Edwin YC Application

Winter 2018Acquired

Edwin went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2018 batch as a Education 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 2018
Industry: Education
Team size: 14
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2017

Founders

Dmitry StaviskyFounder/CEO
Dmitry AlekseevFounder

What Edwin does

It combines the latest adaptive learning and Natural Language Understanding technology with pedagogical content as well as on-demand human instructors to offer its students affordable, personalized, 1:1 learning. Based in San Francisco, the company was funded by General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Google Assistant Investments Program, and several other investors. Over 800 thousand students have improved their English with Edwin. In early 2020 Edwin merged with MyBuddy.ai. The resulting company kept the name “Buddy.ai”. Headquartered in San Francisco, it focuses on building a virtual English conversation partner for over 500 million children around the globe who are trying to learn English, but can't reach fluency because they lack genuine practice speaking the language. The company doubled down on its mobile app Buddy, the voice-based English tutor for kids, organically combining solutions developed by Buddy.ai and Edwin.

Edwin's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Edwin, Winter 2018 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Edwin

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Virtual AI English tutor for learners

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

We built Edwin, a virtual English tutor that combines adaptive learning and Natural Language Understanding with curated teaching content and on-demand human instructors. It offers personalized, 1:1 English practice for students who want affordable conversational fluency with an AI-powered tutor.

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

We live in San Francisco and remote locations; the company is based in San Francisco and would remain so after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has deep AI and education tech talent and is where we found our initial users. Being here lets us iterate fast and recruit strong 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 Edwin YC application?

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