Sonar YC Application

Summer 2020Inactive

Sonar went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2020 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: Summer 2020
Industry: ConsumerSocial
Team size: 4
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2021

Founders

Benjamin South LeeCo-founder, CEO (Acq. by Avara Labs)
Leo ChoCofounder
Randolph LeeFounder

Sonar's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Sonar, Summer 2020 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Sonar

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Minecraft meets Discord

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

We built Sonar to blend the open-world, social sandbox feel of Minecraft with real-time voice and text chat like Discord. Players can explore, build, and communicate freely in shared virtual spaces. It's designed for gamers who want a social platform that feels like a shared adventure, not a static chat room.

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

We live in San Francisco now, and the company would stay based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We're in San Francisco because that's where our network and early users are. Staying here after YC keeps us close to engineers, potential partners, and the gaming community.

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 Sonar YC application?

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