Persephone Biosciences YC Application

Winter 2018Active

Persephone Biosciences went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2018 batch as a Healthcare 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: HealthcareTherapeutics
Team size: 6
Status: Active
Launched: 2017

Founders

Stephanie CullerFounder/CEO
Stephen Van DienFounder/CTO

What Persephone Biosciences does

Persephone Biome develops live biotherapeutic products to modulate the metabolism of gut microbes, for applications in disease prevention and cure. We take a unique engineering approach using systems and synthetic biology to understand the complexities of the microbiome.

Persephone Biosciences's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Persephone Biosciences

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

We are using the gut microbiome to end cancer.

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

We develop live biotherapeutic products that modulate how gut microbes metabolize compounds. Our products use engineered microbes to change microbiome function to prevent and treat diseases, including cancer. We combine systems biology and synthetic biology to target gut microbial metabolism specifically.

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

We live and work in San Diego, CA, and the company will remain based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Diego has a strong biotech ecosystem and access to synthetic biology expertise, which is essential to our work engineering the microbiome. Being here connects us closely with key scientific collaborators and talent in healthcare therapeutics.

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 Persephone Biosciences YC application?

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