Mayhem YC Application

Winter 2018Acquired

Mayhem went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2018 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 2018
Industry: ConsumerGaming
Team size: 10
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2017

Founders

Ivan ZhouFounder/CEO
Anhang ZhuFounder

What Mayhem does

Acquired by Niantic in 2020. Automatic game tracking, real-time leaderboards, and global chat built into every community event.

Mayhem's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Mayhem, Winter 2018 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Mayhem

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Mayhem is the easiest way to play with your gaming community

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

Mayhem automatically tracks game activity, creates real-time leaderboards, and enables global chat for gaming communities during events. It turns disjointed game competitions into live, social experiences without manual setup.

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

We live in San Francisco, CA, and plan to keep the company based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is the center of gaming and tech innovation with access to users, talent, and partners we need. It's where our early users and events are based, making it natural to stay here.

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 Mayhem YC application?

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