# ✨ Y Combinator Scraper (`damilo/y-combinator-scraper-apify`) Actor ⚡ Scrape Y Combinator’s startup directory with rich data: company info, founders, job postings, batch, team size, social links, and more. Filter by industry, region, or hiring status. Ideal for lead gen, VC scouting, and recruiting. Clean JSON output ready for Airtable, Notion, or Excel. - **URL**: https://apify.com/damilo/y-combinator-scraper-apify.md - **Developed by:** [Imad](https://apify.com/damilo) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Jobs, News - **Features:** Limited permissions - **Stats:** 100 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 8 bookmarks - **User rating**: 1.00 out of 5 stars ## Pricing $2.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. 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 Scraper Easily extract structured data on thousands of startups from [YCombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies) — including company descriptions, websites, founders, job postings, batch info, team size, LinkedIn, Crunchbase links, and more. > 🚀 Whether you're a VC, recruiter, founder, journalist, or researcher — this scraper saves hours of manual work. *** ### ✅ What This Scraper Does This Apify actor lets you scrape **Y Combinator startup profiles** in bulk using their public company directory. With just a few clicks, you'll get: - ✅ Company name, website, and YC page link - ✅ Short and long descriptions - ✅ Batch (e.g. Summer 2024), stage, status - ✅ Team size, location, founding year - ✅ Founders with social media profiles - ✅ Active job postings (title, location, type, salary) - ✅ Social links: LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, Crunchbase - ✅ Industry tags and advanced filters (like isHiring, region, nonprofit) *** ### 📦 Example Use Cases - **Lead generation**: Build targeted B2B lead lists based on industry, team size, and region - **Recruiting**: Find hiring startups and their open roles - **Investor research**: Track new YC companies, founder bios, and product pitches - **Market intelligence**: Analyze trends across batches, industries, or geographies - **News & media**: Source verified startup info for journalism or newsletters *** ### 🛠️ Input Options ![Inputs](./assets/input.png) The scraper is flexible. You can control the data you want via the following inputs: #### `directUrls` (array of URLs) Paste **search result URLs from YCombinator.com**, with filters applied. **Example**: ```json [ "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Winter%202025&industry=B2B&isHiring=true" ] ``` #### `searchQuery` (optional, string) Search for specific keywords in the company name, description, or tags. #### `sort` (optional, string) Choose how results are sorted: - `default`: Y Combinator’s default sort - `launch_date`: Newest companies first #### `maxCompanies` (optional, integer) Stop after this many companies across all URLs. Leave empty (or `0`) to scrape every match. Handy for quick samples and for keeping large filters within your run timeout. > If `directUrls` is empty, the actor searches the whole directory with `searchQuery`. A `query=` parameter inside a pasted URL takes priority over `searchQuery` for that URL. *** JSON example: ```json { "directUrls": [ "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Winter%202025&batch=Summer%202024&industry=B2B&isHiring=true&query=arv&team_size=%5B%225%22%2C%22500%22%5D" ], "searchQuery": "ar", "sort": "default" } ``` *** ### 📤 Output Data Format Each scraped company will be saved as a JSON object in the Apify dataset. Here's a breakdown of the fields you’ll receive: | Field | Type | Description | | ------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `id` | string | Unique identifier of the company from Y Combinator | | `logo` | string | Permanent URL to the company's logo image | | `name` | string | Company name | | `yc_url` | string | Direct link to the company's Y Combinator profile page | | `website` | string | Company’s official website URL | | `short_description` | string | One-liner description from YC | | `long_description` | string | Detailed description of what the company does | | `batch` | string | Y Combinator batch (e.g. "Winter 2025") | | `status` | string | Startup status in the YC ecosystem (e.g. "active", "dead", "acquired") | | `stage` | string | Stage of the company, if available (e.g. "pre-launch", "launched") | | `tags` | array | Array of industry tags assigned by YC | | `location` | string | HQ or main location of the company | | `year_founded` | integer | Year the company was founded | | `team_size` | integer | Reported team size (min/max if available) | | `linkedin` | string | Link to company’s LinkedIn page | | `x` | string | Link to company’s X (Twitter) profile | | `facebook` | string | Link to company’s Facebook page | | `crunchbase` | string | Link to Crunchbase profile | | `job_postings` | array | List of current job openings posted on YC | | → `title` | string | Job title | | → `url` | string | Direct link to the job posting | | → `location` | string | Job location | | → `type` | string | Employment type (e.g. full-time, intern) | | → `salary` | string | Salary range (if available) | | → `experience` | string | Required experience (if listed) | | `founders` | array | List of founders and their public profiles | | → `full_name` | string | Founder’s full name | | → `title` | string | Title or role at the company | | → `avatar` | string | Permanent URL to the founder's avatar thumbnail | | → `linkedin` | string | Founder’s LinkedIn profile | | → `x` | string | Founder’s Twitter (X) profile | You can download the dataset in JSON, CSV, or XLSX format — or use the Apify API to fetch the data programmatically. *** Example JSON Output: ```json [ { "id": 29973, "logo": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/logos/4e428f0bdd367f8e923ff5d314b4a4394e11ccd7.png", "name": "Arva AI", "yc_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/arva-ai", "website": "https://www.arva.ai", "short_description": "AI Agents to scale AML, KYB and KYC operations", "long_description": "Banks and fintechs have large teams of human analysts who conduct manual checks and reviews. We replace those human compliance analysts with AI agents that automate 80% of the manual work for faster and more compliant financial crime (AML) reviews.