Tress YC Application

Winter 2017Inactive

Tress went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2017 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: Winter 2017
Industry: ConsumerSocial
Team size: 2
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2016

Founders

Priscilla HazelFounder
Esther OlatundeFounder/CTO
Cassandra SarfoFounder/CPO/Product Lead

What Tress does

Tress is a social community app to discover and share beautiful hairstyles. Many ladies are crazy about their hair. They change their hairstyles often, a lot and radically. Whether they have natural, relaxed, texlaxed or dreads, women are always on the lookout for new and beautiful hairstyle inspiration. Equally important to many ladies is information about a preferred hairstyle. Information such as the name and location of the salon that had the hair done, the name of the hair-piece/extension or hair-product used on the hair and also the cost of having the hairstyle done at the salon. Women can admit to walking up to complete strangers to ask the detailed questions about hairstyles or stalk accounts on social media for the above information. Tress is a fun, simple and easy to use app that addresses the hairstyle needs of women. It is a social community mobile app for women to find hairstyle inspiration. Women additionally have access to important information about each hairstyle. Information such as the name of the extension/weave used, name of hair-care product, name and location of salon /stylist and price range of the hairstyle. Users on the app can create a profile and upload their beautiful hairstyles with information such as the salon/stylist name, name of hairpiece/product used and price range for the hairstyle. A user can follow other users and have other users following them thus creating a vibrant community. Users can have people liking and commenting on their post, increasing engagement and creating a vibrant hair community. Over time women will have a database of all their hairstyles done over a period of time and can always refer back for

Tress's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Tress, Winter 2017 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Tress

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Social community for black women's hairstyles

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

We built a mobile social community app where black women share photos of their hairstyles and get detailed info about them - salons, hair products, extensions, and price ranges. It's for women to find hairstyle inspiration and keep a record of styles over time.

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

We live and work in Accra, Ghana, and the company will be based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We're based in Accra because we understand the needs of black women's hairstyling culture firsthand and can engage the community directly here.

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 Tress YC application?

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