Introduction

With 10,000 (or more!) applicants to every incubator batch at Y Combinator, it can be a huge challenge for startups to stand out and receive that coveted acceptance letter.

And the competition is only getting fiercer. As Bloomberg reported, it’s getting harder and harder to get accepted to a Y Combinator program as the incubator grows more popular and more tech industry pros seek the entrepreneurship route after layoffs.

The program typically has around a 1–1.5% acceptance rate, but that has even dipped below 1% in recent batches.

So, how can founders improve their chances of getting accepted into Y Combinator? We spoke to alumni who have jumped the hurdle successfully, even if it took a few tries.

Here’s how to prepare for the process of applying and attending YC.

What does the application process at Y Combinator look like?

Every season brings a new chance to join YC, as the organization offers four batches per year: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Applications typically begin one season prior; for instance, applicants interested in participating in the Summer batch will need to apply by mid-May.

Applicants chosen to move forward after sending the online application will go through a video conference interview process. YC typically notifies you whether you make the batch on the day of the interview or soon after, and YC funds each accepted company immediately.

More information about deadlines is here, and the application link is available here.

Keep in mind that the application process can take anywhere from a few hours to several years, depending on whether you decide to reapply if your initial attempt is rejected.

For Artur Negrão, CEO of Salvy, the application spanned a couple of years and four applications to get accepted. By his fourth time, the application itself took two to three hours, but it was based on a couple of years’ worth of data on the company.

It took Praty Sharma, co-founder at Dashworks, about half a day to fill out the application, which he explained had a series of long-form and short-answer responses.

After applying, the response time can be quick. According to Sharma, it took only a week or two to find out that YC wanted to move forward with the interview phase.

Examples of a successful application

Looking for more inspiration? Y Combinator has published an example of a successful application by Dropbox, which was accepted into the Summer 2007 batch.

As you can see from the responses, the wording is clear and straight to the point, while also envisioning how Dropbox could scale and integrate other tech in the future. Y Combinator funded Dropbox, and the company went on to be the first YC-funded startup to go public.

You can also check out the following application video from DoorDash, which was accepted in the Summer 2013 batch and went public in 2020.

Let’s dive into more details on how to respond to YC application questions from founders who have also applied successfully.

Preparing for a YC application

Each YC partner could have around 100 applications or more to review per day, so it’s easy to become lost in the shuffle without taking the time to be clear and enticing with what you want to achieve.

That’s why it’s important to focus on three primary objectives during the application and interview process: 1) what you’re making, 2) the market, and 3) your team. If you have traction, it can be helpful to prove that, too.

Describing the product

First thing’s first: what are you going to sell? Now isn’t the time to employ your best marketing speak; instead, go straight to the point with a short, clear description of what your startup will make and sell.

When you want to stand out among the competition, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using flashy phrases and jargon that jump off the page. But teams with successful applications to Y Combinator skipped the fluff, and it paid off.

According to Andrea Baronchelli, CEO of Aspire, his team’s application made the cut because they focused on showing “a pressing customer need — no buzz words, no fluff, just the problem and solution.”

Negrão agreed, noting that his team was very straightforward with their application.

Explaining the target market

As with describing the product or service, a startup needs to be clear on who it is selling to and why. You don’t have to aim to serve a massive market (although you can). All that matters is that your product will solve a problem for the target market, and that you can explain why concisely.

Negrão explained that having a big market isn’t enough; instead, his team focused on explaining both market size and their first step to capturing that market, mimicking Airbnb’s strength in understanding their market and how to serve potential clients.

Like Negrão, Baronchelli’s team succeeded in its application by explaining the market size clearly. He said, “It was as simple as number of SMBs present in the region, with X% of them not happy about current solution x ARPU. That gave us a clear, bottom-up view of the opportunity, rooted in user pain and behavior rather than abstract market sizing.”

If you do opt to target a large market, make it clear as to why your company is the right one to disrupt the industry and how you’ll serve so many potential clients.

“We described Dashworks as building a universal assistant that could find anything inside your organization across all your work apps,” Sharma said. “I think what resonated was both the size of this market and how acute the pain point is. Anyone who's worked in a modern organization understands the frustration of information being scattered across dozens of tools. YC partners could immediately connect with this problem, visualize the solution's value, and recognize the enormous market potential if we succeeded.”

Don’t get too caught up in fleshing out the market research, though. Tim Suzman, managing partner at Pioneer Fund (an active investor in YC startups) and a YC alum, said that traditional market research on total addressable market (TAM) and market opportunity won’t make for a stronger application.

He said, “Here’s what does stand out:

• Founders building quickly and sharing their progress.
• Founders talking to real users/customers.
• Founders who’ve demonstrated a track record of achievement and building.
• Clear language.”

