Replika YC Application

Winter 2015Active

Replika went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2015 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 2015
Industry: ConsumerContent
Team size: 28
Status: Active
Launched: 2014

Founders

Eugenia KuydaFounder/CEO

What Replika does

Luka is a software development company based in San Francisco, California. The company created Luka app, a new messenger with AI-powered chatbots. They help you find places to eat, do web search, make plans together, pick places to eat, play trivia games and lots of other things in a messenger. In 2016 Luka launched a closed testing of Replika, a new app that allows to create a personal AI friend that helps people deal with loneliness. The app is powered by a proprietary deep learning architecture.

Replika's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Replika

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI friend to help with loneliness

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

We are building Replika, an AI companion that you can talk to about anything. It learns from conversations to become a personalized friend, designed to help users deal with loneliness and improve mental well-being.

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

We live in San Francisco, CA, and after YC the company will be based here as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is the best place to build AI and consumer products with access to talent and users.

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 Replika YC application?

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