Lofty YC Application

Summer 2019Active

Lofty went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2019 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: Summer 2019
Industry: Fintech
Team size: 7
Status: Active
Launched: 2019

Founders

Max BallFounder
Jerry ChuFounder

What Lofty does

Lofty is a marketplace that let's anyone sell a house to investors online. Instead of the typical real estate transaction where one seller sells to one buyer, Lofty is much more flexible. Sellers fractionalize their equity ownership in the property into smaller units, so that anyone can buy a portion for as little as $50, allowing access to one of the best asset classes for people who have previously been locked out. Sellers can also sell a portion of their equity (starting at just 10%) instead of the entire property or create customized HELOC structures. Investors can browse a variety of individual real estate properties ranging from commercial strip malls, a HELOC in someone's house, Airbnbs, to a single-family rental properties, and directly purchase ownership in these properties in under 5 minutes. There is no lockup period. Users can constantly trade these ownerships with others on the marketplace. Investors truly legally own the properties they invested in and co-manage it with other investors through an online governance program. Owners have so far voted on how to handle various repairs, delinquent tenants, the sale of the underlying property, and much more. Lofty never custodies or handles user funds or assets. Through smart-contracts on the blockchain, all transactions are directly peer-to-peer. If we succeed, we'll have built the NASDAQ for real estate and transformed how real estate is bought and sold in the USA.

Lofty's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Lofty, Summer 2019 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Lofty

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Building the NASDAQ for Real Estate

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

We built a marketplace where anyone can sell fractional ownership in real estate directly to investors online. Sellers break equity into units as small as $50, letting more people invest in properties like rentals, strip malls, or HELOCs. Buyers co-own legally and can trade their stakes anytime on-chain without lockups.

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

We live in Los Angeles and Miami; the company remains remote with founding and key engineers spread across these locations.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We split our bases between LA and Miami to remain close to key real estate markets while fully embracing a remote team. This lets us balance real estate expertise with engineering talent in flexible locations.

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 Lofty YC application?

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