ParseForge
Y Combinator Companies Scraper
parseforge/y-combinator-scraper
Social mediaLead generationOther
Scrapes Y Combinator company profiles from the public directory. Returns each company as a flat row with optional founder details and open job listings, filterable by batch, industry, region, and status.
- Total users
- 71
- Monthly active
- 9
- Total runs
- 425
- Bookmarked
- 1
- Rating
- Not rated yet
- Last modified
- 12 days ago
Overview
Y Combinator Companies Scraper
Scrape Y Combinator companies by batch, industry, region, or keyword, up to a million per run. Every company comes with its description, founders, job listings, and status. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Y Combinator's startup directory is a goldmine of market intelligence, but manually browsing hundreds of company profiles is slow and unscalable. This Actor reads the public YC company pages directly, letting you filter by batch, industry, region, hiring status, and more. It returns each matched company in one consistent, flat schema ready for analysis.
| Who uses it | What they scrape Y Combinator for |
|---|---|
| Venture capital analysts | Screen new YC batches for investment targets by industry and region. |
| Market researchers | Map startup activity and emerging trends across Y Combinator's portfolio. |
| Recruiters | Find YC-backed companies that are actively hiring for specific roles. |
| Sales teams | Build lead lists of funded startups by technology vertical and growth stage. |
What it does
This Actor collects Y Combinator company profiles from the public directory and returns each one as a flat row with optional founder details and job listings.
- 🎓 Batch filtering: target specific cohorts like W25, S24, or X25 using short codes or full names.
- 🏭 Industry and subindustry filters: narrow results to B2B, Fintech, Healthcare, and their specific sub-sectors.
- 🌍 Region targeting: focus on companies headquartered in the United States, Europe, Latin America, India, and more.
- 👤 Founder profiles: include each founder's name, title, bio, LinkedIn, and Twitter handle.
- 💼 Job listings: pull open roles with salary range, equity, visa sponsorship, and required skills.
- 📄 Full job descriptions: optionally fetch the complete text of every job posting.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with Y Combinator data
📈 Monitor startup formation by sector.
A VC analyst runs the scraper weekly on the latest batch, filtered by Fintech and United States, to spot new investment opportunities before they hit the news.
🎯 Build a lead list of funded startups.
A sales team scrapes all active B2B companies from the last three batches that are hiring, then exports the list to their CRM for outreach.
💼 Source candidates from high-growth companies.
A recruiter pulls every YC company with open engineering roles in Europe, including full job descriptions, to match candidates with funded startups.
🔬 Analyze Y Combinator's portfolio composition.
A researcher scrapes the entire directory with industry and region filters to quantify how YC's investment thesis has shifted across batches.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| Batch and status filters | Screen only the most recent cohorts or filter for active, public, and acquired companies. |
| Founder and job data | Enrich company profiles with founder backgrounds and detailed open positions. |
| Flexible output | Download results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for your existing workflows. |
How it compares
No other Store actor targets Y Combinator the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.
| Y Combinator Companies Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When Y Combinator changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor from a keyword search or a list of direct company URLs, and filters run as each company is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
{
"maxItems": 10
}
A larger pull:
{
"maxItems": 200
}
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.01599 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $1.60 |
| 1,000 results | $15.99 |
| 10,000 results | $159.90 |
New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.
Free users
Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.
Run it
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the Y Combinator Companies Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.
Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.
Use with AI agents (MCP)
Give an AI agent live access to Y Combinator through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/y-combinator-scraper"
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results?
Check that your filters are not too restrictive. Try removing some filters or broadening your batch, industry, or region selections. Also verify that your keyword search term is spelled correctly.
Why are job listings missing from my output?
Ensure the Include Open Jobs option is enabled. If it is on and jobs are still missing, the company may not have any open positions listed on Y Combinator at this time.
The scraper is running slowly. What can I do?
Fetching full job descriptions adds one request per job listing. If speed is a concern, disable Include Job Descriptions and run the scraper with only the core company data and job summaries.
I pasted a company URL but the scraper ignored my filters.
When you provide direct URLs in the startUrls field, all filter settings are bypassed. The Actor scrapes exactly those URLs and nothing else. Remove the URLs if you want to use filters.
