# Y Combinator Founders Scraper (`dadhalfdev/y-combinator-founders-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Y Combinator founders by industry, batch, or region. Extracts names, bios, social links, and full company details (size, status, website, socials) into clean structured data for outreach, research, or AI pipelines.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dadhalfdev/y-combinator-founders-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Marco Rodrigues](https://apify.com/dadhalfdev) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Social media
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 17 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 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.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## 🚀 Y Combinator Founders Scraper

Want to track the brilliant minds behind the world's most successful startups? This **[Y Combinator Founders](https://www.ycombinator.com/founders)** scraper makes it super easy!

Just **apply your desired filters** on the YC Founders directory (by industry, batch, region, or gender), copy the resulting URL, and let the scraper extract up to 200 detailed founder profiles, seamlessly packing personal backgrounds, company details, and social media links into a clean CSV or JSON file.

![Y Combinator Founders Directory](https://i.ibb.co/S4VN8SPr/Screenshot-From-2026-04-15-22-17-09.png)

### 💡 Perfect for...

- **Investors & VCs:** Build targeted lists of founders in specific industries (e.g., Fintech, AI, Healthcare) or recent batches to track promising startups and reach out directly.
- **B2B Sales & Recruiting:** Find verified LinkedIn and X (Twitter) handles for founders to power high-quality outreach campaigns.
- **Market Researchers:** Analyze trends in YC's portfolio by extracting team sizes, geographic locations, and industry tags.
- **📚 RAG Systems:** Feed rich founder bios and company descriptions into vector stores to let AI agents answer questions like "Who are the YC founders working on AI in London?"

### ✨ Why you'll love this scraper

- 🎯 **Total Flexibility:** Instead of rigid categories, you simply paste the URL from your own search on the YC Founders page. The scraper respects any combination of filters you apply.
- ⚙️ **Deep Dual Extraction:** Extracts not just the founder's name and bio, but also seamlessly navigates to the associated company page to pull full company metrics, taglines, and descriptions.
- 🔗 **Comprehensive Social Links:** Captures the founder's personal LinkedIn and X accounts, plus the company's website, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, GitHub, and Crunchbase profiles (when available).
- 👤 **Clean Structured Data:** Returns highly structured data ready for your CRM or spreadsheet, bypassing the need to parse dynamic JavaScript or hidden UI elements manually.

### 📦 What's inside the data?

For every single founder, you will get:

- **Founder Details:** `id`, `founder_name`, `current_title`, `description` (bio), `avatar_thumb`
- **Founder Socials:** `linkedin_url`, `x_url`
- **YC Metadata:** `yc_titles`, `batches`, `yc_industries`, `yc_parent_industries`, `yc_subindustries`, `current_region`, `top_company`
- **Company Details:** `current_company`, `company_tagline`, `company_description`, `company_founded`, `company_size`, `company_status`, `company_location`
- **Company Links:** `ycombinator_company_url` (YC page), `company_website`, `company_linkedin_url`, `company_x_url`, `company_facebook_url`, `company_github_url`, `company_crunchbase_url`

### 🚀 Quick start

1. **Go to the YC Founders page** ([ycombinator.com/founders](https://www.ycombinator.com/founders)) and apply any filters you want.
2. **Copy the URL** from your browser's address bar.
3. **Paste the URL** into the `input_url` field of this actor.
4. **Set `num_founders`** (how many founders you want to scrape, up to 300).
5. **Click Start** and let it run! 🚀 Once it's done, you can export your data as a CSV, Excel spreadsheet, or JSON file.

***

#### Tech details for developers 🧑‍💻

**Input Example:**

```json
{
  "num_founders": 200,
  "input_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/founders?yc_parent_industries=Education"
}
```

**Output Example:**

```json
{
  "id": "967",
  "founder_name": "Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock",
  "current_title": "Founder",
  "description": "Cofounder & CEO of the Recurse Center.",
  "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasbs",
  "x_url": "https://www.twitter.com/nicholasbs",
  "avatar_thumb": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/avatars/bdb1f6ec56b4bf7ba6eb4b1150031d502b8efabb.jpg",
  "current_company": "Recurse Center",
  "yc_titles": [
    "Founder"
  ],
  "batches": [
    "S10"
  ],
  "yc_industries": [
    [
      "Education"
    ]
  ],
  "yc_parent_industries": [
    "Education"
  ],
  "yc_subindustries": [
    "Education"
  ],
  "current_region": "United States of America",
  "top_company": false,
  "company_slug": "recurse-center",
  "ycombinator_company_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/recurse-center",
  "company_website": "https://www.recurse.com",
  "company_linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/recurse-center/",
  "company_x_url": "https://www.twitter.com/recursecenter",
  "company_facebook_url": null,
  "company_github_url": "https://github.com/recursecenter",
  "company_crunchbase_url": null,
  "company_founded": 2010,
  "company_size": 7,
  "company_status": "Active",
  "company_location": "New York",
  "company_tagline": "The retreat where curious programmers recharge and grow",
  "company_description": "The Recurse Center is a self-directed, educational retreat for people who want to get better at programming, whether they've been programming for three decades or three months.\n\nThe retreat is free for all participants because we run an integrated recruiting agency and provide (optional) personalized recruiting services to anyone in our community considering a new job."
}
```

**Parameters:**

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|-----------|------|----------|-------------|
| `input_url` | string | Yes | The URL from the YC Founders directory with your desired filters applied. Default: `https://www.ycombinator.com/founders?yc_parent_industries=Fintech`. |
| `num_founders` | integer | No | Target number of founders to scrape. Min 10, max 300, default 100. |

### 🔧 Custom scrapers and agents

If you need a custom web scraper, or custom AI agents and workflows, contact me through [tuik.ai](https://www.tuik.ai). We help businesses cut costs and time by up to 10x.

# Actor input Schema

## `input_url` (type: `string`):

Paste a Y Combinator Founders directory URL after applying filters on the site (industry, batch, region, etc.).

## `num_founders` (type: `integer`):

How many founder profiles to collect (10–200).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "input_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/founders?yc_parent_industries=Fintech",
  "num_founders": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Table view using the dataset 'overview' view (founder fields first, then company).

## `results` (type: `string`):

All items from the default dataset without view transformation.

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dadhalfdev/y-combinator-founders-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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dadhalfdev/y-combinator-founders-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 '{}' |
apify call dadhalfdev/y-combinator-founders-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,dadhalfdev/y-combinator-founders-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/Nvvjsnjkubc3Fqqef/builds/YeXncmAFYXnGxUx4f/openapi.json