Matter YC Application

Summer 2020Active

Matter went through Y Combinator in the Summer 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: Summer 2020
Industry: ConsumerContent
Team size: 7
Status: Active
Launched: 2020

Founders

Ben SpringwaterFounder
Robert MackenzieFounder

What Matter does

Matter is a powerful, modern reading app that lets you save media from anywhere, pulls in your newsletters, lets you listen to your articles in a natural voice, and much more.

Matter's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Matter, Summer 2020 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Matter

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Building the future of reading

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

Matter is a reading app that lets users save articles and media from anywhere, pulls in newsletters automatically, and lets people listen to their saved content using natural-sounding text-to-speech. It combines collecting, organizing, and consuming reading material into one app.

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

We live in San Francisco and the company is based here and partially remote.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where both founders live and where the network for hiring and partners is strongest. We plan to stay based here because it keeps us close to our early users and talent.

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 Matter YC application?

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