[ { "id": 388, "name": "Knowmia", "slug": "knowmia", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png", "website": "http://knowmia.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Remote", "long_description": "Knowmia is a destination for learning that features short video lessons from great teachers everywhere. We help you to find what you need to succeed in school in a personal, affordable, and time-efficient way. By bringing together a wide range of video lessons and making it easy to find what you need, we help you with challenging topics, prepare you for an upcoming test or new course, and find the right teacher for your style of learning.", "one_liner": "Pandora meets Yelp for K-12 educational videos. We match each…", "team_size": 11, "industry": "Education", "subindustry": "Education", "launched_at": 1336096498, "tags": [ "Education", "Video", "Personalization" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2012", "status": "Acquired", "industries": [ "Education" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Fully Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/knowmia", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2012/knowmia.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/knowmia", "github_url": null, "logo_url": null, "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 28214, "full_name": "Ariel Braunstein", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": null, "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b98f906969373af3ded305ad99ecd2c3093c3441.jpg" }, { "user_id": 28215, "full_name": "Scott Kabat", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottkabat/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/scottkabat", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/86a4df7269c3c92bd5befc28665fd80dd3934d8c.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 612, "name": "Liftigniter", "slug": "liftigniter", "former_names": [ "Petametrics" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png", "website": "http://liftigniter.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "LiftIgniter uses cutting edge data science to help publishers and retailers optimize their websites and mobile apps in real-time. Machine learning personalization puts the perfect piece of \"content\"​ (video, article, item to buy) in front the user at the exact moment when they are most likely to engage or convert - no tags or manual work required. \n\nThe machine learns and updates itself so that's it's always perfectly in sync with your users and your \"content.\"​ We average 50% improvements in CTR, engagement and conversation - with only a day's work on your part. Imagine creating a truly dynamic, real-time digital property that enables the perfect experience for that user impression at that moment in time. That is LiftIgniter! \n\nOur team of PhDs has direct experience building state-of-the-art personalization systems at the petabyte scale for some of the largest companies on the planet. Unless you plan on hiring your own team with deep experience (not likely since very few people with that experience exist), you should contact us to talk about how we can supercharge your digital experiences.", "one_liner": "Machine Learning personalization for dynamic digital properties -…", "team_size": 11, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Marketing", "launched_at": 1384978926, "tags": [ "Machine Learning", "Personalization" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2014", "status": "Acquired", "industries": [ "B2B", "Marketing" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Growth", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/liftigniter", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2014/liftigniter.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": null, "x_url": null, "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/liftigniter", "github_url": null, "logo_url": null, "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 36479, "full_name": "Indraneel Mukherjee", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/indraneelmukherjee", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/66283ca67c88b2a5ca79ee9c6d30e6f1be5ef42f.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1065, "full_name": "Michael Murray", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/mikepmurray", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/mmurz", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/dadc5f8a7aef0555f4e98696a28365af8cb64643.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 935, "name": "Seva Coffee", "slug": "seva-coffee", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png", "website": "http://sevacoffee.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Seva Coffee is a consumer electronics company based out of Calle Laguna del Marquesado Nª 19, Nave 16 Edificio Adriana 1ª Planta, Polígono Industrial La Resina (Villaverde), Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain.", "one_liner": "We're changing the world of coffee, one personalized cup at a time.", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Home and Personal", "launched_at": 1430156130, "tags": [ "E-Commerce", "Personalization" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2015", "status": "Inactive", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Home and Personal" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/seva-coffee", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2015/seva-coffee.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": null, "x_url": null, "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/seva-coffee", "github_url": null, "logo_url": null, "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 81709, "full_name": "Deepak Boggavarapu", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/pub/deepak-boggavarapu/1/65/903", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/80d8ad5ce53063f777bae3cab5df21860d106685.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 1037, "name": "Function of Beauty", "slug": "function-of-beauty", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c69054338f0f6889ab821fc3e59d609f38cfe4e1.png", "website": "http://www.functionofbeauty.com", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; New York, NY, USA", "long_description": "We’re a customized beauty brand at the intersection of tech and beauty, setting out to democratize custom beauty and truly empower individuality. There’s no one size fits all with us.", "one_liner": "Customizable beauty for hair, skin, and body care products.", "team_size": 300, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Apparel and Cosmetics", "launched_at": 1447567515, "tags": [ "Beauty", "Personalization", "E-commerce" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2016", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Apparel and Cosmetics" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Growth", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": [ { "question": "How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)", "answer": "Function of Beauty was created by beauty outsiders: two MIT grads and a chemist who believed that everyone deserves a custom product and should be empowered to create their own beauty journey. Engineer and MIT grad Zahir Dossa was trained to see problems as equations to be solved. But when he looked at the beauty industry, what he saw didn’t add up—real people were more than broad categories like “curls” or “dry,” so cookie-cutter solutions could never deliver transformational results. No wonder consumers never saw the results they were after. But making effective, customized products at scale was thought to be impossible.   Zahir teamed up with fellow MIT grad Josh Maciejewski and cosmetic chemist Hien Nguyen, combining their expertise in supply chain, sustainability, and data science to create something revolutionary in the beauty industry. They imagined enabling every consumer to create their own product based on a totally customized set of variables, made to order with bespoke craftsmanship and care. They imagined an algorithm-based approach that would let them constantly iterate and improve every formula. The most important variable at the center of their equation was the consumer, who—for the first time—could be honored with formulas as one-of-a-kind as they were." }, { "question": "What's the history of your company from getting started until the present day? What were the big inflection points?", "answer": "We built a pioneering production facility and algorithm that allowed customers to co-create perfect, freshly crafted hair care formulas.  