Some founder social media links are missing.
The scraper includes whatever LinkedIn and Twitter URLs are publicly listed on the YC profile. If a founder has not added them, those fields will be empty in your results.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can I scrape a specific company by URL? | Yes. Paste one or more direct Y Combinator company URLs into the startUrls field. When you provide URLs, all other filters are ignored and only those companies are scraped. |
| How do I filter by a specific YC batch? | Use the Batches field with short codes like W25, S25, or F25, or full names like Winter 2025. You can enter multiple batches to cover several cohorts in one run. |
| Does this scraper require a Y Combinator account or API key? | No. It reads the public Y Combinator company directory, so no login, account, or API key is needed. |
| Can I get founder LinkedIn and Twitter profiles? | Yes. Enable the Include Founders option and each company row will contain founder names, titles, bios, and links to their LinkedIn and Twitter profiles when available. |
| How do I scrape job listings with salary information? | Turn on Include Open Jobs. The output will include each job's title, salary range, equity range, visa sponsorship status, and required skills. Enable Include Job Descriptions to also get the full posting text. |
| What is the maximum number of companies I can scrape? | You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 companies per run. The actual number returned depends on how many match your filters. |
| Can I filter for only top YC companies like Airbnb or Stripe? | Yes. Check the Top Companies Only box to restrict results to the most notable Y Combinator alumni. |
| How do I find only companies that are currently hiring? | Enable the Hiring Only checkbox. This will return only companies that have at least one open job listing on their YC profile. |
| What export formats are supported? | You can export your results to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from the dataset tab after the run completes. |
| Can I search by company name or keyword? | Yes. Use the Company name or keyword field to search across company names and descriptions. This works together with all other filters. |
Related actors
Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.
🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.
⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Y Combinator Management, LLC. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.
Input
| Field | Type | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| startUrls | array | Scrape specific YC companies by URL. Example: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb. If provided, all filter fields below are ignored. | not set |
| maxItems | integer | How many companies to collect per run. | 10 |
| query | string | Search by company name, description, or keyword. Example: AI assistant | not set |
| batches | array | Filter by YC batch. Use short codes (W25, S25, X25, F25) or full names (Winter 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2025). Leave empty for all batches. | not set |
| industries | array | Filter by top-level industry. Options: B2B, Consumer, Healthcare, Fintech, Industrials, Real Estate and Construction, Education, Government. | not set |
| subindustries | array | Filter by specific subindustry. Examples: B2B -> Engineering, Product and Design | Fintech -> Payments | Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery. | not set |
| regions | array | Filter by region. Examples: United States of America, Europe, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, India, United Kingdom. | not set |
| companyStatus | string (5 options) | Filter by company status. Leave empty for all statuses. | not set |
| isHiring | boolean | Only return companies with open job listings. | not set |
| nonprofit | boolean | Only return nonprofit organizations. | not set |
| topCompaniesOnly | boolean | Only return companies flagged as top YC companies (most notable alumni like Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase). | not set |
| scrapeFounders | boolean | Include founder profiles with name, title, bio, LinkedIn, and Twitter. | true |
| scrapeJobs | boolean | Include open job listings with salary range, equity range, visa sponsorship, and required skills. | true |
| scrapeJobDescriptions | boolean | Include full job description text for each open position. Requires scrapeJobs to be enabled. Adds one extra request per job listing. | false |
Pricing
from $11.99 per 1,000 results
| Charged for | What it is | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| Actor Start | Charged once when the run starts. | $0.005 |
| Result Item | Charged once per result collected. | $0.01199 to $0.01599 |
Tiered: the lower figure is the price on a higher Apify plan. Billing and the free credit live on Apify.
API
One POST returns the dataset directly. Same shape for every scraper in the library, so swapping the slug is the only change.
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parseforge~y-combinator-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"helloWorld": 123
}' Examples
Input that runs as-is.
{
"helloWorld": 123
} Reviews
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Issues
We build and maintain this scraper, so a problem with it comes to us. Report it on the Apify listing and the thread stays attached to the scraper where the next person can find it: open an issue.
Broken and urgent, or you would rather not post in public? Write to parseforge@protonmail.com and it reaches the people who wrote it.