YC interview questions

Anything surprising you've learned?

Miscellaneous

Are there any special pricing or discount strategies you’re using?

Revenue & Financials

Are they willing to pay?

Users & Customers

Are users coming back repeatedly (retention)?

Growth & Distribution

Are you open to changing your idea if you hit a roadblock in development?

Product Development

Are you open to changing your idea?

Future Plans

Are you open to pivoting or changing your idea if needed?

Team & Founders

Are you using any discount or low-price strategy initially? If so, why?

Product & Market

Are your customers 'one-and-done,' or do they come back?

Growth & Distribution

Can you break the 'hard' ideas into smaller pieces?

Product Development

Can you define the problem in simple or narrow terms?

Problem & Need

Can you narrowly define the problem your startup is trying to solve?

Problem & Need

Currently, what is your top-level key performance indicator (KPI) for revenue?

Revenue & Financials

Currently, what is your top-level key performance indicator?

Revenue & Financials

Do you expect any regulatory or compliance issues specific to running a marketplace in your domain?

Marketplace Specific

Do you have a demo?

Miscellaneous

Do you have a straightforward and appropriate mission statement?

Product & Market

Does your product genuinely solve the problem? Why or why not?

Product & Market

Have any of you worked together prior to this startup, and how did that go?

Team & Founders

Have you applied to YC before? If so, what has changed since then?

YC-Specific

Have you considered what happens if one founder wants to leave?

Team & Founders

Have you experienced the problem yourself?

Problem & Need

Have you raised any funding so far?

Revenue & Financials

How are you meeting customers and understanding their needs?

Users & Customers

How big an opportunity is there, realistically?

Market & Competition

How big an opportunity is there?

Product & Market

How did you hear about YC?

YC-Specific

How did your team meet?

Team & Founders

How do we know your team will stick together?

Team & Founders

How do you find people willing to use your 'bad' first versions?

Product & Market

How do you handle disagreements within the founding team?

Team & Founders

How do you know people actually want this (market validation)?

Market & Competition

How do you know they truly need this solution?

Users & Customers

How do you know this is a real need (did you validate it)?

Problem & Need

How do you know your product is working (what are the signals)?

Product & Market

How do you measure and optimize user acquisition?

Growth & Distribution

How do you measure success or product-market fit?

Growth & Distribution

How do you organize product development and timelines?

Operations & Logistics

How do you plan to build the marketplace from scratch (if applicable)?

Growth & Distribution

How do you plan to evolve the product over time?

Product & Market

How do you plan to ignite or grow both sides of the marketplace from scratch?

Marketplace Specific

How do you plan to scale sales?

Future Plans

How do you plan to scale user growth?

Growth & Distribution

How do you think about your ASP (average selling price) over time? Will it go up/down/stay the same?

Product & Market

How do you think YC will help you in your startup?

Miscellaneous

How does your product actually work?

Product & Market

How does your product work in more detail?

Product & Market

How easy is it for them to find or adopt your product?

Users & Customers

How easy is it for your target market to find your product/service?

Growth & Distribution

How easy, medium, or hard are they to implement?

Product Development

How fast is the market growing?

Miscellaneous

How have you divided equity among the founders?

Team & Founders

How is your product different or better than existing solutions?

Product & Market

How large is the market, and how big can this get?

Market & Competition

How long can you operate before needing more funding?

Revenue & Financials

How long have you been working together?

Team & Founders

How long is your product dev cycle? What causes that timeline?

Product Development

How many currently active users do you have?

Growth & Distribution

How many paying users do you have, if any?

Revenue & Financials

How many users are paying?

Growth & Distribution

How many users do you have?

Growth & Distribution

How many users do your competitors have?

Market & Competition

How many users have ever engaged?

Growth & Distribution

How many users or customers do you have right now?

Growth & Distribution

How much are your competitors making, and how does it compare?

Revenue & Financials

How much are your competitors making?

Revenue & Financials

How much does it cost to acquire a customer (CAC)?

Revenue & Financials

How much money could you potentially make per year in this market?

Market & Competition

How much money could you potentially make per year?

Revenue & Financials

How much time and money do users in your target market waste before switching to your product/service?

Product & Market

How often do they encounter the problem you’re solving?

Users & Customers

How will customers and/or users find out about you?

Growth & Distribution

How will you (or do you) make money?

Revenue & Financials

How will you get users?

Growth & Distribution

How will you make money?

Revenue & Financials

How will your product evolve over time?

Vision & Strategy

How would it work to expand geographically?

Growth & Distribution

If we don’t fund you, what will you do?

Tough/Curveball

If you had to explain it to a child, how would you describe the core problem?

Problem & Need

If you succeed, which adjacent markets might you expand into?

Market & Competition

If your main assumption is wrong, how will you respond?

Tough/Curveball

If your main assumption is wrong, what then?

Vision & Strategy

If your startup succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into (product-wise)?