We focus on select, targeted, high-performing ingredients, expertly combined to work for optimal efficacy. We deliver freshly formulated, customized hair care right to customers, minimizing waste and ensuring you get everything they need  — and nothing they don’t.After building a successful DTC business, we set out to become an omni-channel pioneer and bring customization to the brick and mortar environment. In 2020, we designed and introduced a new concept and behavior for consumers - giving them options to mix their own custom shampoo and conditioner at home." }, { "question": "What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?", "answer": "At Function of Beauty, our mission is to truly empower individuality and we are the first brand to deliver on this promise by offering a fully personalized response to the vast diversity of hair and skin goals that women and men have. There is no one size fits all product, and we believe customization is the ultimate response to consuming more sustainably by having the perfect product made just for you. Customization is a challenging task that most beauty brands have not been able to figure out. We developed a unique technology and manufacturing capability which allows us to create custom formulas at scale.  We saw an opportunity to make a difference." }, { "question": "What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?", "answer": "We often get the question about how big is big for customization. We believe we are at the beginning of a fundamental evolution of customer behavior. Customization is  the future of beauty. It is a sustainable response to the consumer evolution and changing complexity of their beauty needs.  Today, nearly everyone can have access to custom formulas for their unique hair, skin and body needs. We want to continue to democratize access to custom beauty products over the next few years." } ], "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/function-of-beauty", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2016/function-of-beauty.json", "year_founded": 2015, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/10877282", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/fxofbeauty", "fb_url": "https://facebook.com/functionofbeauty", "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/function-of-beauty", "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c69054338f0f6889ab821fc3e59d609f38cfe4e1.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 114874, "full_name": "Zahir Dossa", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dossa/", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/a6c91feb77a949c0d6d124701a51d0286e1dff14.jpg" }, { "user_id": 115036, "full_name": "Hien Kaplan", "title": "Founder/Chief Scientist", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/hientnguyen", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/bbfc60faf6fce1ca94ab63b40f5aa95fdb1f673f.jpg" }, { "user_id": 115339, "full_name": "Joshua Maciejewski", "title": "Founder/COO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamac", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/8c61bb166b81776385b509f86c12fb0f90849347.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 59353, "title": "Graphic Designer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/function-of-beauty/jobs/JeM3Hv2-graphic-designer", "location": "New York, NY, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Design", "role_type": "Brand/graphic design", "salary_range": "$70K - $80K", "equity_range": "", "experience": "3+ years", "visa": "Will sponsor", "skills": [] } ], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 1247, "name": "NeoWize", "slug": "neowize", "former_names": [ "Shoptimally" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/a44843d10a15e36161da09c06259a4bf0bc995f2.png", "website": "http://www.neowize.com", "all_locations": "Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel", "long_description": "NeoWize changes the way we look at machine learning and deep learning. \r\nCurrent deep learning algorithms focus on making the most out of the data available. \r\nNeoWize utilizes neural networks and adaptive input to create more data and better data, thus increasing our predictive power with small data-sets.\r\nWe use this technology to help e-commerce sites learn what each individual buyer is looking for and create a better user experience from the first visit.", "one_liner": "NeoWize created a new type of machine learning algorithm and uses it…", "team_size": 3, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Retail", "launched_at": 1461643819, "tags": [ "Machine Learning", "E-Commerce", "Personalization" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2016", "status": "Acquired", "industries": [ "B2B", "Retail" ], "regions": [ "Israel", "Middle East and North Africa" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/neowize", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2016/neowize.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "Tel Aviv-Yafo", "country": "IL", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/neowize", "github_url": null, "logo_url": 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"founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://il.linkedin.com/in/ronen-ness-7a682865", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/be7ddf7df7b5b5c971bf306ee228576d398a74e4.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 1644, "name": "Indivio", "slug": "indivio", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/8e7d48dd3dd9cd9f00d26de662d8d74acc7a4ae8.png", "website": "https://www.indiv.io", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Redwood City, CA, USA; Remote", "long_description": "Indivio's video creative automation capabilities enable modern marketing teams to more easily deliver dynamic video experiences that improve business outcomes.", "one_liner": "Customize videos to be more relevant and improve business outcomes.", "team_size": 8, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Marketing", "launched_at": 1493697113, "tags": [ "Analytics", "Video", "Personalization" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2017", "status": "Acquired", "industries": [ "B2B", "Marketing" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Fully Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/indivio", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2017/indivio.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/indivio", "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/8e7d48dd3dd9cd9f00d26de662d8d74acc7a4ae8.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 3199, "full_name": "Josh Dorward", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorward/", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/7318279723a36487b463a04bf9710c3b56e0d1fd.jpg" }, { "user_id": 11984, "full_name": "Kenji Hashimoto", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenjihashimoto", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/3b359597edd337640377aad22433652244a85d56.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 12665, "name": "PlayAbly", "slug": "playably", "former_names": [ "Baotris" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/7b91c99b08fe6d4b5f8a1cf9542969f8f9ad14f6.png", "website": "https://www.playably.ai", "all_locations": "Remote", "long_description": "PlayAbly turns ignored touchpoints into mini-games that capture attention, drive action, and generate real-time first-party data—across eCommerce, B2B funnels, restaurants, and in-store retail. As attention spans shrink to six seconds, brands can't afford lifeless popups, forms, or landing pages. We replace them with gamified conversion layers—quizzes, swipe games, stackers—that perform like performance marketing.\r\n\r\nAt Unity, our founding team helped personalize gameplay and ads for over 2 billion users. Now, we're bringing that behavioral insight to brand engagement, building a no-code platform where anyone can launch PlayAbly experiences in minutes. Think: instead of a \"Spin to Win,\" a match-3 game that sells your product, segments your audience, and gets 4× the opt-ins.\r\n\r\nWhy now? Retargeting costs are up. Email/SMS open rates are down. And today’s customers are conditioned by the dopamine loops of TikTok and mobile games. Generic funnels can’t compete—but interactive ones can.\r\n\r\nPlayAbly is already driving results:\r\n\r\nClasskick (B2B): 5× ROI, 3× higher email open rates\r\n\r\nSkout Snacks (DTC): 7× ROI, 20% higher AOV, 4× opt-in rates\r\n\r\n89% of previously lost sessions re-engaged through PlayAbly games\r\n\r\nWe monetize on a usage + performance model, enabling fast adoption and deep long-term value. We're building a new category: AI-powered gamification that converts attention into intent, on any surface where customers meet brands.