Pools (fka Withfriends) YC Application

Winter 2019Active

Pools (fka Withfriends) went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2019 batch as a Consumer 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 2019
Industry: ConsumerSocial
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2018

Founders

Joe AhearnFounder

What Pools (fka Withfriends) does

Pools makes it easy for art, music, and other cultural communities to build memberships around their events. Inspired by the same methodology that museums have used to grow support, the platform leverages the checkout of tickets sales to upsell attendees into a membership with automated discounts, advance access, or members-only benefits.

Pools (fka Withfriends)'s YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Pools (fka Withfriends), Winter 2019 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Pools (fka Withfriends)

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Memberships platform for event organizers

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

We built Pools to help cultural communities - like art, music, and similar groups - turn attendees into recurring members. The platform hooks into ticket sales and offers automated upgrades to memberships with benefits like discounts and early access. It's a way for organizers to build steady support without extra manual work.

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

We live in New York, NY, and plan to keep the company based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We're here because a lot of cultural event communities and organizers we work with are local to New York. It's where we can get close to users and keep building with direct access to the market.

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 Pools (fka Withfriends) YC application?

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