flexEngage YC Application

Winter 2016Acquired

flexEngage went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 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: Winter 2016
Industry: B2BRetail
Team size: 25
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2015

Founders

Tomas DiazFounder/CEO
Jay PatelFounder

What flexEngage does

flexEngage helps retailers personalize post-purchase communications, like receipts, to better engage their most committed customers and drive additional sales. Amazon is destroying traditional retailers with their data and software because most retailers can't afford to build it on their own. So instead, retailers resort to wasting billions of dollars on ineffective marketing like Facebook ads to try and compete, while ignoring their most effective marketing channel, post-purchase communications. flexReceipts provides retailers with Amazon-like software for their trillions of post-purchase communications, by turning static messages into a personalized marketing medium. We have a powerful data network effect; creating the world’s largest database of consumers’ shopping behavior currently at 300 million transactions and 47m unique consumer profiles. Other important information: - Our consumer database will replace the need for Nielsen, IRI, and Traqline - A $130b industry. - We're at $2.4m ARR, - Deployed in 11k stores nationwide by amazing brands like Under Armor, Michael Kors, Oakley, and GNC. - Contracts range from $25 - $500k yearly, recurring - with the majority being 3-year contracts. - Avg retailers you have never heard about, like Shoe Carnival and DXL, each represent $100k yearly recurring contracts for us. - We've run an efficient company while we found PMF. $2m still in the bank, $85k monthly burn.

flexEngage's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

flexEngage

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Dynamic post-purchase retail communications

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

We built flexReceipts to turn static retail receipts into personalized, data-driven marketing messages. Our software helps retailers like Under Armour and Michael Kors engage customers post-purchase and drive more sales by using transactional communications as a marketing channel.

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

We live and operate in Orlando, FL and plan to continue basing the company there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Orlando is where we built our early traction and relationships with retail clients. Staying here keeps costs low and lets us focus on product and customers rather than relocating.

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 flexEngage YC application?

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