Oklo YC Application

Summer 2014Public

Oklo went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2014 batch as a Industrials 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 2014
Industry: IndustrialsEnergy
Team size: 50
Status: Public
Launched: 2014

Founders

Jacob DeWitteFounder/CEO
Caroline CochranFounder

What Oklo does

About Oklo Inc.: Oklo Inc. (Oklo) is developing advanced fission power plants to provide emission-free, reliable, and affordable energy. Oklo received a Site Use Permit from the U.S Department of Energy, has performed successful prototypic fuel fabrication, was awarded fuel material from Idaho National Laboratory, developed the first advanced fission combined license application accepted and docketed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is developing advanced fuel recycling technologies in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and national laboratories. Oklo has been featured in Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Popular Mechanics, Wired, Architectural Digest, Hyperallergic, POWER Magazine, has been the subject of a Harvard Business School case, and is featured in the Oliver Stone documentary Nuclear, among other features.

Oklo's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Oklo, Summer 2014 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Oklo

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Emission free, always on power from advanced fission power plants.

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

We're building small modular nuclear reactors that run on advanced fission technology to provide emission-free, always-on, affordable power. Our plants use novel fuel designs and recycling to make nuclear energy smaller, safer, and quicker to deploy than traditional large reactors.

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

We currently live and work in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, California. After YC, the company would remain based there.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We're based in Silicon Valley because that's where we found engineering talent who understand complex systems and because the proximity to national labs and DOE collaborations supports 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 Oklo YC application?

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