ExploreYC

Open-source API for Y Combinator & a16z company data

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The open-source plan mentioned in the comments is the interesting part to me is that just the app layer, or the enriched dataset too? Curious how you're thinking about keeping funding/hiring data in sync once other people are touching the codebase.

the api layer is the right play. everyone building founder-facing tools rebuilds this dataset every time and it's silly.

real q: does exploreyc distinguish "raised $X" from "shipped something users pay for"? because those have drifted a mile apart and the data layer that solves the second one eats the first.

Open-sourcing the YC and a16z dataset is handy. Where's the underlying data sourced from, and how often does it refresh? Trying to gauge how stale the funding and status fields get between updates.

Very intrigued and looking forward to using this. What use case potential are you most excited about?

Would love a heatmap of YC batches by problem space over time e.g. how many fintech vs. dev-tool vs. climate companies per batch. Founders could instantly see which spaces are getting crowded vs. underexplored before pitching a similar idea.

Love seeing you turn the original web app into an API after listening to users. Curious, how do you handle entity resolution when the same company appears differently across YC and a16z datasets?

Merging YC and a16z into one dataset, the part I'd want documented before building on it is entity resolution. Last time I stitched company data across two sources, matching 'same company, different record' ate most of the effort: OpenAI vs OpenAI Inc vs matching on domain, then deciding which source wins when the funding stage disagrees. Do you expose a stable canonical company ID across both, and when YC and a16z conflict on a field, is there a documented precedence?

Congrats on the launch! Looks really useful and a nice addition to the original launch.

One thing I'd want to know is how often the data is refreshed and how quickly funding or hiring updates make it into the API.

How fresh is the data on hiring and funding, and does it pull directly from YC's API or are you scraping public sources to keep it updated?

This is actually useful for pre-launch validation before building anything you can search your category, see which batches funded similar ideas, check if those companies are still alive ,and figure out where the graveyard is. Has anyone used it that way to kill an idea before wasting six months on it?

This is pretty useful for founder research. I like that it’s not just a directory, but something developers can actually build on top of.

I come from the investing side, where structured data on private companies usually sits behind expensive paywalls, so open-sourcing this is a real gift. How fresh is the data, and what's the source when a company hasn't announced anything publicly?

The API-first cut of this is the version I'd actually reach for, @konstantimb . Non-expiring key in 30 seconds, standard X-RateLimit-* + Retry-After headers, and interactive Swagger — that's the boring DX most data APIs skip, and it's exactly what makes one safe to wire into a pipeline.

Open-sourcing the whole ingestion side on top of that is a real trust signal when the dataset leans on scraped sources. Great comeback launch 👌

Congrats on the second launch. Merging both portfolios into one schema sounds like the unglamorous hard part — YC has batches and a public directory, a16z is scattered across press pages. Which fields refused to line up between the two?

Spent way too long doing this manually with YC's directory and a bunch

of half-remembered LinkedIn searches. Having search, funding data, and

hiring boards actually talk to each other in one place is such an

obvious upgrade once you see it.

Congrats on the launch! 👏

Love the idea of making YC data much more searchable and actionable.

Curious.....what's been the most unexpected way early users are using ExploreYC?

i tested the filtering options and they saved plenty of time while searching for startups in specific industries. would adding historical funding snapshots help researchers track how companies evolve different years and stages?