LendUp YC Application

Winter 2012Inactive

LendUp went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2012 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: Winter 2012
Industry: FintechCredit and Lending
Team size: 201
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2011

Founders

Sasha OrloffFounder/CEO
Jacob RosenbergFounder/CTO

What LendUp does

Could a fintech company be built that helps people today, and prepares them for tomorrow? One that offers consumers high quality, mobile-first credit and savings products and protects them from tricks and traps? That’s LendUp. LendUp's mission is to provide anyone with a better path to financial health. We believe there are two types of financial products: chutes and ladders. Ladders help people up, chutes push people down. One of our core values is that every product we offer at LendUp is a ladder, measured by the long-term financial well-being of our customers. LendUp credit cards, loans, and savings resources reflect our commitment to getting our customers to a better financial state. We are a data-driven company and build all of our technology in-house. With a firm belief that you're more than your credit score, we're extending credit as aggressively as possible and helping solve for the income volatility and financial instability that affects more than 140 million Americans. We are backed by more than $325 million in debt and equity financing from investors such as GV, PayPal, Y Combinator, QED Investors, Susa Ventures, Data Collective, Thomvest Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Kapor Capital, Bronze Investments, radicle impact, Victory Park Capital, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Gmail founder Paul Buchheit, Troy Carter, and many others. One of our values is "different backgrounds, same mission." We come from venerable Silicon Valley technology companies, major banks, nonprofits and law firms. We're former consumer advocates, regulators and academics. Together, we're bringing our mission to life. Join us!

LendUp's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

LendUp, Winter 2012 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

LendUp

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Mobile-first credit and savings for financial health

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

We make credit and savings products designed to help people improve their financial health over time. Our products avoid traps like high fees and predatory terms and focus instead on building credit and savings sustainably for users with unstable income or low credit scores.

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

We currently live in San Francisco, CA, and plan for the company to continue to be based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we have our network, talent, and the fintech ecosystem. Being here keeps us close to financial regulators and technology partners we need.

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 LendUp YC application?

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