Induction Labs YC Application

Summer 2026Active

San Francisco

Induction Labs went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2026 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: Summer 2026
Industry: B2BInfrastructure
Location: San Francisco
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2025

Founders

Jonathan LiFounder/CEO
David LiFounder

What Induction Labs does

We are scaling foundation models that are curious about the world. We’ve seen general intelligence appear exactly once, and its hallmark has been curiosity: a dissatisfaction with what we already know about the world, an ability to learn from world experience, and a disposition to share knowledge with other individuals. Across generations, these human traits have built modern science, technology, and culture. We think superintelligence will come from models that work the same way: learning from their own observation, updating as they go, growing what they know. These models will start from what humanity knows and discover past us. We believe that scaling curious intelligence is a defining problem of our time. If solved, we will live to see a new era of technological advances, scientific understanding, and human flourishing.

Induction Labs's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Induction Labs, Summer 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Induction Labs

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Building intellectually curious AI

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

We are building large foundation models that are designed to be intellectually curious - AI systems that actively discover, learn from, and grow their own knowledge about the world. Our product scales up this type of intelligence, with an approach inspired by how curiosity and knowledge accumulation work among humans. The core offering is a next-generation AI model that learns continually, reasons from world experience, and shares knowledge with users and systems.

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

We are based in San Francisco, CA, and the company will continue to be based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is the center of global AI research and infrastructure. It's where we can recruit talent, meet early users, and be close to other AI startups pushing the field forward.

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 Induction Labs YC application?

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