# Y Combinator Companies & Founders Scraper (`shawnle204/yc-companies-founders-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes Y Combinator's startup directory for company details, tags, and founder names, roles, and social profiles. Filter by batch and industry.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/shawnle204/yc-companies-founders-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Shawn L](https://apify.com/shawnle204) (community)
- **Categories:**
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 results

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Y Combinator Companies & Founders Scraper

Turn the entire YC startup directory into a clean, ready-to-use lead list — company details plus **founder names, titles, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X profiles** — without clicking through thousands of pages by hand.

If you sell to startups, recruit at startups, or run outreach campaigns for clients who do, this Actor gives you a fresh, structured dataset of every company that's been through Y Combinator, filterable by batch and industry, in minutes instead of days.

### Who this is for

- **Sales & BD reps** building account lists of well-funded, high-growth startups to prospect into.
- **Recruiters & talent agencies** sourcing candidates or looking for founders and hiring leads at fast-moving companies.
- **B2B agencies & investors** tracking new batches, mapping competitive landscapes, or building deal flow pipelines.
- **Growth marketers** who need decision-maker contact points (founder name + LinkedIn) for personalized outreach at scale.

### What you get

For every company matching your filters, one dataset row with:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `company_name` | Company name |
| `batch` | YC batch code, e.g. `W26`, `S25` |
| `status` | Company status, e.g. `Active`, `Acquired`, `Public` |
| `tagline` | One-line pitch |
| `description` | Full company description |
| `website` | Direct company website URL |
| `yc_url` | Link to the company's YC profile |
| `team_size` | Reported team size |
| `location` | HQ location |
| `tags` | Industry / product tags |
| `founders` | List of founders, each with `name`, `role`, `linkedin_url`, `twitter_url` |

Export straight to Excel, Google Sheets, CSV, JSON, or push it to your CRM via API/webhook/integration.

### How it works

This Actor doesn't screen-scrape a headless browser through thousands of page loads — it talks directly to the JSON data sources that power the YC directory itself:

1. **Discovery** — queries the same public search index YC's own website uses to power its directory search, filtered by your chosen batch and/or industry.
2. **Extraction** — visits each matching company's page and reads the structured company record embedded in it (the same data React uses to render the page), including the founder list with social links.

That means fast runs, low compute cost, and no CAPTCHA-fighting headless Chrome instances — while still returning every founder's LinkedIn and Twitter/X profile.

### Input options

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `batch` | string | YC batch code, e.g. `"W26"`, `"S25"`, `"F24"`. Use `"All"` (default) for every batch. |
| `industry` | string | Filter by industry/tag, e.g. `"AI"`, `"B2B"`, `"Fintech"`, `"Healthcare"`. Leave blank for all industries. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Maximum number of companies to return. Default `100`. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Proxy settings. Residential proxies are used by default and strongly recommended. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "batch": "S25",
  "industry": "AI",
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

### Sample output

```json
{
  "company_name": "DoorDash",
  "batch": "S13",
  "status": "Public",
  "tagline": "Restaurant delivery.",
  "description": "Founded in 2013, DoorDash is a San Francisco-based technology company...",
  "website": "http://doordash.com",
  "yc_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
  "team_size": 8600,
  "location": "San Francisco, US",
  "tags": ["Marketplace", "E-commerce"],
  "founders": [
    {
      "name": "Tony Xu",
      "role": "Founder/CEO",
      "twitter_url": null,
      "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony"
    }
  ]
}
```

### Tips for best results

- Combine `batch` and `industry` to build tightly targeted lists (e.g. every AI company from the current batch).
- Run this on a schedule (Apify's built-in scheduler) to catch newly announced batches as soon as YC publishes them.
- Not every founder profile has a public Twitter/X or LinkedIn link listed on YC — those fields will be `null` when unavailable.

### FAQ

**Is this legal / against YC's terms?**
This Actor only reads publicly available information already shown to any visitor of ycombinator.com/companies — it does not access private, gated, or authenticated data. As with any scraping activity, use the data responsibly and in line with the target site's terms of service and applicable law.

**How fast is it?**
Because it reads structured data directly instead of rendering pages in a browser, it typically processes companies far faster than a headless-browser scraper, at a fraction of the compute cost.

**Can I get every company ever funded by YC?**
Yes — leave `batch` set to `"All"` and set `maxItems` high enough to cover the full directory (6,000+ companies as of 2026).

# Actor input Schema

## `batch` (type: `string`):

Filter by a specific YC batch, using YC's short batch codes, e.g. "W26" (Winter 2026), "S25" (Summer 2025), "F24" (Fall 2024), "X25" (Spring 2025). Use "All" to scrape companies from every batch.

## `industry` (type: `string`):

Filter by an industry or tag as used on the YC directory, e.g. "B2B", "AI", "Fintech", "Healthcare", "Developer Tools". Leave empty to include all industries.

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

The maximum number of companies to scrape. Each result costs one page load, so keep this in mind when scraping large batches.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings used for every request. Residential proxies are strongly recommended, as YC actively rate-limits and blocks datacenter IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "batch": "All",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `companies` (type: `string`):

Company and founder records scraped from the YC directory.

# 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 = {
    "batch": "All",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("shawnle204/yc-companies-founders-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 = {
    "batch": "All",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("shawnle204/yc-companies-founders-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 '{
  "batch": "All",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call shawnle204/yc-companies-founders-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,shawnle204/yc-companies-founders-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/eE5N3JIgwXubYZtxC/builds/gkCHo2YqoVBBCpyOy/openapi.json