Rather than prioritizing deep TAM research, Suzman recommended proving that you have even just a few users who are passionate about the product and that there is room to scale.

“YC cares about a few people LOVING your product. Your initial market can be small, as long as there is a way to grow it — which there often is,” Suzman said.

Showcasing a strong founding team

One of the biggest things that Y Combinator partners consider when evaluating an application is the founding team.

“Overall, the most important thing for YC is the founders. What have they done? What are they capable of? How clearly do they think?” Suzman shared.

Having the right founding team is an essential part of the equation, so much so that Baronchelli found a team-related question to be one of the most surprising and memorable parts of the interview process.

According to Baronchelli, the interviewers asked, “Why you?” While simple, “it really forced us to reflect on what uniquely positioned us to solve this problem,” he explained.

Proving traction

Another great way to stand out is to have a strong founding team and proof of traction, which were the secrets to success for Negrão’s team.

“It was a mix of traction, a mix of really understanding the thesis and understanding that could be a great thesis … and also liking the founders, understanding that we as founders were the right people to do it,” Negrão told HubSpot for Startups. His team had a wide range of backgrounds and capabilities while still working well together, which he believed helped improve his application.

But traction isn’t everything, and early-stage companies that have yet to launch or grow revenue still have a shot at joining Y Combinator. According to YC, about 40% of participants in each batch are idea-stage startups.

“We had zero revenue and essentially zero traction when we applied. We had built a prototype that barely worked and had shared it with a few friends for feedback, but no one was actively using the product,” Sharma said.

For Baronchelli’s application, the idea and the team mattered more than proving traction.

“At the time of our application, we didn’t have significant traction or revenue, we had just built a demo product,” Baronchelli said. “YC has a track record of backing early-stage companies before they’ve launched, as long as the team is strong and the problem is compelling.”

Acing the interview

If your application is accepted, you will move forward to an interview round. According to Y Combinator, the interview will only be about 10 minutes over video, and you don’t need to do much to prepare.

In fact, Y Combinator doesn’t recommend rehearsing for the interview, which, as Suzman pointed out, can lead to robotic responses in the actual interview. Instead, the organization recommends coming prepared to show any growth of the company from the time you applied to the time of the interview, but performing naturally.

For some founders, mock interviewing can be helpful for tailoring responses, though. Sharma told HubSpot for Startups that he and his co-founder reached out to YC alumni to prepare for the interview and used mock interviews to familiarize themselves with the interview style.

“YC has a very specific 10-minute interview format where partners ask rapid-fire questions, often interrupting you, so you have to be extremely precise and demonstrate deep understanding of your business,” Sharma said. “This format forces you to achieve remarkable clarity about your business. You need to distill complex ideas, market dynamics, and competitive advantages into extremely concise points while still conveying depth. This exercise is actually valuable beyond just the application — it forces you to develop the kind of clarity that will serve you well in pitching investors, customers, and potential employees.”

Negrão, who participated in three interviews, told HubSpot for Startups that deeply knowing and understanding the company’s numbers was helpful in the interview process. Even if you don’t rehearse the wording, knowing the numbers is helpful in proving traction to the partners.

Suzman confirmed that knowing the numbers is essential and far more important than rehearsing resume speak. Knowing KPIs like growth over the past week and daily active users is helpful for the short interview.

Another tip from Suzman is to prepare for the first interview question: What is your company going to make?

“It should be very clear to YC what you’re making, in as few words as possible,” Suzman explained. “There should be no background info before answering. Just a crisp statement with no buzzwords, no vagueness, directly answering the question. When you say your first short sentence, the YC partners should understand it so clearly they could go build it.”

Suzman shared the following one-liner example with HubSpot for Startups:

• Weak example of a one-liner: “The house cleaning market is a huge $XXB industry, but customers struggle to find reliable and affordable help, so we’re revolutionizing the entire industry using proprietary technology.”

• Strong one-liner example: “We’re making a house-cleaning robot that cleaning companies can hire to help them clean faster.”

Handling rejection

With less than a 1% acceptance rate, most startups that apply for Y Combinator won’t be invited to join the next batch.

You may feel discouraged by a rejection, but it’s actually a great opportunity to prepare for a future application. In fact, according to Y Combinator, many successful alums applied multiple times before receiving an invite, and the organization strongly encourages reapplying.

For Sharma, who was accepted upon the first application with Dashworks but had previously been rejected for applications with other teams and ideas, the rejection process was still valuable for learning how to improve in the future.

