Tule YC Application

Summer 2014Acquired

Tule went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2014 batch as a Industrials 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 2014
Industry: IndustrialsAgriculture
Team size: 8
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2014

Founders

Tom ShaplandFounder/CEO
Jeff LaBargeFounder/CTO

What Tule does

Tule helps farmers make irrigation decisions. Using UC Davis research-based technology, our hardware sensor provides growers with field-scale crop water use measurements (i.e., actual evapotranspiration), crop water stress measurements, applied irrigation measurements, and irrigation recommendations. Using the latest AI technology and our unprecedented crop water stress dataset, our latest product, Tule Vision, provides growers with the water stress of their plants just by taking a picture with their mobile phone.

Tule's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Tule, Summer 2014 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Tule

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Help farmers make irrigation decisions

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

We make sensors that measure field-scale crop water use and stress, plus Tule Vision, an app using AI and plant images to recommend irrigation. This helps growers know when and how much to water their crops more accurately than before.

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

We live and are based in Davis, CA. After YC, we would remain here to stay close to UC Davis research partnerships and our agricultural customers.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Davis is an agricultural hub with strong ties to UC Davis, which developed the core technology we built on. Staying here lets us work closely with farmers and researchers, which is crucial for our product's accuracy and adoption.

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 Tule YC application?

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