shotwell.ai YC Application

Spring 2026Active

shotwell.ai went through Y Combinator in the Spring 2026 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: Spring 2026
Industry: IndustrialsManufacturing and Robotics
Team size: 4
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

Farhan KhanCEO, Founder
Ali AbdallaFounder
Ali AbidFounder
Nour EldifrawyFounder

What shotwell.ai does

Shotwell provides dense annotations and quality checks for robotics training data. Data quality is the biggest lever in improving robot model performance, and we have developed models that can automatically produce these annotations and operate at a fraction of the cost and instant turnaround time.

shotwell.ai's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

shotwell.ai, Spring 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

shotwell.ai

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Automated Scale AI for robotics data

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

We built a system that automatically generates dense annotations and performs quality checks on robotics training data. Our models produce high-quality labels much faster and cheaper than manual annotation, directly improving robot model performance.

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

We live and work in San Francisco, CA, and the company will remain based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco puts us at the center of robotics and AI innovation, close to early customers and engineering talent.

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 shotwell.ai YC application?

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