Easel YC Application

Summer 2012Acquired

Easel went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2012 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 2012
Industry: B2BEngineering, Product and Design
Team size: 2
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2012

Founders

Matt ColyerFounder/CEO
Ben OgleFounder

What Easel does

Easel was borne out of our frustration with the current state of design tools. Development tools have improved as the web has matured but design tools haven't. We started Easel because we want to create better design tools for the Web. Easel is a member of the Summer 2012 Y-Combinator batch and is located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Easel's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Easel, Summer 2012 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Easel

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Visual design tool for the web

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

We are building Easel, a web-based visual design tool created to address the stagnation in current design software. Unlike traditional design apps that are desktop-bound and slow to adapt, Easel is built specifically for the web, making design more accessible and integrated with modern workflows.

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

We live in San Francisco and the company will remain based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we live and where the design and tech community we want to be part of is concentrated, which is critical for building a product for designers and engineers.

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 Easel YC application?

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