Y Combinator Companies & Founders Scraper

Export structured Y Combinator company and founder data for lead generation, recruiting, startup research, and market mapping. Search the public YC directory, filter companies, or provide exact company profile URLs.

What you can export

Each company record includes its YC profile URL, website, description, batch, status, stage, team size, hiring status, industries, regions, tags, launch timestamp, and logo. Optional founder enrichment adds public founder names, roles, biographies, and labelled LinkedIn and X profiles.

Who is it for?

This Actor is designed for sales and recruiting teams, startup investors, market researchers, founders, and data teams that need repeatable YC company and founder datasets instead of manual directory browsing.

Use cases

• Build targeted startup and founder lead lists by batch or industry.
• Find actively hiring YC companies for recruiting research.
• Map startup markets, stages, regions, and company status.
• Enrich CRM or spreadsheet workflows with canonical company URLs.
• Monitor a repeatable segment of the YC ecosystem.

Input recipes

{
  "query": "artificial intelligence",
  "batches": ["Summer 2024"],
  "includeFounders": true,
  "maxItems": 10
}

To fetch known profiles directly:

{
  "companyUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aisdr" }],
  "includeFounders": true,
  "maxItems": 1
}

Input settings

Field	Type	Description
query	string	Company, product, or keyword search.
companyUrls	URL array	Optional exact YC company profile URLs.
batches	string array	Exact YC batch filters, such as Summer 2024.
industries	string array	Exact industry filters shown by YC.
statuses	string array	Company statuses, such as Active or Acquired.
includeFounders	boolean	Visit public profiles for founder details. Default: true.
maxItems	integer	Maximum companies to save, from 1 to 5,000.

Filters within the same setting are alternatives; different filter settings are combined. If companyUrls is supplied, those exact profiles take precedence over directory search.

Output example

{
  "id": 29110,
  "name": "AiSDR",
  "slug": "aisdr",
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aisdr",
  "website": "https://aisdr.com/",
  "oneLiner": "AI sales prospecting. Replace your SDR with AiSDR",
  "batch": "Summer 2023",
  "status": "Active",
  "stage": "Early",
  "teamSize": 5,
  "isHiring": false,
  "industries": ["B2B", "Sales"],
  "regions": ["United States of America", "Remote"],
  "founders": [{
    "name": "Yuriy Zaremba",
    "title": "Founder/CEO",
    "linkedinUrl": "https://linkedin.com/in/yuriy-zaremba",
    "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/YuriyZaremba"
  }],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-07T06:09:19.162Z"
}

Output fields

Field	Description
id, name, slug, url	Stable YC company identity and canonical profile.
website, logoUrl	Public company website and logo.
oneLiner, longDescription	YC company summaries.
batch, status, stage	Accelerator batch and company lifecycle information.
teamSize, isHiring	Public team and hiring signals.
nonprofit, topCompany	YC directory flags.
industries, regions, tags	Public classification and regional arrays.
launchedAt	Source launch timestamp when available.
founders	Public names, roles, bios, and labelled social profiles.
scrapedAt	UTC timestamp when the record was produced.

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Company records and included founder profiles are charged separately. See the live Pricing tab for the current rates for your Apify plan. Runs that return fewer enriched fields incur only the applicable events.

API usage

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~y-combinator-directory-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"developer tools","maxItems":20,"includeFounders":true}'

Use the returned run's dataset URL to download JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or other supported formats.

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/y-combinator-directory-scraper').call({
  query: 'developer tools', maxItems: 20, includeFounders: true,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os
client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/y-combinator-directory-scraper').call(
    run_input={'query': 'developer tools', 'maxItems': 20, 'includeFounders': True}
)
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items

MCP and AI agents

Connect this Actor through Apify MCP at:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/y-combinator-directory-scraper

Add it to Claude Code:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/y-combinator-directory-scraper"

For desktop clients, Cursor, or VS Code:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/y-combinator-directory-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Find 20 active YC artificial intelligence companies and include their founders."
• "Export YC developer-tool companies from Summer 2024 for CRM import."

Agents can run repeatable startup searches, retrieve structured company records, and pass them to CRM, enrichment, or analysis steps.

Tips

• Start with 10 companies to verify your filters cheaply.
• Use exact YC batch and industry labels for predictable filtering.
• Disable includeFounders when only company metadata is needed.
• Use companyUrls for deterministic refreshes of a known lead list.
• Increase maxItems only after confirming the search is suitably targeted.

Limits

Results reflect information publicly available from Y Combinator at run time. Optional fields may be empty when YC does not publish them. The Actor does not infer private contact details. Source changes or transient profile failures may leave founder enrichment empty while preserving company records.

Integrations

Export results to Google Sheets, Airtable, Make, Zapier, n8n, webhooks, cloud storage, or your own application through the Apify API and dataset clients.

Related Actors

• Y Combinator Companies Scraper
• Y Combinator Jobs Scraper
• LinkedIn Jobs Scraper
• Google Search Results Scraper
• Decision Maker Email Finder
• Website Contact Finder
• LinkedIn Company Profiles Scraper

FAQ

Does this require a YC login?

No. The Actor works with publicly available YC company and founder pages.

Can I fetch one company?

Yes. Pass its https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/... URL in companyUrls and set maxItems to 1.

Can I use the output through an API or MCP?

Yes. Run the Actor through the Apify API, official clients, or the Apify MCP endpoint above.

How should I use the data?

Follow applicable laws, the source terms, and your outreach provider's rules. Keep lead lists current and honor opt-out requests.

Support

For questions or unexpected results, open an issue from this Actor's Apify page and include a run URL plus a short description of the expected result.