Flightcaster YC Application

Summer 2009Acquired

Flightcaster went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2009 batch as a Consumer 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 2009
Industry: ConsumerTravel, Leisure and Tourism
Team size: 2
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2012

Founders

Jason FreedmanFounder/CEO
Bradford CrossFounder/CTO
Evan KonwiserFounder
James BracyFounder
Jonathan BracyFounder

What Flightcaster does

FlightCaster predicts flight delays. FlightCaster can predict your probability of delay hours before the airline or any other app notifies you. FlightCaster uses a patent-pending algorithm that scours data on every domestic flight for the past 10-years and matches it to real-time conditions.

Flightcaster's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Flightcaster, Summer 2009 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Flightcaster

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Predictions of flight delays

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

We built Flightcaster to predict flight delays before airlines or other apps can notify travelers. Our product uses a patent-pending algorithm that analyzes 10 years of domestic flight data and real-time conditions to give accurate delay probabilities hours in advance.

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

We live in San Francisco, CA, and Flightcaster is based here.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has the technical talent and access to travel industry insights we need. It also allows close collaboration between the two of us as founders.

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 Flightcaster YC application?

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