Kaiten YC Application

Winter 2020Active

Kaiten went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2020 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: Winter 2020
Industry: ConsumerFood and Beverage
Team size: 4
Status: Active
Launched: 2020

Founders

Alex MatsenovFounder
Daniel SheinFounder

What Kaiten does

Kaiten is a discovery app that gives you access to culinary products and experiences from quality makers around the world. We are home to hundreds of makers from around the world including restaurants, chefs, farmers, vineyards and even knife makers and ceramicists. Find new ways to enjoy the culinary world every day. A special bottle of wine, soy sauce from a 100 year old brewery in Kyoto, working a day at a Michelin star restaurant - if amazing people make it and sell it, you'll find it on Kaiten.

Kaiten's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Kaiten, Winter 2020 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Kaiten

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Find culinary products and experiences from great makers

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

We're building a discovery app that connects people to unique culinary products and experiences from makers around the world. Users can find items like wines from small vineyards, sauces from century-old breweries, or even book a day at a Michelin star restaurant. Our product is designed to celebrate authentic makers and help food lovers explore beyond what they usually find.

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

We live across New York, Tel Aviv, and remote locations. After YC, the company would remain distributed between New York and Tel Aviv.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Our team is spread between New York and Tel Aviv, so we operate remotely and leverage both ecosystems. We plan to keep that distributed approach since it lets us access culinary makers and customers in both regions effectively.

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 Kaiten YC application?

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