RoboTire YC Application

Winter 2020Inactive

RoboTire went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2020 batch as a Industrials 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 2020
Industry: IndustrialsAutomotive
Team size: 20
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2020

Founders

Victor DarolfiFounder
Will MapesFounder

What RoboTire does

In a fleet-centric world where everything is delivered to your doorstep, cost-per-mile and uptime are all that matter. Vehicles will be driving more miles and the decreased complexity of electric motors will fundamentally change the automotive service industry. ROBOTIRE will bring manufacturing-level automation to vehicle servicing. Tires are the perfect vertical to tackle first because they are future-proof (tires are going nowhere) and scale from luxury personal automobiles to freight-centric big-rigs. The current tire changing industry is entrenched with an aging workforce but maintains strong margins. We will build and deploy a robotic tire changing container that can change tires in 10 minutes. Our fully-integrated ROBOTIRE containers can be placed inside existing shops, Walmart parking lots or in the middle of a fleet service area hundreds of miles away from a major city. In the medium term, we will expand to brakes, oil, batteries, etc. becoming an uptime assembly line that keeps fleets on the road 24/7 at a fraction of the maintenance cost per mile we see today. In a fleet-centric world, cost-per-mile and uptime are all that matter. ROBOTIRE tackles both.

RoboTire's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

RoboTire, Winter 2020 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

RoboTire

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Automating tire changes with robotics

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

We're building a robotic tire-changing system that fits inside a container. It automates the full tire change process, aiming to cut turnaround time to about 10 minutes. Our containerized robots can be placed in fleet yards or retail parking lots, servicing everything from personal cars to big rigs. Down the line, we'll expand to other vehicle maintenance tasks, creating a continuous uptime assembly line for fleets.

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

We live and work in Plymouth, Michigan, and plan to base the company here after YC as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Plymouth is in the heart of the automotive industry, close to fleet operators and suppliers. Being local to our customers and hardware supply chain is critical for iterating on this robotics-heavy product.

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 RoboTire YC application?

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