\r\n\r\nhttps://www.playably.ai", "one_liner": "We build games to help brands engage, convert, and retain customers ", "team_size": 5, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1750288819, "tags": [ "B2B", "Gaming", "Personalization", "E-commerce", "Marketing" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2019", "status": "Inactive", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "Remote", "Fully Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": [ { "question": "How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)", "answer": "We started PlayAbly because we saw the problem from the inside.John and Angelo met while working at **Unity Technologies**, where we helped scale ads and gameplay personalization to billions of users across mobile games. We saw firsthand how **interactive experiences and behavioral data could drive attention, trust, and action**—all in under six seconds.But outside of games? That magic was missing. We watched friends in **eCommerce and B2B** spend heavily on ads, only to lose users to static websites, generic forms, and boring popups. Every marketing funnel looked the same—and underperformed.We asked: _What if we brought the mechanics of play to commerce, sales, and brand storytelling?_So we built PlayAbly: a gamified engagement layer that turns any passive touchpoint—landing page, QR code, email popup—into a fun, branded, data-rich experience. We didn’t just want to optimize clickthroughs; we wanted to **make customer interaction feel like something people actually wanted to do**.We chose to be founders because we couldn’t unsee the gap—and we knew we had the technical and behavioral playbook to fill it." }, { "question": "What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?", "answer": "**The Problem:**\\Brands spend billions to drive traffic—but lose most of it in the first 6 seconds. Today’s customer experience is passive, generic, and forgettable. Popups are ignored. Forms are abandoned. Retargeting is expensive. And brands don’t know _why_ visitors bounce or _who_ they really are.**Why it matters:**\\Whether it’s eCommerce, B2B, or in-store, **the attention funnel is broken**. Customers are trained by TikTok and games to expect interactivity and dopamine—yet most brand experiences still feel like static brochures. This leads to poor conversion rates, bloated CAC, weak data, and missed revenue. In a post-cookie world, brands need ways to engage and personalize without relying on surveillance or guesswork.**Why we’re working on it:**\\At Unity, we personalized gameplay for 2B+ users. We saw how **interactivity + real-time data** could drive deep engagement and monetization in milliseconds. But when we looked outside of gaming—at Shopify sites, SaaS landing pages, QR flows in restaurants—it was clear: brands had _no tools_ to make those touchpoints dynamic, fun, or behavior-aware.We built PlayAbly to fix that. Because **capturing attention shouldn’t feel like a chore**—and because we believe brand experiences should be just as interactive and addictive as the games people play every day." }, { "question": "What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?", "answer": "Our long-term vision is to replace passive brand touchpoints with **a new standard for interactive, personalized engagement—powered by play.**If we truly succeed, **every ad, popup, QR code, and landing page will become a game—one that captures attention, reveals intent, and feels native to the brand.** Just like TikTok rewired content discovery, PlayAbly will rewire how people experience commerce, lead funnels, and brand storytelling.But that’s just the start. As our experiences spread across eCommerce, B2B, retail, and hospitality, we’re building the foundation for a **first-party engagement network**—a permission-based, gamified layer where brands can acquire, qualify, and retain customers through interactive journeys, not invasive ads.Instead of renting attention from Meta or Google, brands will use PlayAbly to **own the moment of interaction**, gather usable zero-party data, and re-market through personalized games and offers that people actually want to play. And instead of interruptive ads, our long-term vision is to launch a **PlayAbly Ad Network**, where top-performing game experiences can be distributed across partner sites, apps, and displays—with performance economics and behavioral data baked in from the start.Imagine:* A DTC brand acquiring new customers not through banner ads, but through a mini-game embedded in a partner brand’s checkout page.* A restaurant upselling via a playful quiz shown on smart menus or receipts.* A SaaS company qualifying leads with an interactive diagnostic game built into someone else's onboarding flow.**We’re building the infrastructure for the gamified internet—where every touchpoint is playable, personal, and performant.**That’s the world we want to live in. And that’s the world PlayAbly will help create." } ], "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/playably", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2019/playably.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": null, "country": null, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/playably", "x_url": "", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/PlayAbly/", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/7b91c99b08fe6d4b5f8a1cf9542969f8f9ad14f6.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 330775, "full_name": "Michael Birk", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Michael Birk is a founder at Baotris", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbirk/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/155cb5f89de7e08bae4f4f2af1288217670a3995.jpg" }, { "user_id": 330167, "full_name": "John Cheng", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "John Cheng is the Founder and CEO of PlayAbly, a gamification platform transforming how brands engage and build loyalty with their customers. With a strong foundation in gaming, John co-founded Playnomics, an AI-driven platform designed to predict player behavior. Following its acquisition by Unity Technologies, John joined Unity's executive team to lead Unity Analytics, providing data and machine learning solutions to over 20,000 game developers and reaching more than a billion players", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnccheng/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/100c51ff1ce841f8a042f7db6ed79593c022010e.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 91780, "title": "PlayAbly - the confluence of shopping and entertainment", "tagline": "Introducing PlayAbly – Your customer engagement sucks. Try this instead.", "body": "Hey YC 👋 We’re John and Angelo — former Unity Technologies ads, analytics, and data leads — and we’re building **PlayAbly**: the AI-powered gamification layer that turns website traffic into high-intent, high-converting journeys. The confluence of shopping and entertainment.  \n\n🧠 At Unity, we personalized gameplay for 2B+ users across thousands of titles. Now we’re bringing that same behavioral insight to B2B brands and ecommerce — where most sites still feel too generic, not an engaging experience\n\n🎯 We saw it firsthand: brands burning cash on top-of-funnel, only to leak it through lifeless landing pages, collection pages, and generic lead forms. So we built PlayAbly — a conversion layer that feels like fun but performs like performance marketing.\n\n🌍 Used by both B2B and DTC:\n\n* **Classkick (B2B tool for teachers)**: to qualify and convert education leads via smart quiz games.\n* **Skout (DTC Kid’s Snacks)**: to increase AOV and conversion rates with fun product discovery\n\n🧨 TL;DR: Replace \"Spin to Win\" with a game your online customer _actually_ wants to play.\n\n---\n\n### **❌ The Problem**\n\nBrands spend on Meta, TikTok, SEO — but don’t _retain_ attention once shoppers land. Today’s customers ignore pop-ups, abandon forms, and bounce from even the best-looking sites. Why?\n\nBecause passive web experiences can’t compete with the dopamine drip of social and mobile gaming. And standard segmentation flows — quizzes, email captures — are too slow, too boring, or too static to convert attention into action.\n\nRetargeting is expensive, email/SMS open rates are tanking, and most stores don’t know who their customers really are.\n\n🕳️ Most marketing funnels are:\n\n* Bland → no interaction, no retention\n* Blind → poor data on why visitors bounce\n* Bloated → costly retargeting with low ROAS\n\n### **✅ Our Solution**\n\n**PlayAbly** creates opportunities for engagement —online, in-store, and everywhere in between.\n\nWe help brands turn passive moments into active engagement—whether that’s on a website, at a retail display, with a QR code at a restaurant, or in a B2B lead funnel. From quizzes to mini-games, our interactive layers boost attention, capture data, and drive action—bridging consumption and entertainment to make every brand moment more memorable and more effective.