YC Application Checklist — 20 Things to Do Before You Submit

1. CONFIRM YOUR COMPANY IS STRUCTURED CORRECTLY

YC invests in Delaware C-Corps and, in some cases, entities that can convert to a Delaware C-Corp. If your company is currently structured as a sole proprietorship, an LLP, or a Private Limited company in India, you will need to either incorporate in Delaware before applying or be prepared to do so if accepted. This is not a requirement at the application stage but it should not be a surprise if you get in. Research the Stripe Atlas or Clerky incorporation routes if you need to set up a US entity.

2. ALIGN YOUR COFOUNDERS ON THE APPLICATION BEFORE WRITING IT

Every field in the YC application reflects your founding team's shared understanding of the company. If you and your cofounder disagree on your target user, your insight, or your growth strategy, the application will show that inconsistency. Have a 2-hour alignment session before writing. Agree on: the single most specific description of your user, the one non-obvious insight you have that competitors lack, and the most compelling traction signal you have right now.

3. LIST YOUR 5 STRONGEST EVIDENCE POINTS

Before writing, write down your 5 strongest pieces of evidence that people want what you are building. These should be specific: dollar amounts, user counts, retention percentages, interview quotes. These 5 points will anchor the most critical fields in your application — the traction field, the insight field, and the validation field. If you cannot list 5 specific evidence points, consider waiting one more month before applying.

4. READ 10 PAUL GRAHAM ESSAYS

Not to borrow language — do not use PG's language in your application. To understand the mental model YC partners use to evaluate founders. The most relevant: Do Things That Don't Scale, Default Alive or Default Dead, Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas, How to Get Startup Ideas, and What I Wish Someone Had Told Me. Reading these calibrates your thinking before you write a single answer.

5. WRITE YOUR 50-CHARACTER DESCRIPTION 10 DIFFERENT WAYS

The 50-character field is the hardest and highest-leverage field. Write 10 versions before picking one. Test them on people who don't know your company — if they can immediately say who uses it and what it does, the description works. The winning version is almost always the most specific one that fits within the character limit.

6. WRITE EVERY ANSWER IN PAST TENSE WHERE POSSIBLE

Past tense signals things that have already happened. "We have 11 paying customers" is past tense and real. "We plan to acquire customers through..." is future tense and theoretical. YC funds motion, not intention. Go through every field and convert future-tense claims to past-tense evidence wherever you can. Where you genuinely don't have past-tense evidence, be specific about your next concrete action: "We start our first enterprise sales conversations next week with 4 companies we have already identified."

7. REMOVE EVERY INSTANCE OF THESE WORDS

Do a word search before submitting. Delete or replace every instance of: platform, solution, ecosystem, disruptive, passionate, world-class, leverage (as a verb), synergies, paradigm, revolutionary, transforming. Replace each one with the specific thing you mean. "HR platform" becomes "payroll and benefits software." "Passionate team" becomes nothing — delete it and add a specific credential instead.

8. ADD AT LEAST ONE SPECIFIC NUMBER TO EVERY FIELD

Every answer without a number is an answer that can be applied to any startup. Numbers make your application specific and memorable. If a field genuinely cannot have a number — the cofounder meeting story, for example — make sure the specific details (month, place, project you worked on together) do the work that numbers do in other fields.

9. WRITE THE INSIGHT FIELD LAST

The insight field — "what do you understand about your business that others don't get?" — is the hardest field and the most commonly failed one. Write it after you have written every other field. By then you will have articulated your user, your evidence, and your product clearly enough that the real insight will be easier to identify. The insight is the thread that connects everything else. Finding it first is harder than finding it after the full picture is on the page.

10. WRITE YOUR VIDEO SCRIPT AS BULLET POINTS, NOT SENTENCES

The video essay is 2 minutes. Do not write a script — you will read it and partners will know. Write 5 bullet points: who you are, what you build, why you specifically, what you have proven, what you want from YC. Practice speaking to each bullet point naturally until you can do it without looking at notes. Record your first take cold, then iterate.

11. HAVE SOMEONE COMPLETELY UNFAMILIAR WITH YOUR STARTUP READ EVERY FIELD

Ask them to tell you: what does this company do, who is the customer, and what questions does each answer raise. Every question they raise is a gap in your application. Fill the gaps before submitting. Do not ask a fellow founder who knows your space — they will fill in context from their own knowledge. Ask someone outside your industry.

12. CHECK FOR INCONSISTENCIES BETWEEN FIELDS

Your company description, product description, traction field, and insight field should all describe the same company with the same user. A user described as "independent pharmacies" in one field and "small healthcare providers" in another creates doubt. Read the entire application in one sitting as if you are a partner who has never heard of your company. Flag every place where you had to infer context rather than finding it stated explicitly.

13. CROSS-CHECK YOUR VIDEO AGAINST YOUR WRITTEN APPLICATION

Watch your video and read your application in the same 20-minute session. Every claim you make in the video should be consistent with what you wrote. The user you describe should be the same. The traction number you mention should match. The insight you articulate should align with what is in the written field. Inconsistencies between video and written application signal a team that has not aligned on what they are building.

14. VERIFY EVERY NUMBER YOU HAVE CITED

Before submitting, confirm every metric you have stated. If you said 11 paying customers, count them. If you said 22% MoM growth, calculate it. If you said ₹8K MRR, reconcile it against your actual revenue. Partners will ask you about these numbers in your interview and any discrepancy — even an honest rounding error — creates doubt. Know your numbers exactly.

15. TEST YOUR VIDEO LINK IN AN INCOGNITO BROWSER

If you are submitting a YouTube link, open it in an incognito browser window before pasting it into the application. Confirm it plays without requiring a login. Set the video to "Unlisted" not "Private." Private videos require the viewer to have a Google account you have explicitly granted access to — most YC partners will not have that access and will see a blank video.

16. CONFIRM BOTH COFOUNDERS HAVE REVIEWED AND APPROVED THE FINAL VERSION

The application represents both founders. Both should have read every field before submission. A common mistake: one founder writes the application and the other reviews only their personal sections. Both founders will be in the interview. Both should know every answer in the application by heart.

17. CHECK THE EQUITY AND CAP TABLE FIELDS FOR COMPLETENESS

Equity fields are often left partially complete or with approximate numbers. Use exact percentages. If there are outstanding SAFEs, option grants, or advisors with equity, include them. An incomplete cap table raises questions that are easy to avoid by being thorough. If your situation is complicated, add a one-sentence explanation in the relevant field.

18. ADD YOUR PRODUCT URL AND MAKE SURE IT WORKS

Before submitting, visit your own product URL and confirm it loads correctly. If your product is live, make sure a partner clicking the link can see something meaningful without requiring signup. If your product is invite-only, consider adding a note in the application explaining what a partner would see at that URL and offering a demo access path.

19. READ THE ENTIRE APPLICATION OUT LOUD ONE FINAL TIME

Reading silently lets your brain autocorrect errors it expects to see. Reading out loud catches unclear sentences, awkward phrasing, and places where the logical flow breaks. If you stumble reading a sentence aloud, rewrite it. If a sentence requires you to re-read it to understand it, simplify it.

20. SUBMIT BEFORE THE DEADLINE — BUT ONLY WHEN IT IS GENUINELY READY

Do not submit a weak application early just to be done with it. Do not submit a strong application late if the deadline has passed. The ideal submission is one where you have worked through every item on this list, the application is as strong as your current evidence allows, and you submit with at least 24 hours to spare before the deadline — not in the final minutes.