Hedgehog YC Application

Summer 2022Active

Hedgehog went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2022 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: Summer 2022
Industry: IndustrialsManufacturing and Robotics
Team size: 18
Status: Active
Launched: 2022

Founders

Jamie Balsillie
Wilson Ruotolo

What Hedgehog does

Hedgehog builds robotic mushroom farms. Our robots eliminate labor and our AI optimizes grow conditions to increase yield. We’ll soon grow mushrooms and fungi for <1/3rd the cost of leading growers. Fungi may address our food system’s biggest problems: they transform agricultural waste into protein-rich foods with near-zero environmental impact. Hedgehog’s technology is unleashing fungi as our next major food source.

Hedgehog's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Hedgehog, Summer 2022 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Hedgehog

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Building robotic mushroom farms

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

We build robotic systems that automate mushroom cultivation. Our robots eliminate manual labor, and our AI optimizes growing conditions to increase yield and lower costs. The product will enable mushroom farms to operate at less than a third of the cost of current leading growers.

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

We live in San Francisco, and after YC the company will remain based here.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has the technical talent and investor network we need. It's where our team is based and where we have momentum.

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 Hedgehog YC application?

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