Tavus YC Application

Summer 2021Active

Tavus went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2021 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 2021
Industry: B2B
Team size: 40
Status: Active
Launched: 2021

Founders

Hassaan RazaFounder
Quinn FavretFounder

What Tavus does

At Tavus, we're building the human layer of AI. Our mission is to make human-AI interaction as natural as face-to-face interaction, enabling the human touch where it has been previously unscalable. We achieve this through pioneering research in multi-modal AI models for human perception and understanding, combined with state-of-the-art human avatar rendering and conversation models that we make accessible to developers worldwide. Our models and APIs power everything from text-to-video AI avatars to real-time conversational video experiences across industries like healthcare, recruiting, sales, education, and more. By enabling AI to see, hear, and communicate with human-like authenticity, we're creating the foundation for developers to create the next generation of AI employees, assistants, and companions.

Tavus's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Tavus, Summer 2021 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Tavus

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Building the human layer of AI

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

We build AI models and APIs that create human-like video avatars capable of real-time conversational video. Our product lets developers add a human face and voice to AI, making interactions feel natural and personal. This serves industries like healthcare, recruiting, sales, and education by enabling natural AI conversations where human touch is critical but previously impossible to scale.

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

We live in San Francisco, CA, and would keep our company based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco lets us hire top AI and engineering talent and puts us close to potential customers and partners in tech, healthcare, and education.

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 Tavus YC application?

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