Shortbread YC Application

Winter 2023Active

Shortbread went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2023 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 2023
Industry: ConsumerContent
Team size: 4
Status: Active
Launched: 2023

Founders

Fengjiao PengFounder

What Shortbread does

Shortbread app is Netflix for romance comics built by a team of women writers, artists and engineers. We work with bestselling authors on Kindle and #BookTok to turn their romance fictions into comics. Our content specialize in viral romance fiction tropes such as mafia and dark romance. The comics are free to read with options to buy a subscription.

Shortbread's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Shortbread, Winter 2023 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Shortbread

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Read romance comics.

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

We make a Netflix-style app that turns viral romance fiction into comics. We partner with bestselling Kindle and #BookTok authors, then adapt their stories into free comics with subscription options. Our app focuses on popular romance tropes like mafia and dark romance, filling a gap in the digital comic market for these fans.

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

We live in San Francisco, CA, and plan to keep the company based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has the engineering talent and content creators we rely on. It's the best place for building a consumer entertainment product like Shortbread.

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 Shortbread YC application?

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