Plato YC Application

Winter 2016Acquired

Plato went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 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 2016
Industry: B2BProductivity
Team size: 26
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2015

Founders

Quang HoangFounder/CEO
Jean-Baptiste CogerFounder/CPO

What Plato does

Plato turns the company's engineering and product managers into better leaders. We help resolve challenging management situation as they arise, in real-time thanks to video one-on-one conversations, AMAs, and more with experienced technical leaders form Google,Netflix, Lyft, Box, etc.

Plato's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Plato, Winter 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Plato

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Mentorship platform for engineering leaders

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

We built a platform that connects engineering and product managers with experienced technical leaders from top companies for real-time mentorship via video one-on-ones and AMAs. It helps leaders navigate management challenges as they happen.

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

We live in San Francisco and remote, and Plato is based here and distributed, which fits the engineering leadership audience we serve.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where most of our users and mentors live. Being close to tech hubs makes it easier to recruit mentors and customers.

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 Plato YC application?

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