Motives YC Application

Summer 2025Active

Motives went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2025 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: Summer 2025
Industry: B2BMarketing
Status: Active
Launched: 2025

Founders

Sean ConleyFounder
Sam StollFounder

What Motives does

Motives is a team of AI agents that runs qualitative research projects for consumer brands: moderating and analyzing video interviews to help brands understand consumer preferences and test new ideas, in hours instead of weeks.

Motives's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Motives, Summer 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Motives

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Consumer focus groups run by AI

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

Motives is a platform where AI agents run qualitative research for consumer brands. Our AI moderates and analyzes video interviews to help brands quickly understand consumer preferences and test new ideas, cutting down research from weeks to hours.

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

We live in London, England, United Kingdom and plan to keep Motives based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We're based in London because that's where we live and where we have the best access to early customers in consumer marketing.

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 Motives YC application?

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