Y Combinator

Decide the relocation question before you write anything

The batch is in person in San Francisco for three months, and if you are accepted your Indian company will have to sit under a new parent company in the United States, Canada, Singapore or the Cayman Islands. YC says it introduces you to lawyers who drive that restructuring but that it takes significant effort from you. Work out whether your team, your customers and your co-founders can live with both before you spend time on the application.

• Nothing needs to change before you apply. YC says founders outside the United States need no incorporation, no visa and no business licence to apply.
• The Indian entity usually survives as a subsidiary and keeps operating in India.
• Interviews are mostly by video call, so applying and interviewing do not require travel.

Apply early, and apply again

• YC asks for one application per batch and encourages you to send it as soon as you are ready. Applying before the deadline is what gets you a promised decision date; late applications are still read but with no date attached.
• About half the companies in a typical batch applied more than once first. A rejection is not a verdict, and visible progress since the last attempt is a signal YC says it looks for.
• You will only get feedback if you are invited to interview. Do not expect to learn why a rejected application failed.
• No introduction helps. YC says it considers every application equally, so time spent hunting for a warm intro is time wasted.

Do not wait for traction

• YC says about forty per cent of the companies it funds each batch are just an idea and that most have no revenue. Waiting to look more impressive is the mistake it explicitly warns against.
• It also funds companies much further along, and says it can probably help any startup that has not already raised a Series A.
• Having raised money, or having done another accelerator, does not rule you out — though after another accelerator YC may expect more progress.

What the team needs to look like

• The founding team should be able to build the product itself. For most businesses that means a technical co-founder rather than an outsourced build.
• Solo founders are accepted regularly, but YC's own advice is that you are more likely to succeed with a co-founder. Its free Co-Founder Matching platform is the place it points you to, and Bangalore is one of its largest cities by active profiles.
• Founders are expected to work on the company full time during the batch. You may apply while still studying or employed, but not stay that way.

If the timing is wrong

• Students can apply now and join a batch after graduating through Early Decision. Pick a later batch on the application and say which one you want.
• If you are fundraising now and the next batch is far off, say so on the application. YC invests as soon as a company is accepted rather than waiting for the batch to start.

Before the interview

• Work through Startup School first if you have not. It is free, online and includes a session by YC's head of admissions on how and when to apply.
• Questions about applying go to apply@ycombinator.com.

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator based in San Francisco that runs a three-month batch four times a year, in the winter, spring, summer and fall. Its application process is open to any startup anywhere in the world, and an Indian founder can apply today without incorporating abroad, without a visa and without knowing anyone there. Two facts on YC's own pages decide whether it is worth applying: the batch happens in person in San Francisco, and YC invests only in companies whose parent is incorporated in the United States, Canada, Singapore or the Cayman Islands.

What an Indian company has to do

Nothing has to change before you apply: YC's own answer to founders outside the United States is that no incorporation, visa or business licence is needed, and that it helps with both if you are accepted.

Acceptance changes that. YC states that a company already incorporated somewhere other than the United States, Canada, Singapore or the Cayman Islands must create a parent company in one of those jurisdictions in order to take part. Your Indian company then becomes a subsidiary of that new parent. Founders call this the flip. YC says many companies in each batch go through it, that it introduces founders to lawyers who drive the process, and, in its own words, that it will require a significant effort on your part. The original Indian entity usually keeps operating in India under the new parent. The parent ends up owning the startup's intellectual property and assets, though YC says the intellectual property can sit at either the parent or the subsidiary and that the choice is yours.

The second requirement is physical. The batch takes place in person in San Francisco. It opens with a three-day in-person kick-off and carries on with weekly meetups in the city. YC ran remotely during Covid but has been back in person since 2022 and says it works much better that way. After the three months you can go wherever you want. YC also says founders may spend the investment on travel to San Francisco.

On visas, YC says it works with immigration attorneys who have helped hundreds of its founders get visas to move to or stay in the United States, and connects an accepted founder with one who builds an individual plan. That answer is written for founders already in the United States on a work visa; YC publishes no rule for founders applying from India. Treat the visa route as something settled after acceptance, not something you can check in advance.

How the batch works

Each company works with a dedicated YC General Partner, shares a direct chat channel with them and meets them weekly. Partners hold group office hours every two weeks and one-to-one office hours on request, and those continue year round after the batch ends. Startups are sorted into three groups, each split into sections of six to ten companies, so the batch you actually live in is small.

Every week YC invites a founder to speak, off the record. It helps companies prepare public launches, and says business and consumer companies often find their first forty to fifty paying customers inside the YC community. Companies get credits and deals from partners including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Stripe. Near the end of the batch YC introduces companies to its investor network, and Demo Day puts them in front of selected investors and press. Founders keep Bookface, the internal alumni platform.

Who can apply

Any startup, anywhere, at almost any stage. YC says about forty per cent of the companies it funds each batch are just an idea, that most have no revenue, and that it can probably help any startup that has not already raised a Series A. It funds companies in any field, not only software, and regularly accepts solo founders while advising that a co-founder makes success more likely. It expects the founding team to be able to build the product themselves, and to work on the company full time during the batch.

Having raised money already is not a bar, and nor is having done another accelerator, though YC says it may then expect more progress. Applying more than once is normal: YC says about half the companies in a typical batch did. Students have their own route, Early Decision — apply now, get funded immediately if accepted, and join a batch after graduating.

How applying works

One online application per batch. There is no introduction to get and no advantage in knowing someone: YC says it considers all applications equally. Promising applicants are invited to interview, mostly by video call, which is why an interview does not by itself mean flying to San Francisco. Decisions usually come the same day as the interview, and everyone who interviews gets detailed feedback. Applicants who are not invited to interview get no feedback. Late applications are still read, with no promised reply date, and YC says it responds to everyone who applies.

What it costs and what YC takes

The programme itself is free: YC states plainly that it charges companies no fees. It does take equity. Its published standard deal is two simple agreements for future equity signed together, alongside a YC agreement. One converts into a fixed seven per cent of your company. The other is uncapped with a most favoured nation provision, so it converts on the best terms of any later note you issue before your priced round — meaning the final equity figure is not fixed on the day you sign. YC also takes a pro rata right to keep investing in later rounds. The investment is not tied to any milestone and is made as soon as you are accepted.

Things YC runs that need no relocation

Startup School is a free online course on how to start a startup, taught by YC partners and other founders, self-paced and roughly seven weeks at one to two hours a week. It is open to anyone early in building a startup, including people only curious about founding one, and it carries no geography condition.

YC Co-Founder Matching is free, needs no commitment and takes no equity. You build a profile, YC suggests candidates, and you invite the ones who fit. Bangalore is its fourth-largest city by active profiles, after San Francisco, New York and London — a usable route for a founder in India looking for a technical co-founder.

Who runs it

Garry Tan is President and CEO. Jared Friedman, Diana Hu and Harj Taggar are Managing Partners, and the partner group is made up of people who founded companies themselves, several of them YC alumni. Harshita Arora, a General Partner, co-founded AtoB and earlier built an app that won her India's Bal Shakti Puraskar. Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell and Robert Morris are listed as founders, retired.

What we could not confirm

YC publishes no batch size, no total count of companies funded and no founding year on the pages we read, and its startup directory is not readable without an account. This page therefore carries none of those numbers, and figures quoted elsewhere should be treated as unverified.