Does it return contact details?

No. Records carry name, title, company, batches, industries, region and avatar.

Do I pay for lookups that come back empty?

No. You are charged per result, so a request that finds nothing costs nothing. Testing this against a messy list is free to get wrong.

What does a request cost?

1 point per returned record, which is $1 per 1,000, and only records that come back are charged. Points come out of your monthly plan allowance.

Startup & Funding Data

Y Combinator Founders Search API and MCP — Founders by Name, Batch, Title and Industry

Send a name keyword and any of the filters (batches, titles, industries, top company) and get matching founders back as JSON: name, first and last name, title, company and company link, batches, industries, region and avatar.

Run it in the app Read the API docs

You send: an optional name keyword and filters (batches, titles, industries, top company) plus a max_items cap (up to 250)
You get back: founders with name, title, company, batches, industries and region
Coverage: Y Combinator records with a public page.
Price: 1 point per returned record — $1 per 1,000; Billed per record actually returned, capped by max_items. A request that returns nothing costs nothing.

Comparison

Ways to get this data

Three approaches teams use today, and where each one runs into trouble.

Approach	What it takes	Cost	Trade-off
Y Combinator directly	Type the query into Y Combinator and read the results	Free, and slow	Fine for one record, useless across a list, and the layout differs on every platform
Building a scraper	Write it, host it, and repair it when Y Combinator changes its pages	Engineering time	A maintenance commitment for something that isn't your product
NeuralVerge	One request, the same shape as every other source in the catalog	$1 per 1,000, misses not billed	Returns what Y Combinator publishes at request time. Other platforms are separate sources with the same request format

Response

What you get back

Every field in the example response below.

Field	Type	Description
`session_id`	string	Id of this run, for tracing.
`kind`	string	Source type of the response.
`max_items`	number	The cap on returned records, as run.
`start_page`	number	Page the run started from.
`partial`	boolean	True when the run stopped before reaching max_items.
`human`	string	Readable summary: the query, how many results came back and how many were found.
`total_points`	number	Points charged for the run.
`machine.total_items`	number	Number of founders returned in this response.
`machine.total_found`	number	Total matches reported by the platform, when it reports one.
`machine.first_item.id`	string	Founder slug.
`machine.first_item.name`	string	Founder name.
`machine.first_item.url`	string	Link to the founder's company page.
`machine.first_item.alias`	string	Slug as the directory uses it.
`machine.first_item.yc_id`	number	Numeric founder id.
`machine.first_item.first_name`	string	First name.
`machine.first_item.last_name`	string	Last name.
`machine.first_item.title`	null	Primary title. Null when not given, as in the sample.
`machine.first_item.titles`	array	All titles.
`machine.first_item.company`	string	Company name.
`machine.first_item.company_slug`	string	Company slug.
`machine.first_item.company_url`	string	Link to the company page.
`machine.first_item.all_companies`	string	All companies, as one string.
`machine.first_item.batches`	array	Batch codes, e.g. S13.
`machine.first_item.industries`	array	Industry list.
`machine.first_item.subindustries`	array	Industry and sub-industry list.
`machine.first_item.region`	string	Region.
`machine.first_item.top_company`	boolean	Whether the company is marked as a top company.
`machine.first_item.avatar`	string	Avatar URL.
`machine.first_item.hn_id`	string	Hacker News username, when listed.
`machine.items[]`	array	Founders returned, same shape as first_item.
`machine.page_count`	number	Pages read for the run.
`machine.blocked`	boolean	Whether the platform refused the request.
`machine.proxy_traffic_bytes`	number	Size of the data transferred for the run, in bytes.

Response

Example response

A real response, as returned.

