No Lean Season YC Application

Winter 2017Inactive

No Lean Season went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2017 batch as a Unspecified 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 2017
Industry: Unspecified
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2016

Founders

Karen LevyFounder
Md. Sohel RanaFounder

What No Lean Season does

No Lean Season reduces the negative effects of seasonality on the poorest in rural agricultural areas by enabling labor mobility that increases incomes. It is a new program that they are testing in Evidence Action Beta's portfolio, based on rigorous experimental evidence. They give a travel subsidy of $20 to very poor rural laborers so they can send a family member to a nearby city to find a job during the period between planting and harvesting. This is the time in rural areas when there are no jobs, no income, and when families miss meals. This seasonal poverty affects 600 million people around the world. With a temporary job during this 'lean season,' households are are able to put an additional meal on the table for every member of the family each and every day. That’s 500 additional meals during the lean season.

No Lean Season's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

No Lean Season, Winter 2017 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

No Lean Season

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

A bus ticket out of poverty

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

We provide a travel subsidy of $20 to very poor rural laborers so they can send a family member to work in a nearby city during the lean season when local jobs disappear. This enables families to earn income during a time when there are no jobs on the farm, increasing food security with an additional meal each day for everyone in the household.

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

We are not based in one location. Our team is distributed. After YC, we plan to operate wherever our program reaches the rural communities who need it.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Because our program targets extremely poor rural areas affected by seasonal poverty, we remain flexible and distributed to deploy and manage the program at the locations where the need is greatest.

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 No Lean Season YC application?

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