Parakey YC Application

Summer 2005Acquired

Parakey went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2005 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: Summer 2005
Industry: B2BInfrastructure
Team size: 2
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2012

What Parakey does

Parakey was founded in early 2006 by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt of Mozilla/Firefox fame. Little has been revealed about what Parakey will actually do, but it has been touted as both a platform and set of applications that will merge the desktop environment with the Web. It has also been described as a Web-based operating system. Great emphasis has been placed on Parakey's potential to make tasks on the computer more intuitive for the average Joe. Parakey was acquired by Facebook on July 19, 2007. Sequoia Capital seeded Parakey's operations in early 2005.

Parakey's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Parakey, Summer 2005 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Parakey

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Web-based platform merging desktop and internet

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

We're building Parakey to blend the desktop with the web by making computer tasks more intuitive and web-native for average users. It acts like a web-based operating system that simplifies managing files and apps online, bridging the gap between traditional desktop environments and the internet.

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

We live in Mountain View, CA, and plan to base the company here after YC as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We want to stay in Mountain View because it's where we are now, where we have our network, and where the tech ecosystem 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 Parakey YC application?

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