Y Combinator Funding Application Form | SFP 2006

 Application deadline: midnight, 13 Feb 06.

 Please try to answer each question in less than 120 words.

 If we accept you but decide later that you misled us, we reserve
 the right to pull out of the deal.

 We don't make any formal promise about secrecy, but we try to be
 more upstanding about it than regular VC firms.  We don't plan to
 let anyone outside Y Combinator see these applications, including
 other startups we fund.  Feel free not to tell us secrets, but
 understand this will weaken your application.

 Your application will be processed by a program that's expecting
 this form, and nothing else.  So please just send a plain text
 email (no mime, no base 64) and don't edit the questions.  We'd
 also appreciate it if you'd run your answers through fmt instead
 of putting them all one one line.

--------- snip and send to sfp2006@ycombinator.com ----------------


Please list your company's name, url (if any) and phone number
(preferably cell).

What is your company going to make?

For each founder, please list: name; age; year, school, degree, and
subject for each degree; email address; personal url (if any); and
present employer and title (if any).  Put unfinished degrees in
parens.  List the main contact first.  Put an asterisk before the
name of anyone *not* able to move to our location for the duration
of the program.

Please tell us in one or two sentences something about each founder
that shows a high level of ability.

What's new about what you're doing?

What do you understand about your business that other companies in
it just don't get?

How will you make money?

Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors?  Who
do you fear most?

For founders who are hackers: what cool things have you built?
(Include urls if possible.)

How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet?

If your project is software, what tools will you use?

If you've already started working on it, how long have you been
working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written?

If you have an online demo, what's the url?

How long will it take before you have a prototype?  A beta?  A
version you can charge for?

Which companies are most likely to buy you?

If one wanted to buy you three months in (August 2006), what's the
lowest offer you'd take?

Why would your project be hard for someone else to duplicate?

Do you have any ideas you consider patentable?

What might go wrong?  (This is a test of imagination, not confidence.)

If you're already incorporated, when were you?  Who are the
shareholders and what percent does each own?  If you've had funding,
how much, at what valuation(s)?

If you're not incorporated yet, please list the percent of the
company you plan to give each founder, and anyone else you plan to
give stock to.  (This question is more for you than us.)

If you'll have any major expenses beyond the living costs of your
founders, Internet access, and servers, what will they be?

If by August 2006 your startup seems to have a good chance of making
you rich, which of the founders would commit to working on it
full-time for the next several years?

Do any founders have other commitments between June and August
2006 inclusive?

Do any founders have commitments in the future (e.g. have been
accepted to grad school), and if so what?

Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual
property agreements that overlap with your project?  Will any be
working as employees or consultants for anyone else?

Was any of your code written by someone who is not one of your
founders?  If so, how can you safely use it?  (Open source is ok
of course.)

Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has
discovered.  (The answer need not be related to your project.)






form (c) 06 yc | rev 17 jan 06