Ovipost YC Application

Winter 2018Inactive

Ovipost went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2018 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: Winter 2018
Industry: IndustrialsAgriculture
Team size: 20
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2017

Founders

Trina ChiassonFounder/CEO
James RicciFounder/CTO

What Ovipost does

Ovipost builds automated insect farms. Insects are the most efficient way to convert abundant, cheap byproducts into nutritionally dense protein. Today live insects are a $175m industry in the US, but the future of the industry is leveraging their excellent amino acid profiles and superior digestibility to replace fishmeal ($9.5B industry) and other expensive proteins in animal feeds. Led by co-founders Trina Chiasson (sold Infoactive to Tableau) and Teq Sassmannshaus (biotech hardware engineer), the Ovipost team has deep experience in hardware, software, and biology.

Ovipost's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Ovipost

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Automated insect farming

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

We are building automated insect farms that convert cheap agricultural byproducts into high-protein insect biomass. Our system monitors and manages insect growth cycles to produce nutritionally dense live insects more efficiently than manual farms. This protein can replace costly fishmeal and other feed ingredients.

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

We are currently based in LaBelle, Florida and would stay here after YC. This location is near key agricultural resources and logistics infrastructure.

Explain your decision regarding location.

LaBelle is where our hardware lab and insect research facilities are. Being close to cheap feedstock sources and agricultural markets reduces costs and lets us test in real environments.

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 Ovipost YC application?

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