Embark Trucks YC Application

Winter 2016Public

Embark Trucks went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 batch as a Industrials 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: IndustrialsAutomotive
Team size: 300
Status: Public
Launched: 2015

Founders

Alex RodriguesFounder/CEO
Brandon MoakFounder/CTO
Michael SkupienFounder/Mechanical and Embedded Systems Lead

What Embark Trucks does

Embark Technology develops self-driving truck software. Embark was the first self-driving truck company to achieve an autonomous coast-to-coast drive, the first to reach 100,000 miles driven on public roads, and the first to open a network of transfer points. Embark went public on NASDAQ in 2021 and was acquired by Applied Intuition in 2023.

Embark Trucks's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Embark Trucks

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Self-driving semi trucks.

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

We build autonomous driving software for semi trucks that allows long-haul freight to be moved without human drivers on highways. Our product handles the complex perception, planning, and control tasks required for safe, efficient autonomous truck driving and networked transfer points to optimize freight movement.

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

We live and work in San Francisco, CA, and the company is based here as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco offers the technical talent and access to partners and investors needed to develop and deploy autonomous trucking technologies.

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 Embark Trucks YC application?

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