The Athletic YC Application

Summer 2016Acquired

The Athletic went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2016 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 2016
Industry: ConsumerContent
Team size: 600
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2016

Founders

Alex MatherFounder/CEO
Adam HansmannFounder/COO

What The Athletic does

The Athletic is a direct-to-consumer digital sports media company committed to helping subscribers experience storytelling in a whole new way. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, The Athletic has over 600 full-time employees and covers more than 250 professional sports and collegiate teams in the US, Canada and the UK. The Athletic’s newsroom has produced thousands of in-depth articles along with more than 120 podcasts and premium video content. The Athletic is a remote-friendly company as we have offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and Melbourne.

The Athletic's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

The Athletic, Summer 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

The Athletic

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Subscription sports media.

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

We build The Athletic, a subscription-based sports media platform delivering in-depth stories and coverage of professional and college sports teams. It's aimed at fans frustrated with superficial coverage, offering detailed, well-reported journalism and exclusive podcasts and video.

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

We live in San Francisco, and the company is based there with remote offices in Los Angeles, London, and Melbourne.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has the talent and media connections we need. Our remote model lets us cover teams in the US, Canada, and UK effectively.

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 The Athletic YC application?

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