Alter YC Application
Alter went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2025 batch as a B2B 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 2025
- Industry
- B2BSecurity
- Team size
- 2
- Status
- Active
- Launched
- 2025
Founders
Srikar DandamurajuCo-Founder & CEO
Kevan DodhiaCo-Founder & CTO
What Alter does
Alter is a zero-trust identity and access control platform purpose-built for AI agents. It wraps every tool call in strong authentication, fine-grained authorization, and real-time guardrails, so agents can move fast without breaking things. Each request is verified at the parameter level, authorized against granular policies, executed with least-privilege access, and fully audited in real time. Unsafe actions, whether it’s a rogue DROP TABLE or a payment above policy limits, are blocked before they touch production. Behind the scenes, Alter manages credentials, issuing ephemeral, scope-narrowed access for every interaction, then rotating or expiring it in seconds. The result: no long-lived secrets, no blind spots, and no surprises in audit. With Alter, teams can move fast on AI agent initiatives while staying fully compliant with SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and internal security standards. A CISO-ready dashboard delivers real-time visibility, detailed audit logs, and compliance-ready controls, removing silos, eliminating excessive permissions, and providing complete oversight of every agent workflow.
Alter's YC application, reconstructed
Y Combinator application
Alter, Summer 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.
- Founders2
- Company7
- Progress7
- Idea4
- Equity3
- Curious2
- Batch Preference1
Company
Alter
Secure access control for agent workflows
We built Alter, a zero-trust identity and access control platform designed specifically for AI agents. It wraps every tool call with strong authentication, fine-grained authorization, and real-time guardrails. Alter verifies each request at the parameter level, enforces least-privilege access, and audits every interaction in real time. Our platform blocks unsafe actions before they affect production by managing ephemeral credentials scoped to each interaction and rotating them within seconds. This lets teams move fast on AI agent projects without risking security or compliance.
We live in New York, NY and plan to keep the company based here after YC.
Our team is in New York, and this is where we've built and tested our product. Staying here keeps us close to our initial users and security communities we engage with.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the real Alter YC application?
No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Alter's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Alter would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.
What YC batch was Alter in?
Alter was part of the Y Combinator Summer 2025 batch.
Who founded Alter?
Alter was founded by Srikar Dandamuraju, Kevan Dodhia.
What does Alter do?
Secure access control and authorization platform for agent workflows
How do I read the full reconstructed application?
Create a free Round Funded account. The full 26-answer version of Alter's application, and every other YC batch, is in YC Insights.
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