Shotput YC Application

Summer 2015Inactive

Shotput went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2015 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 2015
Industry: B2BSupply Chain and Logistics
Team size: 2
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2015

Founders

Praful MathurFounder/CEO
James SteinbergFounder

What Shotput does

Carefully engineered software to get products to your customers across the world faster and on time. We're trusted to simplify e-commerce and logistics by building the necessary tools for companies to improve their operations. These include determining key shipping routes, understanding customer demand, or reducing shipping and material costs. We built Shotput so that people can use new technologies to manage work across companies which will allow them to precisely calculate costs & time. We'll enter a world where people no longer have to work on boring tasks of calling each other to find statuses or putting things into a box all day. Instead we can be free to think strategically about what we're building, who's the customer, and how to best serve their needs.

Shotput's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Shotput, Summer 2015 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Shotput

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI and robotics that automate logistics tasks

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

Shotput builds software that automates logistics operations for e-commerce companies. Our product uses AI and robotics to optimize shipping routes, predict customer demand, and reduce shipping and material costs to get products delivered faster and on time.

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

We live in Oakland, CA, and the company is based there, with some remote contributors.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Oakland gives us access to the Bay Area tech community and logistics companies nearby, which helps us build relationships and iterate quickly. Remote work lets us stay flexible.

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 Shotput YC application?

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