YC Application Word Limits — What to Write in Each Field

COMPANY NAME

Limit: Short text field What to write: Your legal or operating company name. No taglines, no descriptors. Just the name.

COMPANY URL

Limit: URL field What to write: Your primary domain. If you have no website yet, set up a simple one-page landing page before submitting. A missing URL signals that you haven't launched anything. Even a basic page with a waitlist form shows motion.

DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY IN 50 CHARACTERS OR LESS

Limit: 50 characters What to write: What you do + who you do it for. This is the hardest field. You have roughly 8-10 words.

Examples that work:

• "Payroll software for Nigerian SMBs" (34 characters)

• "Stripe for Southeast Asian marketplaces" (39 characters)

• "AI tutor for Indian JEE students" (32 characters)

Examples that don't work:

• "Revolutionizing the future of enterprise" (40 characters but says nothing)

• "AI platform for businesses" (26 characters but too vague)

The test: could someone read this and immediately know what you build and who uses it? If yes, it works.

WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY GOING TO MAKE?

Limit: ~150 words What to write: Your product in concrete terms. Name the user, the action they take, and the measurable outcome they get.

Use this structure:

We build [product type] for [specific user]. [User] uses it to [specific action], which results in [measurable outcome].

Keep it to 3-4 sentences. Do not pad it with market context or vision statements. That comes later. This field is purely about the product.

IN TWO SENTENCES, TELL US THE MOST IMPRESSIVE THING ABOUT EACH FOUNDER

Limit: 2 sentences per founder What to write: The one thing about each founder that makes a YC partner think "this person can pull this off."

Common mistakes:

• Listing degrees without outcomes ("MBA from IIM Ahmedabad")

• Vague role descriptions ("5 years in product management")

• Generic accomplishments ("led a team of 20 engineers")

What works:

• Specific outcomes with numbers ("grew a SaaS product from ₹0 to ₹1.2Cr ARR in 14 months")

• Domain proof ("ran operations at a 200-pharmacist hospital chain for 4 years")

• Relevant builds ("shipped 3 consumer apps, one with 80,000 downloads")

Two sentences means two sentences. Do not write a paragraph and call it two sentences.

HOW LONG HAVE THE FOUNDERS KNOWN EACH OTHER AND HOW DID YOU MEET?

Limit: Short answer (~50 words) What to write: Be literal and specific. Month and year you met. Context in which you met. How long you have worked together.

"We met in August 2019 at a product management internship at Flipkart. We worked together daily for 8 months before both leaving to build this in 2023. We have known each other 5 years and co-built two side projects before this one."

This answer signals: long relationship, collaborative history, intentional cofounder choice. That is what YC wants to see.

WHY DID YOU PICK THIS IDEA TO WORK ON?

Limit: ~150 words What to write: Your personal origin story with this problem. Not why the market is big. Why you.

The strongest answers follow this arc: 1. I encountered this problem directly (or watched someone I know struggle with it) 2. I investigated it further and found it was systemic, not just my experience 3. Existing solutions failed in this specific way 4. That is why I decided to build this

One paragraph. No jargon. Specific details. If you have numbers from your research, include one.

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS THAT OTHER COMPANIES IN IT JUST DON'T GET?

Limit: ~150 words What to write: Your genuine insight — the non-obvious thing you know that explains why your approach will work where others have failed.

This is the field most founders misuse. They write about the market opportunity instead of a real insight.

A real insight sounds like: "Every pharmacy software company builds for the software-literate pharmacist. But 70% of independent pharmacy owners in tier 2 India have never used a computer for business. They use WhatsApp exclusively. We built entirely on WhatsApp — no app install, no login, no interface. That is why our activation rate is 94% vs the industry average of ~30%."

Notice it names the mistake competitors make, the specific user reality that explains the mistake, and your approach that addresses it. That is the shape of a real insight.

HOW DO YOU KNOW PEOPLE WANT THIS?

Limit: ~150 words What to write: Evidence only. Numbers only. No logic.

What to include if you have it:

• Number of user interviews conducted

• Specific things users told you (quote one if powerful)

• Number of paying customers and revenue

• Waitlist size and conversion rate

• Pre-orders or letters of intent

What not to write:

• Market size data

• Survey statistics from reports

• Logical arguments about why people should want this

If you have weak traction: be honest and compensate with interview depth. "We have no paying customers yet. We interviewed 80 pharmacy owners over 6 weeks across Pune and Nashik. Every single one told us the same thing: they lose money to expiry and they don't know how much until it's too late. 12 of them asked us to notify them when we launch."

That is fundable at pre-traction stage.

WHAT IS YOUR DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY?

Limit: ~100 words What to write: How you get your first 100 customers — not your first million. Be channel-specific.

"We will acquire our first 100 customers through direct outreach to pharmacy owner WhatsApp groups, of which we have already identified 47 active ones in Maharashtra with 200-800 members each. We have tested this channel and converted 8 paying customers from 3 groups so far."

Short. Specific. Proven if possible.

IF YOU HAD A MILLION DOLLARS, WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT?

Limit: ~100 words What to write: Specific allocations. Not "hire great people and grow fast."

"60% on engineering — hire 2 backend engineers to build the supplier integration layer that is currently our biggest product gap. 25% on sales — hire one field sales rep in Maharashtra to run our WhatsApp outreach channel at scale. 15% on operations — move to a dedicated office and cover first 6 months of cloud infrastructure."

This answer proves you understand your constraints and have thought about prioritization.

Equity breakdown: State it clearly. 50/50 splits are fine. Unequal splits are fine. Unexplained imbalances raise flags. If one founder has 80%, explain why briefly.

Previous companies: Be honest. YC does not penalize failure. They do penalize dishonesty. If you built something that failed, say what you learned. That is more credible than hiding it.

Other accelerators: If you are in another accelerator or have applied, disclose it. YC finds out. Non-disclosure is a trust killer.

Write every answer as if a smart, skeptical person with 8 minutes is reading it. They are not looking to be impressed — they are looking for a reason to keep reading. Specific numbers, specific users, specific outcomes. Everything else is noise.