\n\n**Playable funnels**: Games that _feel native to your brand_ and drive:\n\n* 📈 Higher engagement\n* 💬 Useable first-party data\n* 💸 Measurable revenue lift - conversions up to 3x, 2x more email/SMS opt-ins than the leading popup, recover 89% of lost engagement\n\n🎯 How it works:\n\n* Choose from our library of high-performing game templates (e.g. match-3, swipe, scratch, stack)\n* Customize it to your brand’s look, products, and tone\n* Integrate via Shopify, Klaviyo, Hubspot, or embed directly\n* Launch in minutes — no dev required\n* OR - if you’re looking for a more custom game, let us know what you’re looking for\n\n🧠 Behind the scenes: AI + behavioral data personalize the game, questions, and post-game flow based on real-time signals.\n\n---\n\n### **🚀 Why It Works**\n\nOur games don’t just entertain — they segment, educate, and convert:\n\n* **DTC: Skout Results: 7X ROI, 4X Email Opt-ins, 20% Higher AOV** \n\n ![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91780&key=user_uploads/330167/3f68a566-f189-489f-b637-08595f1985f3)\n\n* **B2B: Classkick Results: 5X ROI, 3X Email Open Rates** \n\n ![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91780&key=user_uploads/330167/570759ec-4110-4bd6-bc39-ad002047c964)\n\n\nRetention’s better too: PlayAbly games collect data that actually gets used — building better lists, sequences, and personalization downstream.\n\n---\n\n### **💡 Why We Built It**\n\nAt Unity, we pioneered user-level personalization through gameplay — optimizing ads and UX with real-time behavioral signals. We saw firsthand how play builds trust, surfaces intent, and creates emotional stickiness.\n\nWe asked: what if B2B sales and ecommerce wasn’t just functional, but _fun_?\n\nSo we built PlayAbly:\n\n* To help brands personalize authentically — not creepily\n* To make every site visit feel like a VIP concierge interaction\n* To let brands build relationships, not just retargeting funnels\n\nWe believe AI should act like the best in-store rep: observant, empathetic, memorable — not a template engine.\n\n---\n\n### **🕹️ Want to Try?**\n\nWe’re working with DTC and B2B brands who want:\n\n* Better conversion/retention without more ad spend\n* Higher-quality customer data, captured playfully\n* Personalization built around _actual_ shopper behavior\n\n🕹️ Try a PlayAbly game: \n\n* [Skout Cookie Rush](https://playably-game-uploads.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/1747846715251/game/index.html)\n* [Replacements Matching Game](https://playably-game-uploads.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/1745836341267/game/index.html)\n* [Playfield Dog Days of Winter Advent Calendar](https://advent-calendar.ourplayfield.com/)\n* [PlayAbly Spinner Hunt](https://playably-game-uploads.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/1746022904086/game/index.html)\n* [Harmony 783](https://playably-game-uploads.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/1747054636675/game/index.html)\n\n\\\n[Book a Demo ](https://calendly.com/john-baotris/playably-demo-kf?)\n\n**Offer: Mention YC and get 20% off your first game** \n\nWhether you're selling skincare, classrooms, or courseware — let’s make it fun, data-rich, and wildly effective.\n\n#ai #ecommerce #gamification #dtc #b2b #retention #personalization #zero_party_data", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/NsK-playably-the-confluence-of-shopping-and-entertainment", "votes": 5, "created_at": "2025-07-02T15:10:48.916Z" } ] }, { "id": 21777, "name": "Depict", "slug": "depict", "former_names": [ "Depict.ai" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ab7c0b045e631107c80e1bfa7e008c9c211f8bb9.png", "website": "https://depict.ai/", "all_locations": "Stockholm, Stockholm County, Sweden", "long_description": "", "one_liner": "GPT Search & Merchandising for fashion e-commerce", "team_size": 32, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Marketing", "launched_at": 1596540030, "tags": [ "Personalization", "E-commerce", "Fashion" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2020", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B", "Marketing" ], "regions": [ "Sweden", "Europe", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Growth", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/depict", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2020/depict.json", "year_founded": 2019, "city": "Stockholm", "country": "SE", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/depict-ai/", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ab7c0b045e631107c80e1bfa7e008c9c211f8bb9.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Gustaf Alstromer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/gustaf-alstromer" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 408935, "full_name": "Oliver Edholm", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/oliver-edholm-293950118/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/4eff33932948027ab6411737723b9219eac9d092.jpg" }, { "user_id": 519147, "full_name": "Anton Osika", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I got hooked by coding when I was 14 and have since immersed myself in multiple technologies.\n\nWorked at CERN, in algorithmic trading and was first employee at Sana Labs (AI Startup) we grew from three to 20+ people (currently 200) before starting Depict.ai (recommendation systems for ecommerce).\n\nNow building the last piece of software as CEO of Lovable.", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/antonosika", "x_url": "https://x.com/antonosika", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/bc9d290136490a44c916ba241a8675a42057c4af.jpg" }, { "user_id": 478698, "full_name": "Lonis Hamaili", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonis-resourceful/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/_Lonis_", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/394ad3d3ca75e09e53dcf4d0eabe841361a3e358.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "What a 19-Year-Old High School Dropout Is Teaching Big eCommerce Brands", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2022/what-a-19-year-old-high-school-dropout-is-teaching-big-ecommerce-brands-about-ai-powered-product-recommendations/", "date": "Apr 12, 2022" }, { "title": "Depict.ai raises $17M to give e-commerce sites Amazon-level product recommendation muscle – TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/24/depict-ai-raises-17m-to-give-e-commerce-sites-amazon-level-product-recommendation-muscle/", "date": "Feb 24, 2022" } ], "launches": [] }, { "id": 29407, "name": "JustAI", "slug": "justai", "former_names": [ "Choice", "Choice AI", "just words", "Just Words" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/166536f94d496e2b50084b3b8edf8b6d9e29040b.png", "website": "https://getjust.ai", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Always-on AI agents for 1-1 personalization at scale", "one_liner": "Agentic Marketing Platform", "team_size": 4, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Marketing", "launched_at": 1704840202, "tags": [ "Reinforcement Learning", "Workflow Automation", "Personalization", "Marketing", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B", "Marketing" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": true, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": [ { "question": "How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)", "answer": "When we were heading Growth at Twitter, we saw the power of copy changes. **When we tweaked a push notification from “Elon tweeted” to “Elon _just_ tweeted”, we gained 800K additional users.** We never underestimated the power of copy since that day. The company funded it as a big investment in the difficult years when Twitter’s growth was tanking. However, each change would take 3-6 months to pick, test, approve, and ship. We also didn’t know how to use those learnings systematically to prioritize the next copy change. We started building internal tools to automate this and gained 20% additional user growth. We stumbled upon similar problems and “vision docs” at Pinterest. We knew we were staring at money on the table. We quit our jobs to build [just words](https://justwords.ai)." }, { "question": "What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?", "answer": "Today, lifecycle marketing is built on manual effort — copywriters brainstorming variants, data scientists running A/B tests, and marketers trying to make sense of disconnected dashboards. Every campaign is a one-off experiment.\r\n\r\nIn the world we’re building, **AI-marketers** will handle this entire loop — strategy, creation, optimization, and learning — with humans acting as orchestrators, not operators.