\r\n\r\nOur first three products are: Screening AI (discount 91% of screening alerts), KYB/C AI (speed up onboarding), Transaction Monitoring AI (handle AML transaction monitoring alerts)\r\n\r\nOur end goal is to have a whole suite of AI workers that can handle manual compliance work for banks and fintechs. A $24B opportunity in the US alone.", "batch": "Summer 2024", "status": "Active", "stage": "Early", "tags": [ "Artificial Intelligence", "Fintech", "B2B", "Compliance", "Regtech" ], "location": null, "year_founded": 2024, "team_size": 8, "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/arva-ai/", "x": "https://x.com/arva_ai", "facebook": null, "crunchbase": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/arva-ai", "job_postings": [ { "title": "AI Research Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/arva-ai/jobs/f6APYpN-ai-research-engineer", "location": "London, England, GB", "type": "Full-time", "salary": "£80K - £120K GBP", "experience": "3+ years" }, { "title": "GTM Lead", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/arva-ai/jobs/dT2oqNZ-gtm-lead", "location": "London, England, GB", "type": "Full-time", "salary": "£75K - £95K GBP", "experience": "3+ years" } ], "founders": [ { "avatar": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/560201fdbc53ae709c42ebe943c4888d076e5e7a.jpg", "full_name": "Rhim Shah", "title": "CEO", "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/in/rhim-shah", "x": "" }, { "avatar": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/58517dc8081e6d7ecd4040bf285d2d77cd205ed1.jpg", "full_name": "Oli Wales", "title": "Founder/CTO", "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/in/oliverfwales", "x": "" } ] } ... ] ``` *** ### ⚙️ How It Works 1. Uses Apify's proxy infrastructure to handle Y Combinator traffic cleanly 2. Queries YC's public company search index with your URL filters (all result pages, not just the first 1,000 hits) 3. Fetches each startup’s YC page (8 at a time) to extract job postings, founders, and full metadata; a page that fails to load is skipped and counted in the run log, and the run fails with a clear message if YC blocks the requests entirely 4. Outputs structured JSON data you can use in [Airtable](https://www.airtable.com/), [Notion](https://www.notion.com/), CRMs, or [spreadsheets](http://sheets.google.com/) *** ### ⚡ Performance Tips - For large-scale scraping, filter by region, industry, or batch to reduce load - Schedule the actor to run weekly or monthly to track new YC startups over time *** ### 🧠 Built With ❤️ by [Damilo](https://apify.com/damilo) I build fast, scalable Apify scrapers for serious use cases — B2B lead gen, research, job mining, content aggregation, and beyond. If this actor saved you time, please consider leaving a **⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review** to help others find it! *** Happy scraping! # Actor input Schema ## `directUrls` (type: `array`): ycombinator.com/companies search URLs with your filters applied (batch, industry, region, isHiring, team size...). Leave empty to search the whole directory with Search Query. ## `searchQuery` (type: `string`): The search query to use for scraping Y Combinator companies. ## `sort` (type: `string`): The sort order for the results. ## `maxCompanies` (type: `integer`): Stop after this many companies (across all URLs). Leave empty or 0 to scrape every match. ## Actor input object example ```json { "directUrls": [ "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202025&industry=B2B&isHiring=true&team_size=%5B%225%22%2C%22500%22%5D" ], "searchQuery": "", "sort": "default", "maxCompanies": 200 } ``` # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "directUrls": [ "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202025&industry=B2B&isHiring=true&team_size=%5B%225%22%2C%22500%22%5D" ], "searchQuery": "", "sort": "default", "maxCompanies": 200 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("damilo/y-combinator-scraper-apify").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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "directUrls": ["https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202025&industry=B2B&isHiring=true&team_size=%5B%225%22%2C%22500%22%5D"], "searchQuery": "", "sort": "default", "maxCompanies": 200, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("damilo/y-combinator-scraper-apify").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 '{ "directUrls": [ "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=Summer%202025&industry=B2B&isHiring=true&team_size=%5B%225%22%2C%22500%22%5D" ], "searchQuery": "", "sort": "default", "maxCompanies": 200 }' | apify call damilo/y-combinator-scraper-apify --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,damilo/y-combinator-scraper-apify" } } } ``` 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 ` 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/Q2gpE3wTXXQNQBMyf/builds/bLYrIiJCYq2AHBCGL/openapi.json