{
  "session_id": "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111",
  "kind": "yc_founders_search",
  "max_items": 2,
  "start_page": 1,
  "partial": false,
  "human": "# Y Combinator — founders search\n\n- **Query:** max_items=2\n- **Results:** 2 of 13943 found\n- **Proxy traffic:** 2.7 KB",
  "machine": {
    "total_items": 2,
    "first_item": {
      "id": "andy-fang",
      "name": "Andy Fang",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
      "alias": "andy-fang",
      "yc_id": 38677,
      "first_name": "Andy",
      "last_name": "Fang",
      "title": null,
      "titles": [
        "Founder"
      ],
      "company": "DoorDash",
      "company_slug": "doordash",
      "company_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
      "all_companies": "DoorDash",
      "batches": [
        "S13"
      ],
      "industries": [
        "Consumer"
      ],
      "subindustries": [
        "Consumer -> Food and Beverage"
      ],
      "region": "United States of America",
      "top_company": true,
      "avatar": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/avatars/770656503cf9b58fad0796e7d154fa00279c3733.jpg",
      "hn_id": "andyfang"
    },
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "andy-fang",
        "name": "Andy Fang",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
        "alias": "andy-fang",
        "yc_id": 38677,
        "first_name": "Andy",
        "last_name": "Fang",
        "title": null,
        "titles": [
          "Founder"
        ],
        "company": "DoorDash",
        "company_slug": "doordash",
        "company_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
        "all_companies": "DoorDash",
        "batches": [
          "S13"
        ],
        "industries": [
          "Consumer"
        ],
        "subindustries": [
          "Consumer -> Food and Beverage"
        ],
        "region": "United States of America",
        "top_company": true,
        "avatar": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/avatars/770656503cf9b58fad0796e7d154fa00279c3733.jpg",
        "hn_id": "andyfang"
      },
      {
        "id": "tony-xu",
        "name": "Tony Xu",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
        "alias": "tony-xu",
        "yc_id": 14644,
        "first_name": "Tony",
        "last_name": "Xu",
        "title": "CEO",
        "titles": [
          "CEO"
        ],
        "company": "DoorDash",
        "company_slug": "doordash",
        "company_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
        "all_companies": "DoorDash",
        "batches": [
          "S13"
        ],
        "industries": [
          "Consumer"
        ],
        "subindustries": [
          "Consumer -> Food and Beverage"
        ],
        "region": "United States of America",
        "top_company": true,
        "avatar": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/avatars/1d5915aa4f0da14e3b2e60fc1c3322fc42d58e20.jpg",
        "hn_id": "tonyxu"
      }
    ],
    "total_found": 13943,
    "page_count": 1,
    "blocked": false,
    "proxy_traffic_bytes": 2720
  },
  "total_points": 2
}

Integration

How to run it

The same lookup works from the app, the API, or as a tool an agent can call mid-task.

Results come back in the same envelope as every other source: a session id, a readable summary, the structured result and the points charged. max_items caps how many records are returned and billed.

curl -X POST https://api.neuralverge.ai/functions/v1/run-yc-founders-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"max_items":2}'

Use cases

What teams use it for

Where this field shows up in an actual workflow.

Founder research by batch

List the founders of a batch or industry with their titles and companies.

Find a person's company

Search a name keyword to get the company slug, then read the company profile.

Role-based lists

Filter by title such as CEO or CTO and by industry.

Coverage & limits

Coverage, freshness and limits

What this source covers, how fresh it is, and where it stops.

Coverage

Y Combinator records with a public page.

Freshness

Read at request time, so the answer reflects the platform as it stands when you ask.

Handling

This source returns information Y Combinator shows publicly. Every response carries the session id you can trace.

What it will not do

—This source returns named individuals from a public directory. Use it for company context, and handle personal data in line with your own obligations.
—Some records have no primary title, as in the first sample record; the titles list can still hold a value.
—Bios, social links and company details are not here; use the Y Combinator company source for those.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Send them comma-separated, for example batches "Winter 2024, S23" or titles "CEO, CTO".

Related sources

Y Combinator company

One company with founders, news and launches.

Y Combinator companies search

Directory search with filters.

PitchWall product

One PitchWall product page.

All startup & funding data

Startup directories, funding databases, launch platforms and investor data.

Try y combinator founders search on your own data

One request format across every source in the catalog.

Get started