\r\n\r\n* Campaigns will **self-evolve**: AI agents will detect new opportunities, write and test messages, measure outcomes, and continuously improve.\r\n* Brands will move from **batch campaigns** to **living systems** — always-on, hyper-personalized, cross-channel journeys that adapt in real time.\r\n* Every marketer, no matter their company size, will have access to enterprise-level intelligence — a strategist, a creative, an optimizer, and a data scientist — all in one AI team.\r\n\r\nThe world will shift from “humans using tools” to **humans teaming with AI agents**.\\\r\nAnd in doing so, we’ll make personalization not just scalable, but truly human again — every message relevant, every experience intelligent, every brand empathetic at scale." } ], "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/justai", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/justai.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/getjustai", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/getjustai", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/166536f94d496e2b50084b3b8edf8b6d9e29040b.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/video_event/64/1712293254075-oa1quvatg4-d244daa8dd4b243426185eb8f60afd01/97ff172a722b3330829f91f059c8a6fa.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAQC4NIECABPQ2AHNW%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022718Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=9d901f8c8d5a89ffbc8593efcbecbf2e7710642a848ee8af318bba6194c23a5a", "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Pete Koomen", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/pete-koomen" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1381391, "full_name": "Neha Mittal", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Neha Mittal is the CEO & Co-founder of JustAI. She was the head of product for Retention & Growth at Pinterest and at Twitter. She also co-founded CityStructure and was the founding engineer at Sensorflow. She has also held product & engineering roles at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Goldman Sachs.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/neha01mittal", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/neha01mittal", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/163592976aa66718aaf2fdbb6a4f09a93ea4efb0.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 89154, "title": "Full Stack Software Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/justai/jobs/BmBq81w-full-stack-software-engineer", "location": "San Francisco, CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Full stack", "salary_range": "$120K - $160K", "equity_range": "0.10% - 0.50%", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 89155, "title": "Account Executive", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/justai/jobs/NOV6eqU-account-executive", "location": "San Francisco, CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Sales", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$150K - $350K", "equity_range": "0.10% - 0.50%", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] } ], "news": [ { "title": "Just Words Gets Funding From Peak XV Partners, Y Combinator", "url": "https://inc42.com/buzz/former-x-executives-startup-just-words-nets-funding-to-automate-personalised-messaging-for-enterprises/", "date": "Aug 27, 2024" }, { "title": "YC’s latest Demo Day shows fascinating wagers on healthcare, chip design, AI and more | TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/04/ycs-latest-demo-day-shows-fascinating-wagers-on-healthcare-chip-design-ai-and-more/", "date": "Apr 04, 2024" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 77393, "title": "just words - Scale Hyper-personalized Messaging with AI", "tagline": "Maximize growth velocity with automated message refresh on emails and push.", "body": "**tldr:** We’re building an AI-first marketing tech stack for enterprises. We are on a mission to rethink growth by turning content into conversations. Our core product allows companies to auto-refresh content on growth channels like emails using reinforcement learning, artificial intelligence, and causal inferences. Companies have 10X their speed of experimentation, and have seen stat sig engagement lift with our technology. \n\n```\n❌ the problem\n```\n\n1\\. Traditional A/B testing is slow. It can take 3-6 months to run one test because of organizational decision-making and lack of ML infrastructure. \n\n2\\. Content and copy selection is based on vibes. \n\n3\\. Prioritization of the biggest opportunities is decided by the loudest voice in the room. \n\n```\n✨ our solution\n```\n\n1\\. Enrich CRM with ML powered personalization \n\n2\\. Auto-refresh content on the fly. Auto-tune underperforming content with newly generated dynamic content in real time\n\n3\\. Use insights from infinite testing to predict the next best action.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=77393&key=user_uploads/1381391/30b40cc4-6a73-4e12-9a09-5cbba4930fb3)\n\n```\n🙏 asks\n```\n\n1\\. Check out [justwords.ai](http://justwords.ai) and book a demo for your use case (email, sms, push, landing page titles).\n\n2\\. Connect us to your growth & marketing teams. Book a [30 min slot](https://calendly.com/just-words) with us or drop us an email at [founders@justwords.ai.](mailto:founders@justwords.ai)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/K8H-just-words-scale-hyper-personalized-messaging-with-ai", "votes": 70, "created_at": "2024-01-10T20:48:09.601Z" } ] }, { "id": 30319, "name": "Corsair", "slug": "corsair", "former_names": [ "Demeter" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/669230895e9a350309e4b696d01d846593838da1.png", "website": "https://www.corsair.dev", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; Remote", "long_description": "Corsair connects your app to any other API. \r\n\r\nUse Corsair to build custom agents, dashboards, and workflows with hundreds of different integrations. \r\n\r\nGet started here: https://docs.corsair.dev/quick-start", "one_liner": "OpenRouter for Integrations", "team_size": 2, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Engineering, Product and Design", "launched_at": 1739227592, "tags": [ "Developer Tools", "B2B", "Workflow Automation", "Open Source", "Personalization" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2025", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B", "Engineering, Product and Design" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Fully Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/corsair", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2025/corsair.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/corsairdev", "x_url": "https://x.com/corsairdotdev", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": "https://github.com/corsairdev/corsair/", "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/669230895e9a350309e4b696d01d846593838da1.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Gustaf Alstromer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/gustaf-alstromer" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 932430, "full_name": "Dev Jain", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "CEO of Corsair. We're building the TypeScript integration framework. \n\nBefore launching Corsair, I was a software engineer at Curri (S19). I went to UT Austin and studied mechanical engineering & economics 🤘", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/devrjain/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b86a18146f5802f843731f5c00107bd39466c6d7.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 112352, "title": "Corsair: Connect your users to their apps", "tagline": "10k GitHub stars, 200+ integrations: Open-source integration layer for agents and product UIs.", "body": "Corsair is a fully-featured product integration platform with a seamless DX. Build anything, from an agent working across all your integrations to a multi-tenant dashboard for your users to connect to anything.\n\n[Website](https://corsair.dev) | [Discord](https://discord.gg/uNgCP3mSzU) | [X](https://x.com/corsairdotdev) | [Cal](https://cal.com/dev-jain-ar3ec6/15min)\n\nMost agent integration tools are MCP-only. **Corsair is built on a REST API**, so the same layer works for agents, backend jobs, and the dashboards your customers actually use.\n\nClosed integration platforms keep your users' tokens on infrastructure you can't inspect or leave. **Corsair is open source**. Self-host it, or use Corsair Hub if you want us to handle OAuth and webhooks. Your data remains yours either way.\n\nThe more third-party APIs your product touches, the more glue code you write. **Corsair gives every integration the same syntax**, and we maintain the adapters behind it.