Query every YC startup in one line of code.
A free, open JSON API over the entire Y Combinator Startup Directory — with transcribed application and demo day videos. Built for founders, indie hackers, and researchers.
Quickstart · Recipes · Transcripts · SDKs · Schema · Contributing
YC data is scattered — a clunky directory, huge JSON dumps, random scrapers. If you want to answer "which AI startups from the last 3 batches are hiring?" you're stuck writing a scraper from scratch every time.
yc-api fixes that. It's a clean, static JSON API served from GitHub Pages — no auth, no rate limits, no API keys. Auto-updated daily. Every company includes founders (with SMTP-verified emails), open jobs, press, Launch YC posts, social links, and 50+ fields of metadata scraped directly from ycombinator.com.
5,800+ companies · 48 batches · 59 industries · 331 tags · Updated daily
# Get all YC companies currently hiring
curl -s https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/hiring.json | python3 -m json.tool | head -50pip install yc-apifrom yc_api import YCClient
client = YCClient()
# All AI companies that are hiring
for company in client.search(tag="AI", hiring=True):
print(f"{company.name} ({company.batch}) — {company.one_liner}")npm install ycombinator-apiimport { YCClient } from "ycombinator-api";
const client = new YCClient();
const hiring = await client.search({ tag: "AI", hiring: true });
hiring.forEach((c) => console.log(`${c.name} (${c.batch}) — ${c.one_liner}`));Every endpoint is a static .json file — just fetch it:
https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/all.json # every company
https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/hiring.json # currently hiring
https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/top.json # top companies
https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2026.json # filter by batch
https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/tags/ai.json # filter by tag
https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/industries/fintech.json # filter by industry
from yc_api import YCClient
client = YCClient()
recent_ai = [
c for c in client.search(tag="AI", hiring=True)
if c.batch in ("Winter 2026", "Spring 2026", "Fall 2025")
]
print(f"{len(recent_ai)} AI startups hiring from last 3 batches")
for c in recent_ai[:10]:
print(f" {c.name} — {c.one_liner}")from yc_api import YCClient
client = YCClient()
for company in client.search(tag="Developer Tools", hiring=True):
for founder in company.founders:
if founder.email:
print(f"{founder.full_name},{founder.email},{company.name},{company.website}")from yc_api import YCClient
client = YCClient()
for company in client.get_hiring():
for job in company.jobs:
if job.role == "Engineering" and "sponsor" in (job.visa or "").lower():
salary = job.salary_range or "Not listed"
print(f"{company.name} — {job.title} ({salary})")from collections import Counter
from yc_api import YCClient
client = YCClient()
industries = Counter(c.industry for c in client.get_top())
for industry, count in industries.most_common(10):
print(f" {industry}: {count}")from yc_api import YCClient
client = YCClient()
launched = []
for company in client.get_all():
for launch in company.launches:
launched.append((launch.votes, company.name, launch.title, launch.url))
for votes, name, title, url in sorted(launched, reverse=True)[:20]:
print(f" 🔼 {votes:>4} {name} — {title}")| Use case | What you'd build |
|---|---|
| Prospecting & cold outreach | Generate lead lists with founder emails, filter by industry/batch/hiring status |
| Market mapping | Cluster companies by tag, industry, or region to spot trends |
| YC dashboards | Build internal tools showing batch breakdowns, hiring trends, top companies |
| Job hunting | Find open roles at YC companies that sponsor visas and match your skills |
| Research | Analyze YC batch sizes, industry trends, founder demographics over time |
| Language | Package | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Python | yc-api |
pip install yc-api |
| TypeScript/JS | ycombinator-api |
npm install ycombinator-api |
Both SDKs are fully typed, support async, and wrap every endpoint. See Python SDK docs or Node SDK docs for details.
API endpoint: https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/meta.json
- Last updated: October 20, 2026 at 02:28 AM UTC
- Companies: 6311
- Batches: 51
- Industries: 59
- Tags: 335
| List of companies | API endpoint |
|---|---|
| All launched companies | https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/all.json |
| Top companies | https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/top.json |
| Not-for-profit companies | https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/nonprofit.json |
| Companies currently hiring | https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/companies/hiring.json |
Companies per batch
Companies per industry
Companies per tag
Each endpoint (except meta.json) returns an array of company objects with 50+ fields.
