Ambient.ai YC Application

Winter 2017Active

Ambient.ai went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2017 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: Winter 2017
Industry: B2BSecurity
Team size: 95
Status: Active
Launched: 2016

Founders

Shikhar ShresthaFounder/CEO
Vikesh KhannaFounder

What Ambient.ai does

Ambient.ai is a computer vision intelligence company transforming enterprise security operations to prevent security incidents before they happen. The Ambient.ai platform applies AI and computer vision intelligence to existing sensor and camera infrastructure to deliver continuous physical security monitoring and automate the immediate dispatch of human resources. Ambient.ai is the first platform that goes beyond basic motion detection and image recognition to achieve near-human perception with automated situational context. With physical security incidents on the rise and physical security organizations left under-resourced, Ambient.ai’s computer intelligence platform comes at a time of critical need, which is why the company has raised over $50 million from venture capital investors led by a16z. Today, large enterprises, schools and organizations - including many of the largest US tech companies and other Fortune 500 companies - use Ambient.ai to secure property, people, and assets from the most harrowing physical security threats. The company was founded in 2017 by experts in artificial intelligence from Stanford who previously built iconic products at Apple, Google, Microsoft and Dropbox. We are backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), SV Angel, Y Combinator, and visionary angels like Jyoti Bansal, Mark Leslie and Elad Gil.

Ambient.ai's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Ambient.ai, Winter 2017 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Ambient.ai

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI for enterprise physical security

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

We built an AI platform that uses computer vision on existing enterprise camera systems to prevent security incidents before they happen. Unlike traditional security systems that rely on simple motion detection, our software understands context nearly like a human would and automates alerting and response dispatch.

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

We live and work in San Francisco and San Jose, California. After YC, the company would continue to be based in the Bay Area to remain close to our largest customers and engineering talent pools.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We are based near where our core technology and customers are. Both founders are from the Bay Area and know the local enterprise security market well. Staying here lets us move fast on product development and sales.

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 Ambient.ai YC application?

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