\n\n**Here's how we use Corsair internally**: a GitHub clone wired up through the Corsair SDK. The UI was vibe-coded in an afternoon. All of it runs on the Corsair SDK.\n\n\n\n**How we can help you**: If you're stuck writing integrations or your current provider holds your customers' data on servers you don't control, reach out. We'll help you set up Corsair, open a Slack channel for support, and build any integrations you're missing.\n\n[Get started at corsair.dev →](https://corsair.dev)\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=112352&key=user_uploads/932430/529a4c94-03c1-4f1a-aa35-eceb39742401)\n\n", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/TE8-corsair-connect-your-users-to-their-apps", "votes": 1544, "created_at": "2026-08-27T20:55:14.055Z" } ] }, { "id": 32129, "name": "Egoist Machines", "slug": "egoist-machines", "former_names": [ "studysesh" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/cfd986a9205506ed6e96b2903d048ce2aa98626d.png", "website": "https://ego.ist/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Egoist Machines is building infrastructure for a world where your personal context belongs to you, rather than to the apps and AI companies you use. Today, every assistant and consumer app builds its own version of you. We think that architecture is backwards. Your context should live with you, persist across products, and be available to any model, app or agent you choose.\r\n\r\nAI Passport is the first layer of that infrastructure. It brings the context you generate across AI assistants and everyday apps into one portable profile you control. Tell ChatGPT something and Claude can already know it, for example. Switch to a new product and it can understand you from the first interaction, without the new company needing to own the underlying data.\r\n\r\nApps integrate through Sign in with AI Passport, requesting only the context they need for a specific purpose and duration. Users can see what is being accessed and revoke that access later. Underneath, we have built our own memory infrastructure for fast, compact per-user retrieval and permissioned access.\r\n\r\nWe are distributing AI Passport directly to consumers through first-party products, while integrating it into consumer applications with existing distribution. Every new product that uses Passport gives users another reason to maintain their context there, and every additional Passport holder makes the context layer more useful to developers.\r\n\r\nThe next step is to build a true Egoist Machine: an intelligent system whose memory, incentives and actions are governed by the individual it represents. We call it Digital Domovoy, the hardware extension of AI Passport. Instead of your most personal context ultimately living on somebody else's servers, it lives and is processed locally on hardware you control. AI Passport becomes the permission layer between that private local context and the cloud models and internet services you choose to use.\r\n\r\nOur North Star is the Egoist Machine: an intelligent system whose memory, incentives and actions are governed by the individual it represents.", "one_liner": "Your personal context, securely portable across every AI app.", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer", "launched_at": 1784701469, "tags": [ "Hardware", "Personalization", "Privacy", "Consumer Products", "AI Assistant" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Consumer" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/egoist-machines", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/egoist-machines.json", "year_founded": 2026, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/130104210/", "x_url": "https://x.com/EgoistMachines", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/egoist-machines", "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/cfd986a9205506ed6e96b2903d048ce2aa98626d.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Harshita Arora", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/harshita-arora" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 3328552, "full_name": "Erin McGurk", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Co-founder & CEO of Egoist Machines (YC S26). Grew 0 to 1M+ followers in a year (@erinmerylstudy) and scaled a social enterprise reaching millions. Advised Cambridge and the UK Government on social media strategy. BA (Uni of Cambridge), Land Economy (Economics + Law). Focused on privacy, and social + legal infrastructure.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-mcgurk", "x_url": "https://x.com/erinmerylstudy", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/f0cad001b56062b81b2b1049fee039401556e8fc.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1963978, "full_name": "David Khachaturov", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Founder at Egoist Machines (YC S26). BA/MA (Uni of Cambridge), MSc (Uni of Oxford), PhD (Uni of Cambridge) in Computer Science. Youngest-ever Fellow at St Catharine's College, Cambridge at 25. Previously ML Researcher at OpenAI (PaperBench), Lead AI Security Researcher at FrontierOne. Founded and scaled mazette! (game publisher, 10-title portfolio). Cambridge CS supervisor for 8+ courses, taught 160+ supervision groups and mentored 19 dissertations.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-g-khachaturov/", "x_url": "https://x.com/davidobot_", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/414ccf8066649877960bdc6ad659a315ca611119.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Business Weekly Awards 2026: 44 shortlisted companies revealed for Cambridge Tech and Life Sciences showcase", "url": "https://www.businessweekly.co.uk/posts/business-weekly-awards-2026-44-shortlisted-companies-revealed-for-cambridge-tech-and-life", "date": "Jul 24, 2026" }, { "title": "Manchester founder moves to Silicon Valley to build AI startup", "url": "https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/manchester-founder-moves-to-silicon-valley-to-build-ai-startup/", "date": "Jul 17, 2026" }, { "title": "Former Altrincham Grammar student secures backing from world's top startup accelerator", "url": "https://altrincham.todaynews.co.uk/schools/2026/07/16/former-altrincham-grammar-student-secures-backing-from-worlds-top-startup-accelerator/", "date": "Jul 16, 2026" }, { "title": "Former Altrincham student builds new AI company in California | Messenger Newspapers", "url": "https://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news/26279308.former-altrincham-student-builds-new-ai-company-california/", "date": "Jul 15, 2026" }, { "title": "Y Combinator backs Cambridge-founded Egoist Machines to launch ‘AI Passport’", "url": "https://www.businessweekly.co.uk/posts/y-combinator-backs-cambridge-founded-egoist-machines-to-launch-ai-passport", "date": "Jul 14, 2026" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 111045, "title": "Egoist Machines: user-owned hyper-personalisation infrastructure for Web 4.0", "tagline": "One portable, permissioned memory and context layer for hyper-personalisation across every AI application.", "body": "**TL;DR:** We are building AI Passport, the user-owned context layer for consumer AI. It lets people carry their personal context between products while controlling exactly what each product can access, why, and for how long.\n\nRead our manifesto for the bigger vision: \n\nCreate your AI Passport to start taking control of your data: \n\n**Ask**: if you’re working on a consumer-facing AI application, or know someone who is, we’d love to chat: [founders@ego.ist](mailto:founders@ego.ist)\n\n\n\nThe next era of consumer technology will be **hyper-personalised**. The products that understand each user from the very first interaction will create fundamentally better experiences and, we believe, the next consumer decacorns. People increasingly lack the time and patience to train every new product from scratch.\n\nThe main blocker to ubiquitous consumer AI is that every major AI assistant and consumer app is building its own private and incomplete model of the same person. ChatGPT holds one model, Claude another, while the data in health apps, calendar, shopping history, travel accounts, wearables, and financial tools remain trapped in separate silos. No product has the complete context needed to understand you, and no user has a single place from which to control it.\n\nAs a result:\n\n\\- Users get bored of repeatedly explaining themselves;\n\n\\- Companies spend money building context that already exists;\n\n\\- Personal data remains trapped inside platforms the user does not control.