Every company object includes:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id |
number | Unique company ID |
name |
string | Company name |
slug |
string | URL-friendly slug (e.g. "airbnb") |
former_names |
string[] | Previous names, if the company was renamed |
small_logo_thumb_url |
string | Square thumbnail logo URL |
website |
string|null | Company website URL |
all_locations |
string|null | Locations separated by semicolons (e.g. "San Francisco, CA, USA; New York, NY, USA") |
long_description |
string|null | Full company description |
one_liner |
string|null | One-line company description |
team_size |
number|null | Number of employees |
industry |
enum | "B2B" | "Consumer" | "Education" | "Fintech" | "Government" | "Healthcare" | "Industrials" | "Real Estate and Construction" | "Unspecified" |
subindustry |
enum | 59 fixed sub-industry categories (e.g. "Consumer -> Travel, Leisure and Tourism", "B2B -> Infrastructure") |
launched_at |
number | Launch date as a Unix timestamp |
tags |
string[] | Company tags |
tags_highlighted |
string[] | Highlighted tags |
top_company |
boolean|null | Whether this is a YC top company |
isHiring |
boolean | Whether the company is currently hiring |
nonprofit |
boolean | Whether the company is a nonprofit |
batch |
string | YC batch (e.g. "Winter 2026") |
status |
enum | "Active" | "Inactive" | "Acquired" | "Public" |
industries |
string[] | All industries the company belongs to |
regions |
string[] | Geographic regions |
stage |
enum | "Early" | "Growth" |
app_video_public |
boolean | Whether the application video is public |
demo_day_video_public |
boolean | Whether the demo day video is public |
app_answers |
app_answer[]|null | Application Q&A, if public |
question_answers |
question_answer[]|null | Free-response Q&A, if public |
url |
string | Company page on ycombinator.com |
api |
string | This API's endpoint for the company |
year_founded |
number|null | Year the company was founded |
city |
string|null | City |
country |
string|null | Country code (e.g. "US") |
linkedin_url |
string|null | LinkedIn URL |
x_url |
string|null | X (Twitter) URL |
fb_url |
string|null | Facebook URL |
cb_url |
string|null | Crunchbase URL |
github_url |
string|null | GitHub URL |
logo_url |
string|null | Logo image URL |
app_video_url |
string|null | Application video URL |
app_video_transcript |
string|null | Application video transcript URL (timestamped + diarized) |
dday_video_url |
string|null | Demo day video URL |
dday_video_transcript |
string|null | Demo day video transcript URL (timestamped + diarized) |
primary_partner |
partner|null | Assigned YC group partner |
company_photos |
string[] | Company photo URLs |
founders |
founder[] | List of founders |
jobs |
job[] | List of open job postings |
news |
news[] | List of press/news articles |
launches |
launch[] | List of Launch YC posts |
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
question |
string | Application question |
answer |
string|null | Founder's answer |
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
question |
string | Free-response question |
answer |
string | Founder's answer |
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
name |
string | Partner's full name (e.g. "Garry Tan") |
url |
string | Profile page on ycombinator.com |
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
user_id |
number | YC internal user ID |
full_name |
string | Founder's full name |
title |
string | Title (e.g. "Founder/CEO") |
founder_bio |
string|null | Short bio |
is_active |
boolean | Whether the founder is currently active |
linkedin_url |
string|null | LinkedIn URL |
x_url |
string|null | X (Twitter) URL |
avatar_thumb_url |
string | Founder's avatar image URL |
email |
string|null | SMTP-verified email address, or null if not found |
Note: Only SMTP-verified emails are included (~4.5% of founders). Email discovery generates common name patterns (e.g.
first@domain,first.last@domain) and verifies each via SMTPRCPT TO. Catch-all domains and unverifiable patterns returnnull.
