Shef YC Application

Winter 2019Active

Shef 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: ConsumerFood and Beverage
Team size: 70
Status: Active
Launched: 2019

Founders

Joey GrassiaFounder/CEO

What Shef does

At Shef, we’re bringing humanity back to mealtime by connecting consumers with talented chefs in their community. By introducing the sharing economy to the dinner table, we create meaningful economic opportunities for chefs while making homemade meals more accessible and affordable. Shefs on the platform craft menus inspired by their passion and expertise, preparing meals in small batches and delivering them to your door - so you can enjoy the warmth of a homemade meal without the hassle. We have raised over $100M from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, and M13, as well as founders and executives from Instacart, TaskRabbit, StubHub, AngelList, Lyft, Airbnb, and Yelp.

Shef's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Shef, Winter 2019 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Shef

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Marketplace for homemade food

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

We built a marketplace where home cooks - our Shefs - create menus from their own kitchens and sell homemade meals to local customers. Our platform handles ordering, payment, quality control, and delivery, making homemade food accessible and giving Shefs meaningful income opportunities.

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

We live and operate in San Francisco, CA, and our company is based here now and would remain so after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we built the team, built early traction, and where there's a large market of customers interested in homemade meals and home cooks ready to sell. Being here lets us stay close to our community and investors.

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 Shef YC application?

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