Open research · No signup
Six representative company records from across the YC Founder Intelligence collection. Follow a public source, see what it supports, and open the matching database preview. This is a sample of the research format, not the complete vault or a finished analysis of every company.
The sample file
Showing 6 of 6 records
First customers
W09 · Marketplace
How do you get the first users of a two-sided marketplace?
The founders went door to door in New York, recruited hosts and helped improve listings themselves.
What to test: If supply is the bottleneck, manual recruiting may teach you more than another launch campaign.
First customers
S09 · Fintech / Payments
What if interested users never finish setup?
The Collison brothers set up Stripe for willing users on the spot instead of sending a signup link.
What to test: Remove the first-use hurdle yourself before trying to automate onboarding.
Idea evolution
S05 · Consumer / Social
How can an early idea develop into a different company?
Reddit is listed as an S05 company in YC's directory and later became a public company.
What to test: This record establishes a company and outcome; the idea-change timeline requires separate founder evidence.
Pivots
W07 · Consumer / Video
When should a smaller use case become the whole product?
YC lists Twitch as a W07 company; it was acquired by Amazon in 2014.
What to test: A public outcome is not proof of why a pivot succeeded. Compare the change and its trigger in the pivot research.
Growth
S11 · SaaS / CDP
What does a durable B2B product look like beyond launch day?
YC lists Segment as an S11 data infrastructure company acquired by Twilio.
What to test: Study the buyer, adoption path and repeat usage—not just the eventual exit.
Markets
W15 · Fintech (India)
What can a YC fintech founder learn from building in India?
YC lists Razorpay as a W15 payments company based in India.
What to test: Market and regulatory context matter before copying a fintech growth playbook from another country.
Sources support the public facts or the specifically described actions above. “What to test” is an interpretation for founders, not a claimed outcome for the company.
Beyond the sample
Browse all 46 database pages to see what each question covers. The full collection brings the research together by founder decision, with source-linked records and continuing updates.