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id |
number | Job posting ID |
title |
string | Job title (e.g. "Founding Engineer") |
url |
string | Full URL to the job posting |
location |
string | Job location |
type |
enum | "Full-time" | "Internship" | "Contract" | "Co-founder" |
role |
enum | "Design" | "Engineering" | "Finance" | "Legal" | "Marketing" | "Operations" | "Product" | "Recruiting & HR" | "Sales" | "Science" | "Support" |
role_type |
string|null | Specific role type ("Full stack", "Backend", etc.) |
salary_range |
string|null | Salary range (e.g. "$120K - $160K") |
equity_range |
string|null | Equity range (e.g. "1.00% - 3.00%") |
experience |
enum|null | "1+ years" | "3+ years" | "6+ years" | "11+ years" | "Any (new grads ok)" |
visa |
enum | "US citizen/visa only" | "US citizenship/visa not required" | "Will sponsor" |
skills |
string[] | Required skills |
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
title |
string | Article headline |
url |
string | Link to the article |
date |
string | Publication date (e.g. "Oct 12, 2025") |
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id |
number | Launch post ID |
title |
string | Launch post title |
tagline |
string | Short tagline |
body |
string | Full post content (markdown) |
url |
string | Full URL to the Launch YC post |
votes |
number | Number of upvotes |
created_at |
string | ISO 8601 timestamp (e.g. "2024-03-15T12:00:00Z") |
"B2B""Consumer""Education""Fintech""Government""Healthcare""Industrials""Real Estate and Construction""Unspecified"
"B2B""B2B -> Analytics""B2B -> Engineering, Product and Design""B2B -> Finance and Accounting""B2B -> Human Resources""B2B -> Infrastructure""B2B -> Legal""B2B -> Marketing""B2B -> Office Management""B2B -> Operations""B2B -> Productivity""B2B -> Recruiting and Talent""B2B -> Retail""B2B -> Sales""B2B -> Security""B2B -> Supply Chain and Logistics""Consumer""Consumer -> Apparel and Cosmetics""Consumer -> Consumer Electronics""Consumer -> Content""Consumer -> Food and Beverage""Consumer -> Gaming""Consumer -> Home and Personal""Consumer -> Job and Career Services""Consumer -> Social""Consumer -> Transportation Services""Consumer -> Travel, Leisure and Tourism""Consumer -> Virtual and Augmented Reality""Education""Fintech""Fintech -> Asset Management""Fintech -> Banking and Exchange""Fintech -> Consumer Finance""Fintech -> Credit and Lending""Fintech -> Insurance""Fintech -> Payments""Government""Healthcare""Healthcare -> Consumer Health and Wellness""Healthcare -> Diagnostics""Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery""Healthcare -> Healthcare IT""Healthcare -> Healthcare Services""Healthcare -> Industrial Bio""Healthcare -> Medical Devices""Healthcare -> Therapeutics""Industrials""Industrials -> Agriculture""Industrials -> Automotive""Industrials -> Aviation and Space""Industrials -> Climate""Industrials -> Defense""Industrials -> Drones""Industrials -> Energy""Industrials -> Manufacturing and Robotics""Real Estate and Construction""Real Estate and Construction -> Construction""Real Estate and Construction -> Housing and Real Estate""Unspecified"
"Active""Inactive""Acquired""Public"
"Early""Growth"
"Full-time""Internship""Contract""Co-founder"
"Design""Engineering""Finance""Legal""Marketing""Operations""Product""Recruiting & HR""Sales""Science""Support"
"US citizen/visa only""US citizenship/visa not required""Will sponsor"
"1+ years""3+ years""6+ years""11+ years""Any (new grads ok)"
GET https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2009/airbnb.json
{
"id": 271,
"name": "Airbnb",
"slug": "airbnb",
"former_names": [],
"small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3e9a0092bee2ccf926e650e59c06503ec6b9ee65.png",
"website": "http://airbnb.com",
"all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
"long_description": "Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 33,000 cities and 192 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions. \r\n\r\nNo global movement springs from individuals. It takes an entire team united behind something big. Together, we work hard, we laugh a lot, we brainstorm nonstop, we use hundreds of Post-Its a week, and we give the best high-fives in town. Headquartered in San Francisco, we have satellite offices in Dublin, London, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Berlin, Moscow, São Paolo, Sydney, and Singapore.",
"one_liner": "Book accommodations around the world.",
"team_size": 6132,
"industry": "Consumer",
"subindustry": "Consumer -> Travel, Leisure and Tourism",
"launched_at": 1326790856,
"tags": [
"Marketplace",
"Travel"
],
"tags_highlighted": [],
"top_company": true,
"isHiring": false,
"nonprofit": false,
"batch": "Winter 2009",
"status": "Public",
"industries": [
"Consumer",
"Travel, Leisure and Tourism"
],
"regions": [
"United States of America",
"America / Canada"
],
"stage": "Growth",
"app_video_public": false,
"demo_day_video_public": false,
"app_answers": null,
"question_answers": null,
"url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb",
"api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2009/airbnb.json",
"year_founded": 2008,
"city": "San Francisco",
"country": "US",
"linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/airbnb/",
"x_url": "https://twitter.com/Airbnb",
"fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/",
"cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/airbnb",
