FutureAdvisor YC Application

Summer 2010Acquired

FutureAdvisor went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2010 batch as a Fintech 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 2010
Industry: FintechConsumer Finance
Team size: 51
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2012

Founders

Bo LuFounder/CEO

What FutureAdvisor does

FutureAdvisor is an award-winning digital wealth management firm serving client households nationwide from our offices in San Francisco. We use software to power a wealth management experience accessible to everyone, at less than half the price charged by traditional firms. Our clients are the mass-affluent investors underserved by traditional financial advisory and wealth management firms. FutureAdvisor is leading a shift in financial services towards transparency, convenience and inclusion. FutureAdvisor is looking for engineers to help build better portfolio management tools for everyone. Our unbiased financial advice is giving middle- and working-class families powerful tools they never had access to before, and they're free. If our mission strikes a chord with you, please send us your resume: Social Media Community Policy: Content posted here by third-parties about FutureAdvisor remains the responsibility of the party posting the content, and is neither endorsed by FutureAdvisor nor representative of FutureAdvisor's viewpoints. Any opinions or statements posted by third parties are their own, and may not be indicative of others' experience or future performance or success. FutureAdvisor does not endorse or adopt any content on a third-party site linked to from this page. At its discretion, FutureAdvisor may remove any content containing violations of securities regulations; lewdness, personal attacks or obscenity; comments irrelevant to the topic at hand; or unsolicited advertisements and spam.

FutureAdvisor's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

FutureAdvisor, Summer 2010 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

FutureAdvisor

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Online financial management for everyone

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

We built an online platform that offers financial management and wealth advisory services geared toward middle- and working-class families. Our software automates portfolio management while providing unbiased advice at a fraction of traditional advisor fees.

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

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

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco puts us close to tech talent, financial hubs, and investors interested in fintech. It also lets us stay connected to users and industry trends in one of the biggest financial markets.

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 FutureAdvisor YC application?

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