Mason YC Application

Winter 2016Active

Mason went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 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: Winter 2016
Industry: B2B
Team size: 65
Status: Active
Launched: 2015

Founders

Jim XiaoFounder/President

What Mason does

Mason is the fastest way to take smart devices from idea to end user. Whether building a single-use device from scratch or scaling a line of smart products, with Mason it’s 20x faster and 10x less costly to build, deploy and scale. Digital transformation is a modern requirement but operating a hardware-dependent initiative is hard - thousands of hours and millions of dollars are at stake. The Mason Smart Device Platform is the only fully managed infrastructure for developing and delivering dedicated devices. It offers flexible usage-based pricing for fleets of devices and manages the underlying complexity of all associated backend services, making software delivery on a smart product line - whether it’s a tablet, wearable or new form factor - as simple as delivering software in the cloud. This frees innovators to focus on what matters: application development, feature specification and UX. Granular access to add, remove or lock down capabilities makes it possible for highly customized products to be built as envisioned. Mason offloads hardware investment risks and logistics, including inventory procurement, warehousing and supply chain management. With options like zero-touch provisioning, devices can work perfectly out of the box without end user intervention. Remote fleet management, troubleshooting and automated software updates by Mason ensure security and positive end user experiences. Organizations of all sizes rely on Mason to bring innovations and hundreds of use cases to market without reinventing the wheel. Smarter from start to finish with Mason.™ AWARDS * 2023: Best Places to Work & Best Startups to Work For, Built In Seattle * 2022: Best Places to Work & Best Small Places to Work, Built In Seattle * 2022: IoT Health & Wellness Innovation of the Year, IoT Breakthrough * 2022: Bronze Stevie® Award - Emerging Technology, The 2022 American Business Awards® * 2021: Deloitte Technology Fast 500™, Deloitte * 2019: Tech Impact Awards, Mobile - Silver, Seattle Business magazine Follow us on LinkedIn |

Mason's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Mason, Winter 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Mason

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Fastest way to take smart devices from idea to users

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

We built the Mason Smart Device Platform, a fully managed infrastructure that lets companies develop, deploy, and manage dedicated smart devices quickly and cost-effectively. It handles backend services, hardware logistics, inventory, provisioning, and remote fleet management so our customers can focus on the application, features, and UX without reinventing hardware integration or backend complexity.

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

We live and work in Seattle, WA and plan to keep the company based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Seattle combines strong tech talent with proximity to key hardware supply chains and logistics partners. It fits our hardware and SaaS business well and suits our growing team.

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 Mason YC application?

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