Immunity Project YC Application

Winter 2014Active

Immunity Project went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2014 batch as a Unspecified 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 2014
Industry: Unspecified
Team size: 11
Status: Active
Launched: 2014

Founders

Naveen JainFounder/CEO
Reid RubsamenFounder/CEO
Ian CinnamonFounder/Director of Strategy

What Immunity Project does

We're developing a free vaccine to cure HIV and AIDs. Immunity Project is a non-profit initiative dedicated to developing an HIV vaccine. We hacked the HIV life cycle to develop a vaccine that gives you the same power as HIV controllers. With success in our clinical trials, our goal is to give our vaccine away to the world for free.

Immunity Project's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Immunity Project, Winter 2014 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Immunity Project

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

The free HIV vaccine.

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

We're developing a vaccine that mimics the immune response of HIV controllers to cure HIV and AIDS. Our vaccine works by hacking the HIV life cycle to induce the same protective power that some rare individuals naturally have. With clinical trials underway, our goal is to make this vaccine available for free worldwide.

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

We live and work in San Francisco, CA, and would continue operating there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has the biotech expertise and network we need. Our founders and team are already based here, making it the logical base for development and trials.

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 Immunity Project YC application?

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