Village Labs YC Application

Summer 2024Active

Village Labs went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2024 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: Summer 2024
Industry: B2BHuman Resources
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2024

Founders

Roger CawdetteCo-Founder & CEO
Turja ChowdhuryCo-Founder & CTO

What Village Labs does

At Village Labs, we help America's businesses become employee owned by helping them set up and manage an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). ESOPs are a federal retirement plan that enable businesses to give their employees a stake in the company in exchange for significant tax benefits. With 2.9M Baby Boomer business owners set to retire in the coming years, there's a growing "Silver Tsunami" of businesses across the country in search of new ownership. For many of these owners, selling to their employees is a socially-minded yet financially pragmatic solution. By selling ownership of their business to an ESOP, owners get a fair price, tax benefits, and the satisfaction of knowing their employees and legacy will be taken care of - things not guaranteed with traditional buyers like private equity. In turn, employees retain their jobs and get shares in the business that can help them create life changing wealth by the time they retire - imagine an office secretary retiring as a millionaire. Thousands of businesses across America like Bob's Red Mill, Harpoon Brewery, and Recology already have an ESOP, benefiting over 14 million workers and creating 2.1 trillion in employee wealth. We're excited about the opportunity to massively grow these numbers by making it simple for every business to become employee owned.

Village Labs's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Village Labs, Summer 2024 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Village Labs

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Helping America's businesses become employee owned

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

We built a platform that helps business owners set up and manage employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). Our product simplifies a complex legal and financial process so companies can transition ownership to employees, unlocking tax benefits for owners and building wealth for workers.

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

We live in New York, NY, and Village Labs will remain based in New York after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We are based in New York because it's where we live and where many U.S. businesses planning ESOPs are located. Staying local lets us build close relationships in this market and serve our customers directly.

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 Village Labs YC application?

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