CoLab YC Application

Summer 2019Active

CoLab went through Y Combinator in the Summer 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: Summer 2019
Industry: B2BEngineering, Product and Design
Team size: 150
Status: Active
Launched: 2019

Founders

Jeremy AndrewsFounder
Adam KeatingFounder

What CoLab does

CoLab is on a mission to accelerate the pace of innovation by helping engineering teams deliver better products faster. CoLab’s Design Engagement System (DES) enables engineering teams to have more effective design conversations, design reviews and ultimately make better engineering decisions. CoLab launched AutoReview in 2025 - an AI peer checker that marks up 2D and 3D files. CoLab is trusted by Fortune 500 organizations like Ford, Komatsu, Johnson Controls, GE Appliances and Lockheed Martin.

CoLab's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

CoLab, Summer 2019 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

CoLab

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Human and AI design review for hardware

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

We built CoLab's Design Engagement System to help engineering teams run better design reviews for hardware. It organizes feedback on 2D and 3D CAD files so teams don't waste time hunting down comments in emails or meetings. Our AutoReview AI launched in 2025 to automatically check designs for common errors, speeding up reviews further.

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

We live in St. John's, NL, Canada, and plan to keep the company based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

St. John's is where we built the early product and where our team and local engineering ecosystem are. We believe we can grow globally from here with remote customers without moving.

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 CoLab YC application?

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