Openland YC Application

Winter 2018Inactive

Openland went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2018 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 2018
Industry: ConsumerSocial
Team size: 14
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2017

Founders

Yury LifshitsFounder/CEO

What Openland does

Openland is a messenger for communities. It is focused on fundamental human needs: making new friends, safe self-expression, and learning from others. Openland is a home for some of the most active and supportive chat communities on the Internet. Anyone can start and grow their own community on Openland, for free. Openland was founded in 2017 and is based in San Francisco. The company is backed by 30 prominent venture investors, including Y Combinator, Gagarin Capital, Sinai Ventures, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Rainfall Ventures.

Openland's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Openland, Winter 2018 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Openland

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Messenger for communities

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

We built a messenger designed specifically for communities. It makes it easy for anyone to start and grow their own chat community, focused on safe self-expression, making new friends, and learning. Unlike generic group chats, Openland supports active and supportive long-term communities online.

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

We live and operate out of San Francisco, California, but have a distributed team working remotely as well. Post-YC, we'll continue based in San Francisco with remote contributors.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we can find top engineering talent and be close to investors. Our remote setup allows us to stay flexible while maintaining strong ties here.

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 Openland YC application?

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