“The key insights I gained were that you need: customer validation (not just an idea), clarity on market size and your path to capturing it, and a compelling, unique insight that explains why you'll succeed where others might fail,” Sharma told HubSpot for Startups. “YC is looking for startups with early signs of traction or a truly exceptional insight, not just interesting concepts.”

If you do reapply, be sure to show how your company has grown since the previous application(s).

“What made us stand out was probably because we applied for two years. We were just showing a lot of progress, right?” Negrão said. “We were really one of the companies with the highest traction. So, that probably got their attention.”

From an investor standpoint, Suzman agreed that proving your growth between one application and another can lead you closer to an invitation to the program.

“For us, resilience and resourcefulness matter even more than persistence,” he said. “If someone keeps applying over and over with the same company in the same state, that’s not a strong positive signal to us. But if they are rapidly learning and progressing, that’s a good sign.”

Applying to YC for global startups

Startups from around the world apply to YC each season. Because Y Combinator is based in the U.S., startups that receive acceptance into the incubator will need to relocate for about three months, which can add another layer of complexity for founders from abroad.

Here’s how to navigate the challenges and reap the rewards that come from applying to Y Combinator as a startup based outside of the U.S.

Moving to San Francisco

Many of the YC alumni we spoke to were based outside of the U.S., where Y Combinator is based (San Francisco, previously, Mountain View). That can present an extra hurdle for founders based in other countries, as they also need to consider how a temporary move to California could impact the business and their personal lives.

For instance, Negrão moved his wife and son, who was one year old at the time, to San Francisco for the three-month period. His team simultaneously had to continue working with the remaining staff, who were still in Brazil, which meant waking up early to make meetings work across differing time zones and around the YC programming.

“It was one of the best times of my life, but it was also super challenging to keep the company going here in Brazil,” he explained. “It was kind of stressful, but I mean, you're not there to relax, so it was part of the whole thing.”

Because YC funds chosen startups right away, founders are able to use some of their funding for relocation costs if needed.

YC resources for international founders

Y Combinator offers plenty of resources for international applicants, including visa and immigration information and accommodation assistance.

Y Combinator explained on its website that it connects founders with immigration attorneys to help participants apply for visas and develop personalized immigration plans to attend the program. For incubator participants who plan to incorporate in the U.S., Y Combinator can help with that as well.

Impressing US-based investors

As part of the Y Combinator program, startups have a chance to pitch their company to selected investors and media on Demo Day. Pitching to U.S.-based investors as a company based abroad can bring additional challenges for founders.

“There were barriers when it came to fundraising, as most of the investors were U.S.-based investors,” Baronchelli said. “Many Silicon Valley investors have not invested in SEA startups, so Aspire had to work harder to showcase the market potential.”

Startups will need to do extra work to explain location-specific challenges they are solving with their products, both in the application and during Demo Day.

“There are very specific problems that we have in Brazil, and they have to know that they're specific,” Negrão said. “You have to tackle them with clarity, so that they understand what exactly you're tackling. If you're not transparent enough and you don't explain that well, you're not going to get there.”

Building credibility from YC

Speaking of fundraising, startups may find more opportunities by presenting a solution in a less saturated market, which could help attract potential investors, especially for those that participate in a globally known incubator such as Y Combinator.

“It's not easy to raise in Brazil. It's not easy to raise in Brazil in telecom, because telecom is a super-specific market that venture capital doesn't really understand. So it was a lot more challenging to fundraise before YC than after,” Negrão explained.

Participating in Y Combinator can strengthen a startup’s reputation and credibility, both with investors and even customers.

Baronchelli explained that Y Combinator helped boost Aspire’s credibility instantly with investors and customers, and the Y Combinator investor network expanded Aspire's connections for more venture capitalists, not just in Asia but globally.

Negrão had a similar experience with Salvy, which he said earned more customers and even just awareness from its target market because it participated in the incubator.

What to do after being accepted to a YC program

So, you get the acceptance letter, and it’s time to pack your bags and head to San Francisco. But what else can founders do to maximize their time with YC? Here’s what alums had to say about the process of joining YC.

Set objectives

Whether you’re an idea-stage startup or a company that already has some traction and revenue, it’s best to come into the incubator with goals you want to achieve during your time at YC. Setting goals will help you better allocate your time and the provided resources toward reaching a milestone.

“Set clear objectives and goals that you want to achieve by the end of the program,” Baronchelli said. “YC is short and intense, so the sooner founders engage, iterate, and leverage the network, the more value they’ll get.”

Take advantage of resources

From day one, startups are able to tap into a vast range of resources and network connections through YC. Based on the conversations we had with alumni, future participants should prepare to make the most of these resources in order to launch and scale their startups successfully.