"github_url": null,
"logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3e9a0092bee2ccf926e650e59c06503ec6b9ee65.png",
"app_video_url": null,
"dday_video_url": null,
"company_photos": [
"https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/8a7236c94b4d9b78b67ce66e02cbca497e632d99.png"
],
"primary_partner": {
"name": "Garry Tan",
"url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/garry-tan"
},
"founders": [
{
"user_id": 21981,
"full_name": "Brian Chesky",
"title": "Founder/CEO",
"founder_bio": "Brian Chesky is the co-founder, Head of Community, and CEO of Airbnb, which he started with Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk in 2008. Brian sets the company’s strategy to connect people to unique travel experiences, and drives Airbnb’s mission to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. Originally from New York, Brian graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design.",
"is_active": true,
"linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianchesky/",
"x_url": "https://twitter.com/bchesky",
"avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/7415ee0d3978ae738c766fc109863385303b066a.jpg",
"email": null
},
{
"user_id": 21988,
"full_name": "Nathan Blecharczyk",
"title": "Founder/CTO",
"founder_bio": "Nathan Blecharczyk is the co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer, and Chairman of Airbnb China. Nathan plays a leading role in driving key strategic initiatives across the global business. Previously he oversaw the creation of Airbnb’s engineering, data science, and performance marketing teams. Nathan became an entrepreneur in his youth, running a business while he was in high school that sold to clients in more than 20 countries. He earned a degree in Computer Science from Harvard University.",
"is_active": true,
"linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/blecharczyk/",
"x_url": "https://twitter.com/nathanblec",
"avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/43dd0e2c9396adccf8b4e456d806245942afc1ed.jpg",
"email": null
},
{
"user_id": 21984,
"full_name": "Joe Gebbia",
"title": "Founder/CPO",
"founder_bio": "Joe Gebbia is the co-founder of Airbnb which began in his San Francisco living room and spread to nearly 7M listings in 191+ countries, changing how people trust each other. Joe now holds a strategic advisory position and serves on the Board of Directors at Airbnb. His latest venture, Samara, also cemented in economic empowerment, housing resources, and design, produces fully customized, factory-made homes designed to create rental income, house family, and form new types of housing communities.",
"is_active": true,
"linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgebbia/",
"x_url": "https://x.com/jgebbia",
"avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/8edd4b693f91d2a5507247fbd23259dbe88d4dba.jpg",
"email": null
}
],
"jobs": [],
"news": [
{
"title": "Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on taking it back to basics: ‘I can’t make products just for 41-year-old tech founders’ - The Verge",
"url": "https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/9/23716903/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-rooms-ai-travel-future-of-work-summer-2023",
"date": "May 09, 2023"
},
{
"title": "Airbnb launches Airbnb Rooms listing category for budget travel",
"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2023/05/03/airbnb-rooms-listing-category-budget-travel/70178696007/",
"date": "May 03, 2023"
},
{
"title": "Brian Chesky Isn't Running Airbnb--He's 'Designing' It",
"url": "https://www.inc.com/magazine/202303/christine-lagorio-chafkin/brian-chesky-isnt-running-airbnb-hes-designing-it.html",
"date": "Mar 16, 2023"
},
{
"title": "Airbnb’s cofounder just donated $25M to get plastic out of the ocean",
"url": "https://fortune.com/2023/02/02/airbnb-joe-gebbia-donation-25-million-ocean-cleanup-great-pacific-garbage-patch",
"date": "Feb 02, 2023"
},
{
"title": "'Hocus Pocus' fans can now stay in the Sanderson Sisters' cottage : NPR",
"url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126605757/hocus-pocus-cottage-airbnb",
"date": "Oct 06, 2022"
}
],
"launches": []
}Contributions are welcome! This project is open source under the MIT License.
The biggest open problem is founder email discovery. Currently only ~4% of founder emails can be verified via SMTP RCPT TO. The breakdown:
| Category | % of founders | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Catch-all domains | ~17% | Mostly Google Workspace. These domains accept mail for any address, so we can't distinguish real from fake. |
| Not found (rejected) | ~63% | The domain's mail server rejects all candidate patterns. Founders likely use custom aliases, personal email forwarding, or non-standard naming conventions. |
| No MX records | ~12% | Company website domain has no mail server (dead sites, redirect-only domains, etc.). |
| Connection failures | ~4% | Mail servers that refuse or timeout on our SMTP connections. |
| Verified | ~4% | SMTP returns 250 for a candidate pattern on a non-catch-all domain. |
- 6 name-based patterns:
first@,first.last@,first_last@,firstlast@,flast@,f.last@ - 3-part name expansion (e.g. "Mary Jane Watson" → tries
mary.watson@,mary.jane@,maryjane.watson@, etc.) - Mononym support (single-word names →
{name}@domain) - LinkedIn/Twitter username as
{username}@domain
This project is licensed under the MIT License.