# Y Combinator Scraper (`opendata-labs/ycombinator-scraper`) Actor

Scrape the entire Y Combinator directory — companies, founders (with LinkedIn & Twitter) and live job postings. No
login or API key required. Built for B2B prospecting, tech recruiting and startup market research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/opendata-labs/ycombinator-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Joao Paulo](https://apify.com/opendata-labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Jobs, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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 Scraper — Companies, Founders & Jobs

Extract the **entire Y Combinator startup directory** as clean, structured data: every company across every batch, their **founders with LinkedIn & Twitter**, and **live job postings** with salary and equity ranges.

Built for **B2B prospecting, tech recruiting, VC/startup research and lead generation** — find and reach the people behind YC-funded companies.

The actor reads only **public, official YC data** (the YC company directory and public company profile pages), so it needs **no login, no API key and no proxy**, and it stays reliable run after run.

### What you can scrape

| Mode | One row per | Best for |
|------|-------------|----------|
| **Companies** | Company | Market research, building a YC company list, B2B prospecting |
| **Founders** | Founder | Recruiting, founder outreach, lead lists (name, title, LinkedIn, Twitter) |
| **Jobs** | Open role | Candidate sourcing, job boards, hiring-signal monitoring |
| **Company details** | Company (deep) | Full profile + founders + jobs for a specific list of companies |

### Filters

Narrow the directory down to exactly the segment you want:

- **Search text** — match name, one-liner, description and tags
- **Batch** — `Winter 2024` or short code `W24` / `S23` / `F24` / `SP25`
- **Status** — Active, Acquired, Public, Inactive
- **Industry** — Fintech, Healthcare, B2B, …
- **Tag** — Artificial Intelligence, SaaS, Developer Tools, …
- **Region** — United States of America, Europe, Remote, …
- **Only hiring** / **Only top companies**

> Example: *all Active Fintech companies from Winter 2024 that are hiring* → set `status=Active`, `industry=Fintech`, `batch=W24`, `isHiring=true`.

### Example output

**Founders mode**

```json
{
  "fullName": "Brian Chesky",
  "title": "Founder/CEO",
  "linkedinUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianchesky",
  "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/bchesky",
  "hasEmail": true,
  "companyName": "Airbnb",
  "companySlug": "airbnb",
  "batch": "Winter 2009",
  "companyWebsite": "https://airbnb.com/"
}
```

**Jobs mode**

```json
{
  "title": "Full-Stack Robotics Engineer",
  "role": "Engineering",
  "type": "Full-time",
  "location": "Deerfield, MA, US / Remote (US)",
  "salaryRange": "$140K - $250K",
  "equityRange": "0.10% - 0.40%",
  "skills": ["React", "Node.js"],
  "applyUrl": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/circuithub/jobs/...",
  "companyName": "CircuitHub",
  "batch": "Winter 2012"
}
```

### A note on founder emails

YC keeps founder **email addresses behind a logged-in account** and does not expose them publicly. This scraper does **not** fabricate or guess emails. Instead it gives you what is reliable and verifiable: each founder's **name, title, bio, LinkedIn and Twitter**, plus a `hasEmail` flag indicating whether YC holds an email on file. LinkedIn is the most dependable outreach channel for founders anyway.

### How it works

1. The company directory is read from the public, daily-updated YC data mirror (sourced from YC's own search index).
2. For founders, jobs and social links, the actor reads each company's public profile page on ycombinator.com.

No credentials are required and the actor degrades gracefully — if a single profile is unavailable, it is skipped and the run continues.

### Pricing

This actor uses **pay-per-result** pricing: you pay only for the rows you actually get.

### Disclaimer

This actor collects publicly available information only. Y Combinator is a trademark of its respective owner; this actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator. Use the data in compliance with applicable laws and the platforms' terms.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape. 'companies' returns the filtered directory (one row per company). 'founders' returns one row per founder with LinkedIn & Twitter (great for recruiting and outreach). 'jobs' returns open job postings from hiring companies. 'company\_details' returns full profiles for a list of slugs.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Free-text filter matched against company name, one-liner, description and tags. Leave empty to match all.

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

Filter by YC batch. Accepts full name ('Winter 2024') or short code ('W24', 'S23', 'F24', 'SP25').

## `status` (type: `string`):

Filter by company status.

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

Filter by industry, e.g. 'Fintech', 'Healthcare', 'B2B'. Matched against the company's industries list.

## `tag` (type: `string`):

Filter by tag, e.g. 'Artificial Intelligence', 'SaaS', 'Developer Tools'. Matched against the company's tags.

## `region` (type: `string`):

Filter by region, e.g. 'United States of America', 'Europe', 'Remote'.

## `isHiring` (type: `boolean`):

If enabled, keep only companies that are currently hiring.

## `topCompany` (type: `boolean`):

If enabled, keep only companies YC flags as top companies.

## `enrich` (type: `boolean`):

Only for mode 'companies'. Fetches each company's profile to add founders, social links and open-job counts. Slower (one extra request per company) but much richer.

## `slugs` (type: `array`):

List of YC company slugs (the last part of ycombinator.com/companies/<slug>). Used by mode 'company\_details'.

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

Maximum number of rows to push to the dataset. The actor stops once this limit is reached.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "companies",
  "status": "any",
  "isHiring": false,
  "topCompany": false,
  "enrich": false,
  "slugs": [
    "airbnb",
    "stripe"
  ],
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# 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 = {
    "query": "",
    "batch": "",
    "industry": "",
    "tag": "",
    "region": "",
    "slugs": [
        "airbnb",
        "stripe"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("opendata-labs/ycombinator-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 = {
    "query": "",
    "batch": "",
    "industry": "",
    "tag": "",
    "region": "",
    "slugs": [
        "airbnb",
        "stripe",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("opendata-labs/ycombinator-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 '{
  "query": "",
  "batch": "",
  "industry": "",
  "tag": "",
  "region": "",
  "slugs": [
    "airbnb",
    "stripe"
  ]
}' |
apify call opendata-labs/ycombinator-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,opendata-labs/ycombinator-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/hHguClqCB6VhdGctF/builds/xyyuBU18fBUKz1gaB/openapi.json