\n\nThe natural end state of this inefficiency is one user-owned memory and context layer that sits above individual products. Apps request the specific context they need, and users grant scoped, time-limited access instead of permanently surrendering their data.\n\n**_That is AI Passport_**.\n\n---\n\n## How AI Passport works\n\nAI Passport is a centralised, user-controlled home for personal context.\n\nYou can think of it as **Link for personal context**. Link lets people securely save their payment and shipping information once and reuse it across businesses; AI Passport does the same for _all_ your context, including preferences, interests, goals, history, health, travel, and so much more.\n\nUsers bring this context into one centralised AI Passport by connecting the apps and AI assistants they already use. They can also save anything they discover online or on social media directly to their Passport. New information enters an approval inbox, where the user decides whether it becomes _private memory_ or part of their _living, shareable public profile_.\n\nThat same Passport then becomes a plug-and-play connector for consumer apps through our **Sign in with AI Passport** OAuth system:\n\n1\\. An app requests the specific context it needs.\n\n2\\. The user sees exactly what is being requested, why it is needed, and how long access will last.\n\n3\\. The user can approve, edit, or deny the request, with the option to grant one-time, time-limited, or continuing access .\n\n4\\. Every permission can later be inspected or revoked.\n\nWe are launching AI Passport directly to consumers and through distribution and deep-integration partners collectively reaching millions of users across dining, ride-hailing, wearables, healthcare, lifestyle, finance and more.\n\nWe built a custom memory backend for AI Passport. It is optimised for compact, exact retrieval across isolated per-user memory stores and supports cryptographic access control at the memory layer. The retrieval path is constrained by the user's active permission, so the product can access only the context authorised for that purpose and period.\n\n---\n\n## Who we are\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=111045&key=user_uploads/3328552/4bb1bba6-8c9f-4d94-b88a-28051f5e6e45)\n\n**Dr David Khachaturov** holds a PhD (Uni of Cambridge) in Computer Science and is the youngest-ever Fellow at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Previously an ML Researcher at OpenAI (PaperBench) and Lead AI Security Researcher at FrontierOne.\n\n**Erin Meryl McGurk** grew 0 to 1M followers on socials in one year. Advised Uni of Cambridge, UK Govt, OpenAI on social media strategy. Founded social enterprise Girl Economics to 15 countries, 75 ambassadors, 10+ weekly events.\n\n---\n\n## Our Ask\n\n**For users:** create your AI Passport () and tell us what you think!\n\n**For builders:** if you are building a product that could benefit from richer user context, explore our developer docs () and feel free to reach out to [founders@ego.ist](mailto:founders@ego.ist).\n\nWe would especially value introductions to teams building consumer AI, wearables, health products, commerce experiences, or agents that need bounded access to sensitive personal information. If that is you, I want to chat: ", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/St3-egoist-machines-user-owned-hyper-personalisation-infrastructure-for-web-4-0", "votes": 59, "created_at": "2026-08-18T14:58:03.221Z" } ] }, { "id": 32170, "name": "Gutgutgoose", "slug": "gutgutgoose", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3b10bdb631232584efc1a8c09e67b74f8b953437.png", "website": "https://gutgutgoose.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Most data companies pay for their data. Ours pays for itself.\r\nCustomers send us a stool sample. We sequence it, build a metabolic model of that gut, and simulate whether each probiotic strain has an open niche it can colonize. We formulate the best candidates, then re-sequence 90 days later to see what actually took hold and what changed. Each cycle gives us the baseline gut, the intervention, and the outcome. At scale, the endgame is models that predict chronic disease years before symptoms.", "one_liner": "We sequence your gut and build the probiotics it’s missing", "team_size": 7, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare", "launched_at": 1785190964, "tags": [ "Consumer", "Biotech", "Personalization", "Health & Wellness" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gutgutgoose", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/gutgutgoose.json", "year_founded": 2026, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/gutgutgoose/", "x_url": "https://x.com/Gutgutgoose", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/share/18ahzDMEav/?mibextid=wwXIfr", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3b10bdb631232584efc1a8c09e67b74f8b953437.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tyler Bosmeny", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tyler-bosmeny" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 991771, "full_name": "Leon Mojarrabi", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "started university at 14, spent four years at a yc tech unicorn, then launched a pharmacy that hit $4M in revenue to fund GutGutGoose; strain-level metabolic modelling of the gut to catch disease decades early. I'm unreasonably interested in your poop's data.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/leon-moj", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c69cb9d3ddd32f9a50e604a7cee8506f0be7a15d.jpg" }, { "user_id": 3677890, "full_name": "Anis Mihrshahi", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Youngest Math Olympiad champion in state's history. \n\nAt GutGutGoose, I work operations behind the scenes and co-built the mechanistic algorithm behind our personalised probiotics.\n\nFun Facts: World Catan #1, Australian Powerlifting Champion, State Discus Champion, organised national conferences that brought 2000+ Australians in to think about creating meaningful change in society.\n\n", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/anis-mihrshahi-2a342a336/", "x_url": "https://x.com/anismihrshahi", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5ee2a444b14c5548c9ccc5cd1fe8814527d86097.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Meet The YC Startups Betting On What Comes Next", "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/dariashunina/2026/09/03/meet-the-yc-startups-betting-on-what-comes-next/", "date": "Sep 03, 2026" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 108277, "title": "Gutgutgoose: Personalized probiotics", "tagline": "GutGutGoose builds personalized probiotics guaranteed to colonize, then uses every retest to train models of the human gut.", "body": "# TL;DR: We’ve created the last probiotic you’ll ever need - personalised, constantly improving, while also generating valuable data.\n\n### \n\n# What we do and why\n\nYour gut is the most unique part of your body, different enough that the same probiotic can work for one person and do nothing for another. Most probiotics disappoint because they’re one formula for everyone, and in any gut most of their strains never establish. GutGutGoose makes a probiotic that won’t work for any gut but yours: we sequence your microbiome, find which strains can establish in the microbes you already have, compound those into your formula, and re-sequence you weeks later to confirm they took hold.\n\nIt’s for people who’ve tried things for IBS, bloating, digestion, mood, weight or GLP-1 symptoms without luck. If it doesn’t work you get your money back, and retesting shows how your gut changed, so you know it’s not a placebo.\\\n\\\n\n\nThe innovation is accurately predicting which bacteria will live in a gut, which is extremely hard. It’s built on two peer-reviewed models, MICOM and AGORA2, and more than 7,000 metabolic reconstructions of gut bacteria, and it finds the strains that can hold in your gut’s community. On two published human cohorts, its predictions matched what actually established 84.7% and 76.7% of the time, and we reproduced the first at 78.1% ourselves. Off-the-shelf products manage under 5%. Once we can control which bacteria live where, we can run precision interventions in the gut and engineer it.\n\nWe’re a supplement today and can’t treat disease, but each cycle produces a record of one gut, one intervention, and the result. That record makes each customer’s next formula better, and across thousands of people it becomes the first longitudinal dataset of the human gut responding to known, controlled changes. Our vision is to use changes in metabolic pathways over time to predict Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s a decade before symptoms appear.