Bonsai YC Application

Winter 2016Acquired

Bonsai went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 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 2016
Industry: B2BFinance and Accounting
Team size: 25
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2015

Founders

Matt NishFounder

What Bonsai does

Founded with the purpose of empowering anyone to work for themselves, Bonsai is the trusted back-office software solution for 500,000+ small businesses and self-employed around the world. Bonsai helps individuals and teams manage their clients, deliver great work, get paid on time and track finances - all in the same place and integrated together to make running a business as seamless as possible.

Bonsai's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Bonsai, Winter 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Bonsai

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

All-in-one solution for self-employed

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

We build back-office software that helps freelancers and small businesses handle contracts, invoicing, payments, and expense tracking - all integrated in one place so they don't have to juggle multiple tools.

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

We live and work across Boulder, CO, San Francisco, and remotely. After YC, the company would likely remain distributed across these locations.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We chose these locations to tap into tech talent in San Francisco, keep roots in Boulder where we started, and embrace remote work to access a broader talent pool.

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 Bonsai YC application?

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