Cardinal YC Application

Winter 2026Active

Cardinal went through Y Combinator in the Winter 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: Winter 2026
Industry: B2B
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

Devi JhaFounder
Jianna LiuFounder

What Cardinal does

Hey YC! We're Devi and Jianna - the founders of Cardinal. TL;DR: Cardinal is the AI platform for precision outbound. We run outbound for 40+ YC companies, like Mintlify, Greptile, and Luminai. The Problem “Spray and Pray” outbound is dead. The best teams at outbound do it with extreme precision. Finding things in common with your customers, staying in touch with them through their content, mapping inbound from signups and ads, tracking website visitors, monitoring various signals, etc. This sounds great in theory, but in reality involves stringing together 10+ tools and hiring a GTM engineer. That’s where Cardinal comes in. Cardinal is an AI platform for precision outbound. Our agents can create workflows that normally require the work of fulltime GTM engineers. If you're a founder or sales leader looking to bring AI into your sales org, would love to chat!

Cardinal's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Cardinal, Winter 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Cardinal

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI platform for precision outbound

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

We built Cardinal to replace the typical spray-and-pray outbound sales process. Our platform uses AI agents to automate workflows that normally require a full-time GTM engineer - like finding commonalities with prospects, tracking buyer signals, and orchestrating outreach based on multiple data points. It's designed for founders and sales leaders who want precise, data-driven outbound without juggling 10 tools or hiring extra staff.

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

We live in San Francisco, and we plan to base the company here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we both live and where most of our customers and network are. It's the best place for us to build deep relationships with early users and access talent and investors.

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 Cardinal YC application?

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