between requests.
• Some company data may be incomplete if not publicly available on the directory.
• Job and founder information requires additional page visits, which may increase scraping time.
• Results are limited by the current state of the Y Combinator directory and may not include the most recently added companies.

Support

For issues, feature requests, or questions about this actor:

• Check the Apify documentation for general guidance.
• Review the actor's source code for implementation details.
• Contact the actor maintainer through the Apify platform.

Changelog

• v1.0.0: Initial release with full Y Combinator directory scraping capabilities.