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=108277&key=user_uploads/991771/50caffe3-e0c9-44e5-9212-da1bbabc0e00)\n\n# Traction\n\nWe gave a talk at an endometriosis event, and 20 of the 50 people joined our waitlist. The first night we opened paid deposits, we called five people from that list at 7:30pm. Three picked up, and we managed to get seven sign ups, they were so excited they referred and paid for their families that night. Five of the 20 referred someone else, and our traction has only grown since.\n\n# Team\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=108277&key=user_uploads/991771/13686614-1a12-4b14-a657-d33d042b3ee6)\n\nThe GutGutGoose founders winning the YC product pitch\n\nLeon started university at 14 and spent four years at a $3bn YC unicorn. After we started GutGutGoose, he built a pharmacy, now doing $4M a year, to fund the science behind our engine. Anis joined in September; he co-built the model, runs operations, and is the youngest ever to win Queensland’s Math Olympiad. He’s on a Chancellor’s Excellence Scholarship in AI and Data Science, and (fun fact) was once the world’s number one Catan player.\n\n# The ask\n\nWe’d love introductions to gut-health clinics, patient communities, or microbiome researchers who could help us recruit and shape the 80-person study. Email us at [admin@gutgutgoose.com](mailto:admin@gutgutgoose.com). More at [gutgutgoose.com](http://gutgutgoose.com).", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/SAP-gutgutgoose-personalized-probiotics", "votes": 145, "created_at": "2026-07-30T15:49:21.242Z" } ] }, { "id": 32551, "name": "Bloomy", "slug": "bloomy", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/209c1fdd9d657cb4fad05300bbb0faf304f4d29c.png", "website": "https://bloomylearning.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Bloomy is the best way to teach anything in school. We provide schools with an AI-native academic system comprising core and supplemental curriculum, AI teaching, and assessment to help K-12 students learn faster. Backed by the founders of Clever.", "one_liner": "AI-native learning for every school", "team_size": 1, "industry": "Education", "subindustry": "Education", "launched_at": 1782182610, "tags": [ "AI-Enhanced Learning", "Education", "eLearning", "Personalization", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Education" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bloomy", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/bloomy.json", "year_founded": 2026, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/bloomy-yc-s26/", "x_url": "https://www.x.com/bloomylearning", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590258284564", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/209c1fdd9d657cb4fad05300bbb0faf304f4d29c.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tyler Bosmeny", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tyler-bosmeny" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 3410278, "full_name": "Alex Southmayd", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Founder of Bloomy. Previously 7th grade teacher with Teach For America; GMAT/GRE instructor at Manhattan Prep; Head of Driver Acquisition for Lyft New England (built an acquisition playbook that scaled nationally); Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company (strategy, VC/PE diligence, sales acceleration). BA from Amherst College, M.Ed. from BU, MBA from Stanford GSB", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-southmayd/", "x_url": "https://x.com/alexsouthmayd", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b72aa9651889f097ba934a5cdd6fab522ce33aa7.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 100730, "title": "Founding Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bloomy/jobs/7Kz07Zt-founding-engineer", "location": "San Francisco, CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Full stack", "salary_range": "$175K - $200K", "equity_range": "1.50% - 2.00%", "experience": "3+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 116273, "title": "Chief Technology Officer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bloomy/jobs/P5qe6yZ-chief-technology-officer", "location": "San Francisco, CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Full stack", "salary_range": "$200K - $250K", "equity_range": "2.00% - 3.00%", "experience": "6+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 116274, "title": "Partnerships Account Executive", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bloomy/jobs/e8MhnxJ-partnerships-account-executive", "location": "US / Remote (US)", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Sales", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$200K - $210K", "equity_range": "", "experience": "3+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 116275, "title": "Partnerships Account Manager", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bloomy/jobs/FQRMUCS-partnerships-account-manager", "location": "US / Remote (US)", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Sales", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$200K - $210K", "equity_range": "", "experience": "3+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] } ], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 104376, "title": "Bloomy: AI-powered mastery learning for K-12", "tagline": "We use AI to help kids learn faster", "body": "**Hi everyone - I'm Alex, founder of Bloomy.**\n\n**TL;DR: We help kids learn faster by using AI. In early pilots, students grew \\~2x faster than the national average.**\n\n[Bloomy](https://bloomylearning.com) is an AI-powered mastery learning platform for K-12 students. We diagnose students’ skill gaps, place students on a personalized learning path, and give them standards-aligned lessons and a Socratic AI tutor that helps without just giving away the answer.\n\nLaunch video: \n\n**Why I'm building this**\n\nI started as a teacher. I taught 7th grade English and Writing with Teach For America, and every day I struggled to deliver differentiated instruction to 30 students with 30 different sets of needs.\n\nSome students needed remediation, some needed acceleration, and many needed a tutor sitting next to them helping them reason through the next step. Benjamin Bloom's 2-sigma result always felt obviously true to me; the hard part was making that kind of tutoring affordable and available to every child.\n\nThen AI changed the cost curve. \n\nWhen I saw innovative school concepts such as Alpha School, the model clicked: mastery-based learning, personalization, and high-agency students. But I kept thinking about the families and schools that already exist: homeschool families, microschools, hybrid schools, and regular classrooms where most kids are today.\n\n**What Bloomy does**\n\nBloomy starts with a diagnostic (we integrate with third-party diagnostics and provide our own in-house one) and places each student onto a personalized learning path. Students work one skill at a time, get a short, standards-aligned lesson, practice, ask BloomyBot for Socratic help when they're stuck, and only move forward after showing 90%+ mastery. The skill path updates live based on the student’s performance and our own knowledge graph.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=104376&key=user_uploads/3410278/aff91335-737d-4b76-bcc2-40414d3f3c08)\n\n_Our knowledge graph informs skill progression to make learning more efficient._\n\nParents and teachers can see what the student has mastered, what's in progress, and where they need support.\n\n**Where we are**\n\nWe're being adopted in many different contexts: districts with traditional schools, charter schools, hybrid schools, microschools, homeschools, and even families who just want some extra academic support for their kids.\n\nFamilies can subscribe to Bloomy monthly or annually, and families using ESA/EFA funds may also qualify for direct pay or reimbursement depending on their state’s rules.\n\nBefore Bloomy, I taught with TFA, earned my Master’s in Education, designed GMAT and GRE curriculum for Manhattan Prep, led Lyft’s driver growth team for New England, earned an MBA from Stanford, and managed AI transformation engagements at McKinsey. Bloomy is the thing that combines all the aspects of my career: learning design, go-to-market, and AI.\n\nIf you want to reach out, you can email me at [alex@bloomylearning.com](mailto:alex@bloomylearning.com) or follow our updates on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/bloomy-yc-s26/).\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=104376&key=user_uploads/3410278/9c55515e-0577-460d-955d-e1c3cb587f06)\n\n", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/R9U-bloomy-ai-powered-mastery-learning-for-k-12", "votes": 10, "created_at": "2026-07-01T15:05:35.719Z" } ] } ]