“If you have a company, just launch as fast as you can on Launch YC, launch on Bookface, which is their social network,” Negrão said. “Just put your word out there and then start scheduling those venture capital chats that you're going to have with investors. Just put them closer to the Demo Day.”

Sharma agreed, noting that those invited to join a YC batch should immediately start connecting with batchmates and YC alums, even before heading to San Francisco to start the program.

“These connections serve two purposes: first, fellow founders can become your early customers (many of our peers gained significant traction by selling to our cohort); second, the YC network can provide invaluable feedback on your product,” Sharma said.

Understand feedback

Y Combinator, like other incubators, connects startups with mentors, who can offer advice for overcoming common startup challenges or share feedback as the startup iterates throughout the program.

“YC will help founders avoid many, many pitfalls,” Suzman said. “These pitfalls are often from founders trying to reinvent the wheel or do things differently in a way that distracts from their core challenges. Let’s say YC is telling you to launch, and you think you have a special reason that you’re an exception. You’re probably wrong, unless somehow not-launching is a fundamental strategy for your startup.”

Participants should take note of the feedback they receive and consider whether and how to apply it to their product or operations. However, Y Combinator doesn’t expect to take control of the startup, and founders can still maintain their vision throughout the program.

“YC acts as a coach rather than a manager,” Baronchelli explained. “The partners don’t tell you what to do. They offer feedback, suggestions, and perspective based on seeing thousands of startups go through similar journeys. It’s really up to you to take what’s useful and apply it in a way that fits your context and vision. The key was staying open to feedback while still trusting our instincts and domain knowledge.”

Prep for Demo Day

According to Baronchelli, startups will spend “countless hours” preparing for Demo Day, when they pitch the startup to a crowd of about 1,500 investors and media companies.

Sharma said the same thing about his experience: “We were completely immersed in Dashworks during YC. We’d work from when we woke up until we couldn't stay awake any longer, then start again the next day.”

During the Y Combinator process, you’ll spend time honing your startup’s idea or product into the strongest possible solution to a specified problem of your target market.

“We focused on sharpening the most important thing: a crystal-clear articulation of the problem and why our solution is the obvious answer,” Baronchelli told HubSpot for Startups.

Suzman, who has attended 29 Demo Days, first as a participant in Summer 2011 and since as an investor, explained that the program ensures that startups refine their pitches by the time Demo Day rolls around. What helps startups earn more media attention and other investor interest is simply having a good idea, in addition to these refined pitches.

Connect with investors

While the bulk of the YC program involves refining the business idea and preparing for Demo Day, some participants have emphasized the importance of connecting with investors and considering how they will fundraise and continue the traction gained during the program.

“We discovered that most successful startups in our batch had started fundraising conversations much earlier and closed their rounds before Demo Day even happened,” Sharma said. “In retrospect, I'd recommend building relationships with potential investors earlier in the program, even if you don't formally pitch until later. This gives investors time to track your progress and builds familiarity that can accelerate decisions when you do start raising.”

Maintaining success after attending YC

The work doesn’t stop once you’ve made it through Demo Day and left San Francisco — it’s only just beginning.

One of the biggest tasks for startups that are accepted into Y Combinator is to keep up the momentum after the incubator program ends.

“YC just imposes naturally a weekly rhythm for things to happen, and that's super helpful in the beginning,” Negrão explained. “It's easier to fall back into distraction and just not move that fast. So we just tried to see the company as a weekly challenge for as long as we could.”

Another excellent way for startups to continue their success long after their time at YC is to stay in contact with the partners and fellow founders they met during the incubator.

Sharma said that the relationships he gained from YC were extremely helpful in his company’s success. “When facing difficult decisions or unexpected challenges, having peers who understand the startup journey provides both practical advice and emotional support. These relationships evolve from cohort companions to genuine friendships and business relationships that continue long after the program.”

For Baronchelli, getting involved with the YC Growth Program also helped continue the efforts to scale and extend the network.

“It felt like a natural continuation of the momentum from the original batch, and it helped us level up during key moments of growth,” Baronchelli said.

Negrão recommended returning to San Francisco at least once or twice a year to meet with partners and find inspiration from other alums, and then return to your startup with that elevated energy.

Conclusion

Applying to Y Combinator is a goal for many startups, and that means it can be a highly competitive process.

But with so many perks on the line — including dedicated time and resources to work on your startup, $500K in funding, and a wide network of investors, customers, and fellow founders — it’s absolutely worth the shot to apply to participate in this incubator.

By following these tips from YC alums, you can improve your chances of earning a spot in the next batch of Y Combinator — and maybe one day soon, you, too, can share your experience to help other founders scale their dreams.

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