Ascen YC Application

Winter 2019Acquired

Ascen went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2019 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 2019
Industry: B2BRecruiting and Talent
Team size: 17
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2018

Founders

Francis LarsonFounder

What Ascen does

Ascen is a back office platform and employer of record for staffing firms.

Ascen's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Ascen, Winter 2019 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Ascen

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

EOR for the staffing industry

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

We built Ascen as a back office platform that serves as an employer of record for staffing firms. It handles compliance, payroll, and HR management tasks that are complex when staffing firms place contractors or temporary workers. This platform helps staffing companies offload the legal and administrative burden of employing talent onsite or remotely.

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

Francis is based in Boston, MA. The company is distributed with remote team members, but we plan to keep Boston as a core location after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Boston is a strong talent hub for HR tech. Being remote allows us to tap a wider set of specialists while building on the local network and relationships we have here.

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 Ascen YC application?

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