Optery YC Application

Winter 2022Active

Optery went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2022 batch as a B2B 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 2022
Industry: B2BSecurity
Team size: 55
Status: Active
Launched: 2021

Founders

Lawrence GentilelloFounder
Chen AtlasFounder

What Optery does

Optery is automated opt out software, and we serve individuals, families and businesses. With Optery, you can remove yourself from hundreds of data brokers that are posting and selling your home address, phone number, email and other private information on the internet. Optery received the “Editors’ Choice” award by PCMag as the most outstanding product in the personal data removal category in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026 and 2026, the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards for Attack Surface Management, Digital Footprint Management, and Employee Privacy Protection in 2024 and 2025, Cyber Defense Magazine’s Top InfoSec Innovator and Best Attack Surface Management awards in 2024 and 2025, the 2025 Fortress Cybersecurity Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies, and Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech award for security and privacy in 2023. In 2025, Optery was also listed by Business Insider as one of 30 early-stage startups most likely to become a unicorn. Optery prevents phishing and social engineering, identity theft and fraud, online stalking and harassment, ransomware, doxxing, and prevents people's private information from showing up in Google search results. Anyone can create a free account to receive a personalized Exposure Report with live screenshots summarizing where your information is being posted and sold online. Optery then provides free tools for self-service removals, or you can upgrade to a paid plan, and Optery will remove the profiles for you. Optery for Business serves enterprises removing personal information from the internet for their employees and executives, and offers an API enabling application developers to embed data broker scanning and removal technology into their applications.

Optery's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Optery, Winter 2022 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Optery

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Opt out software that removes private info online

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

We built automated opt out software that scans data brokers for your personal info and either helps users remove it themselves or does it for them if they pay. Our product shows individuals and businesses exactly where their private data is exposed and stops it from showing up online, reducing risks like identity theft and stalking.

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

We're based in San Francisco and remote. After YC, the company would remain here with a distributed team.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where our founding team formed and where much of our early growth and hiring has happened. Remote work lets us attract talent globally but SF remains our base.

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 Optery YC application?

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