MagicBus YC Application
MagicBus went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 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 2016
- Industry
- ConsumerTransportation Services
- Team size
- 18
- Status
- Active
- Launched
- 2015
Founders
Ray WuFounder
Jason KraftFounder/CTO
Chris UpjohnFounder
What MagicBus does
Our mission is to take cars off the road by making it safe and easy to vanpool in the post Covid world. A vanpool is a group of people who commute together, usually in a shared van. It’s an excellent, cost effective way to commute, used by hundreds of thousands of Americans, but the industry is largely offline. It’s difficult to find, join, and start vanpools. We build software that fixes this, making vanpooling simple and flexible. We believe that in a post Covid world, it will be more important than ever to rethink shared transportation and make it more adaptive. Our customers are organizations like transit agencies and employers who have existing vanpool fleets. We provide these customers with our SaaS platform that manages their vanpool programs. We capture real time information about open seats, then make those seats available to book through our app. We also make it easy for people to crowdsource and start new vanpools.
MagicBus's YC application, reconstructed
Y Combinator application
MagicBus, Winter 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.
- Founders2
- Company7
- Progress7
- Idea4
- Equity3
- Curious2
- Batch Preference1
Company
MagicBus
We make vanpool simple.
We build a SaaS platform that helps transit agencies and employers manage vanpool programs. Our product captures real-time data on open seats in vans and makes them bookable through our app. It also enables people to easily find, join, or start vanpools, which are shared group commutes in vans that reduce cars on the road.
We live in Los Angeles, CA and plan to keep the company based here after YC.
We are based in LA because that's where our team lives and where there's a large potential market for better vanpool solutions. Staying local helps us stay close to customers and understand their needs.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the real MagicBus YC application?
No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from MagicBus's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like MagicBus would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.
What YC batch was MagicBus in?
MagicBus was part of the Y Combinator Winter 2016 batch.
Who founded MagicBus?
MagicBus was founded by Ray Wu, Jason Kraft, Chris Upjohn.
What does MagicBus do?
We make vanpool simple.
How do I read the full reconstructed application?
Create a free Round Funded account. The full 26-answer version of MagicBus's application, and every other YC batch, is in YC Insights.
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