Sidekick YC Application

Summer 2026Active

Sidekick went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2026 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 2026
Industry: B2BOperations
Team size: 1
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

Justin SoFounder

What Sidekick does

Sidekick is an AI agent that manages manufacturing operations over text. Workers text problems, photos, or voice memos in any language; it answers from the company's own documents, creates and routes the work order, and syncs with the software the company already runs. No app, no login, works on any phone. It watches connected machine data and texts the right worker the moment something starts drifting, before it becomes downtime. And it compounds: most of the industrial world runs on undocumented knowledge, and Sidekick is the first thing that documents it as a byproduct of the work itself. Every interaction contributes to a searchable knowledge base the company owns, so tribal knowledge stops walking out the door when veterans retire.

Sidekick's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Sidekick, Summer 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Sidekick

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI-powered SMS assistant for deskless workers

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

We built Sidekick, an SMS-based AI assistant for frontline workers in manufacturing, auto dealerships, and retail. Workers text questions in any language and get instant answers from their company's documents without an app or login. They can send photos or voice memos for help with equipment or tasks. Managers upload content and Sidekick turns it into searchable tutorials. When Sidekick can't answer, it escalates to managers via SMS and learns from responses to improve.

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

I live in San Francisco, CA, and Sidekick would be based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is a hub for software and AI talent and investors, which suits Sidekick's market and growth plans.

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 Sidekick YC application?

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