Saleswhale YC Application

Summer 2016Acquired

Saleswhale went through Y Combinator in the Summer 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: Summer 2016
Industry: B2BSales
Team size: 23
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2016

Founders

Gabriel LimFounder/CEO
Ethan LeFounder
Venus WongFounder

What Saleswhale does

Saleswhale is an AI Sales Assistant that scales lead qualification via two-way email conversation. We look after the grunt work in Sales (ahem, admin) and bring only qualified leads and meetings to your Sales teams. On top of automating data entry into your CRM, Saleswhale also conducts lead enrichment on your prospects (e.g. capturing their most up-to-date contact details), capture referrals and rejection reasons, as well as manage lead assignment. Happy customers we support include Randstad, General Assembly and Verlocal - to name a few. Interested to find out more about our AI Sales Assistant? Request a customised demo for your business on our website and we'll get back to you shortly!

Saleswhale's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Saleswhale, Summer 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Saleswhale

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI sales assistant for qualifying leads via email

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

We built an AI Sales Assistant that automates the tedious parts of sales outreach. It runs two-way email conversations with leads, qualifies them, captures updated contact info, and schedules meetings. It also updates the CRM automatically and manages lead assignments, so sales teams only spend time on ready prospects.

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

We live and work in Singapore and plan to keep Saleswhale based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Singapore is our home and a strong hub for B2B tech. We understand the local market well and have early customers here, so it makes sense to stay where we have traction and can build relationships.

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 Saleswhale YC application?

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