Chert YC Application

Spring 2026Active

Chert went through Y Combinator in the Spring 2026 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: Spring 2026
Industry: B2B
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

Ian FongFounder
Gary GaoFounder

What Chert does

Chert provides the infrastructure for businesses to automate conversations over iMessage. We’re already working with B2C startups, customer experience teams, and sales teams to reach end users through trusted and conversational messaging.

Chert's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Chert, Spring 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Chert

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

iMessage infrastructure for trusted communication

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

We built an API and backend to automate conversations over iMessage for businesses. Our product lets customer support, sales teams, and B2C startups send trusted, conversational messages to end users at scale without losing the personal touch iMessage is known for.

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

We live and work in San Francisco, CA, and we plan to keep the company based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we live and where our target customers and partners are concentrated. Its ecosystem supports the kind of product we're building, and we can recruit talent locally.

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 Chert YC application?

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