Popular Pays YC Application

Winter 2015Acquired

Popular Pays went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2015 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 2015
Industry: B2BMarketing
Team size: 37
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2014

Founders

Corbett DrummeyFounder/CEO
Steven WanderskiFounder/Full Stack Web Developer

What Popular Pays does

Popular Pays is a platform connecting content Creators with Brands who want content to tell their stories. We’re tech-forward, with an in-house built iOS and web app (for creators) and dashboard (for brands) that delivers direct communication & powerful statistics to help you run a multiplatform campaign. To find out what we’re about, visit our website:

Popular Pays's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Popular Pays, Winter 2015 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Popular Pays

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Software for collaborating with content creators and influencers

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

We've built an iOS and web app for content creators plus a dashboard for brands to manage influencer campaigns. Our platform connects creators to brands, enabling direct communication and real-time campaign stats across multiple content platforms.

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

We live in Chicago, IL and the company is based there now. After YC, we would base the company wherever it makes the most sense to scale, potentially still in Chicago.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We're based in Chicago where our team and early users are. It's cheaper than Silicon Valley and we want to build a solid product before moving elsewhere. The market for creator marketing is nationwide, so location is flexible.

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 Popular Pays YC application?

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