VotingWorks YC Application

Winter 2019Active

VotingWorks went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2019 batch as a Government 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 2019
Industry: Government
Team size: 18
Status: Active
Launched: 2018

Founders

Ben AdidaFounder

What VotingWorks does

VotingWorks is a non-partisan non-profit founded on the powerful idea that the operating system of our democracy should be publicly owned. Every citizen’s vote is sacred, and every citizen deserves evidence that our elections are free and fair. Forty states use voting machines that are over ten years old. Their technology is outdated, their source code proprietary and their security vulnerabilities - described in detail by the security community over many years - are left unpatched. It’s not surprising that 76% of voters are concerned that our elections are vulnerable to hacking. And if voters lose trust in elections, then the very foundation of our democracy is at risk. We’re using open-source software, off-the-shelf hardware, and modern product engineering to make elections dramatically safer, more accessible, and more affordable. Affordability may sound pedestrian, but it is key. The front line of America’s election security rests in the hands of the 50% of US counties that struggle to afford basic services, let alone upgrade aging voting equipment.

VotingWorks's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

VotingWorks, Winter 2019 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

VotingWorks

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Open-source voting machines for US elections

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

We build open-source voting machines using off-the-shelf hardware and modern product engineering to replace outdated, insecure proprietary systems used in US elections. Our product enables election officials to run safer, more accessible, and more affordable elections with transparent code that anyone can inspect.

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

We are based in California and remote. After YC, we would remain in California with a remote team spread across the US.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We picked California because of access to technical talent and proximity to the tech ecosystem. Operating remotely lets us work flexibly with election officials across many states without geographic constraints.

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 VotingWorks YC application?

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