Alpha Vantage YC Application

Summer 2018Active

Alpha Vantage went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2018 batch as a Fintech company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2018
Industry: FintechBanking and Exchange
Team size: 8
Status: Active
Launched: 2018

Founders

Olivier PorteFounder
Steve ZhengFounder

What Alpha Vantage does

Alpha Vantage provides enterprise-grade financial market data through a set of powerful and developer-friendly data APIs and spreadsheets. Whether you need traditional asset classes (e.g., stocks, ETFs, commodities), economic metrics, foreign exchange rates, cryptocurrencies, fundamental data or even technical indicators, Alpha Vantage is your one-stop shop for global market data delivered through REST APIs.

Alpha Vantage's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Alpha Vantage, Summer 2018 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Alpha Vantage

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Developer-friendly, enterprise-grade financial data APIs

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We provide APIs and spreadsheets delivering global financial market data - from stocks and ETFs to cryptocurrencies, FX rates, and economic indicators - plus technical indicators and fundamental data. Our product lets developers and enterprises integrate reliable, standardized market data without wrestling with multiple messy sources.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in Boston, MA, and the company is based here now. After YC, we would stay in Boston or move wherever YC operations require but prefer to keep the core team together.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Boston is where we met and built the product so far. It's our base and community. We want to maintain stability for the team during YC but are open to YC's suggestions for relocation.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Alpha Vantage YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Alpha Vantage's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Alpha Vantage would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.