Apollo YC Application

Summer 2011Active

Apollo went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2011 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 2011
Industry: B2BInfrastructure
Team size: 200
Status: Active
Launched: 2012

Founders

Geoff SchmidtFounder/CEO
matt debergalisFounder/CTO
Nick MartinFounder/CTO

What Apollo does

Apollo GraphQL is the leader in open source and commercial GraphQL technologies. Apollo’s open-source GraphQL client, server, and gateway are downloaded more than 17M times per month and used in production by over 30% of the Fortune 500. Customers like Walmart, Expedia, Glassdoor, Audi, and PayPal, use the Apollo Graph Platform to unify their GraphQL efforts, collaborate on graph development, and safely iterate on their graphs. Based in San Francisco, Apollo is backed by Insight Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, Y Combinator and individual investors.

Apollo's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Apollo, Summer 2011 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Apollo

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Apollo helps engineering teams accelerate delivery

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

We build Apollo GraphQL, an open-source and commercial platform that includes a GraphQL client, server, and gateway. It helps engineering teams unify how they build, collaborate on, and iterate safely on their GraphQL APIs, reducing bottlenecks in their delivery process.

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

We live in San Francisco and run Apollo here, with a mix of remote team members. After YC, we plan to keep the company based in San Francisco.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco connects us to the engineering and startup community we serve, and it's where we have our strongest local network and recruiting advantage.

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 Apollo YC application?

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