Nephrogen YC Application

Summer 2020Active

Nephrogen went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2020 batch as a Healthcare 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: HealthcareTherapeutics
Team size: 5
Status: Active
Launched: 2022

What Nephrogen does

Nephrogen is a Stanford biotech spin-out developing curative genetic medicines for kidney and pancreatic diseases. Kidney disease alone affects 1 in 7 Americans, and neither indication has any approved gene-based therapies. Nephrogen's underlying platform combines AI and high-throughput screening to engineer safer, more efficient, and less expensive gene delivery vehicles for reaching the kidney and pancreas, and has attracted non-dilutive funding from seven major pharmaceutical companies including Merck KGaA, Novartis, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Nephrogen's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Nephrogen

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Curative genetic medicines for kidney diseases

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

We are building genetic medicines that target the kidney and pancreas for diseases without approved gene therapies. Our product is a platform that uses AI alongside high-throughput screening to design safer and more effective gene delivery vehicles. This enables us to develop curative treatments for conditions like chronic kidney disease affecting millions.

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

We live and work in New York, NY, and plan to keep the company based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

New York is where our founding team is located and where our lab and research partners are. Being here connects us directly to key pharmaceutical collaborators and access to specialized research facilities necessary for our work.

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 Nephrogen YC application?

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