Upgraded YC Application

Summer 2016Active

Upgraded 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: ConsumerConsumer Electronics
Team size: 13
Status: Active
Launched: 2016

Founders

Hendrik RoosnaFounder
JR RahnFounder

What Upgraded does

Upgraded helps retailers and carriers sell devices on subscription. Subscribers pay monthly and can upgrade anytime. Smartphones, laptops, tablets and more. Creating and managing these programs involves lender integrations, residual value management and building great software - resellers don’t know how to do this. Upgraded provides the infrastructure to launch immediately, keep customers loyal and cut replacement cycles in half. Device financing is a $541B market globally. US carrier financing grew from $13B to $51B in the last four years. Upgraded partners include Apple, Dixons/Elkjøp, MediaMarkt and Vodafone. Upgraded was founded in 2016. Investors include Y Combinator and GRIL Ventures. Upgraded is led by CEO John Erik Metcalf and CTO Ziad Sawalha.

Upgraded's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Upgraded

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Helps retailers and carriers sell devices by subscription

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

We built a platform that lets retailers and carriers offer device subscriptions where customers pay monthly and can upgrade anytime. It handles lender integrations, residual value management, and provides software to launch and manage these programs. Resellers don't have the expertise or infrastructure to do this themselves.

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

We live in San Francisco and have a distributed, remote team. After YC, the company will remain based in San Francisco with a remote setup.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco has the technical talent we need and proximity to key partners. Remote work lets our small team cover more ground efficiently.

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 Upgraded YC application?

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