North YC Application

Winter 2013Acquired

North went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2013 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 2013
Industry: ConsumerVirtual and Augmented Reality
Team size: 51
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2012

Founders

Stephen LakeFounder/CEO
Matthew BaileyFounder
Aaron GrantFounder

What North does

Thalmic Labs is pioneering new ways of interacting with digital devices. With a mission to merge people and technology, the company is revolutionizing how we will interact with technology in the future. Its first product, the Myo™ armband, measures electrical activity in muscles to wirelessly control computers, phones and other digital technologies, resulting in seamless interaction between humans and devices. Founded in 2012 by three graduates of the University of Waterloo's mechatronics engineering program (Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey, Aaron Grant), Thalmic Labs has grown to a world-leading team of engineers, researchers, and creators committed to building the future of wearable technology. Thalmic Labs has raised over $140M USD to date from investors including Spark Capital, Intel Capital, Y Combinator, and others.

North's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

North, Winter 2013 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

North

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Wearable computing hardware: biosignal gesture recognition

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

We are building the Myo armband, a wearable device that measures muscle electrical activity to wirelessly control computers, phones, and other digital devices through hand and arm gestures. This enables a new way to interact with technology without traditional inputs like keyboards or touchscreens.

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

We currently live and work in Kitchener, ON, Canada. After YC, we intend to keep the company based here while expanding the team globally.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We chose to base the company in Kitchener because all three founders are graduates from the University of Waterloo's mechatronics program here and have strong local networks. This helps us recruit top engineering talent and stay connected to research resources.

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 North YC application?

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