Product Development

If your startup succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?

Future Plans

In what ways are you resourceful?

Team & Founders

Is it harder to find suppliers (listers) or buyers (users)?

Marketplace Specific

Is this a 'vitamin' or a 'painkiller' solution?

Problem & Need

Milestones and revenue targets for 3/5/7 years?

Revenue & Financials

Other challenges? What YC help will you need in the next 3-4 months?

Miscellaneous

Six months from now, what's going to be your biggest problem?

Challenges & Mistakes

So what would be an example use case?

Product & Market

Someone just showed us an idea like this right before you guys. I don’t like it. What else do you have?

Tough/Curveball

Someone just showed us an idea like this right before you guys. I don't like it. What else do you have?

Miscellaneous

Tell us about a tough problem you solved (technical or business).

Tough/Curveball

Tell us about a tough problem you solved together.

Team & Founders

Tell us about a tough problem you solved.

Challenges & Mistakes

Tell us something surprising you have done.

Miscellaneous

Total costs, fixed and marginal?

Revenue & Financials

What are some trends in your target market (and related markets)?

Product & Market

What are the immediate next steps on sales?

Future Plans

What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?

Market & Competition

What are the next items on the product roadmap?

Future Plans

What are the top things users want?

Product & Market

What are the top things users want?

Problem & Need

What are the underlying metrics that contribute to your top-level KPI?

Growth & Distribution

What are they doing now instead of using your solution?

Users & Customers

What are you building (in a nutshell)?

Product & Market

What are you going to do next (short-term roadmap)?

Vision & Strategy

What are you going to do next?

Future Plans

What are you making?

Product & Market

What are your immediate next steps?

Future Plans

What are your total costs, both fixed and marginal?

Revenue & Financials

What assumptions are you making?

Problem & Need

What competition do you fear most?

Market & Competition

What competition do you fear most?

Market & Competition

What could you do to expand your total addressable market (TAM)?

Product & Market

What do you know about this space that others don’t?

Market & Competition

What do you understand about this space/product that others don't know?

Product & Market

What do you understand about your users that others don’t?

Users & Customers

What do you understand that others don't?

Market & Competition

What do you understand that others don’t?

Problem & Need

What do you want to get out of Y Combinator?

YC-Specific

What does each founder do on the team?

Team & Founders

What domain expertise do you have?

Product & Market

What has surprised you about user behavior so far?

Growth & Distribution

What has surprised you about user behavior so far?

Users & Customers

What have you built or created together before?

Team & Founders

What is each founder’s motivation for doing this startup?

Team & Founders

What is new or unique about what you’re making?

Product & Market

What is stopping other people—or large companies—from copying you?

Market & Competition

What is the average price of a [purchase, subscription, etc.]?

Revenue & Financials

What is the biggest reason you might fail?

Tough/Curveball

What is the funniest or most unexpected thing that has happened to you (individually or as a team)?

Tough/Curveball

What is the long-term vision for the company?

Vision & Strategy

What is the next step in product evolution?

Product & Market

What is the next step in the product evolution after your current milestone?

Product Development

What is the simplest version (MVP) of your idea?

Product & Market

What is the spec for the product or feature you want to build next?

Product Development

What is the user's biggest value (the main benefit they gain)?

Product & Market

What is your burn rate?

Revenue & Financials

What is your current burn rate?

Revenue & Financials

What is your distribution or go-to-market strategy?

Growth & Distribution

What is your growth rate (weekly, monthly)?

Growth & Distribution

What is your unfair advantage?

Market & Competition

What is your user growth rate?

Growth & Distribution

What keeps you up at night about your business?

Vision & Strategy

What keeps you up at night?

Challenges & Mistakes

What key metrics do you track to measure progress?

Growth & Distribution

What makes new users try you?

Growth & Distribution

What milestones or revenue targets do you have for the next 3/5/7 years?

Revenue & Financials

What obstacles will you face, and how will you overcome them?

Challenges & Mistakes

What part of your product or project do you plan to build first?

Product & Market

What part of your project are you going to build first?

Product Development

What parts of the hard ideas are truly necessary vs. overly complex? Are there alternatives?

Product Development

What problem are you solving, and why is it important?

Problem & Need

What problems or hurdles are you anticipating in development?

Product Development

What problems or hurdles are you anticipating?

Challenges & Mistakes

What resistance will users have to trying you, and how will you overcome it?

Users & Customers

What side of the marketplace is harder: demand or supply?

Marketplace Specific

What systems have you hacked?

Miscellaneous

What systems or processes have you 'hacked' or optimized?

Operations & Logistics

What unique domain expertise or background do you (collectively) have?

Team & Founders

What unique insight or advantage do you have in this domain?

Market & Competition

What will be the biggest challenge two years from now?

Challenges & Mistakes

What will go wrong that you’re not seeing right now?

Tough/Curveball

What will you do if we don't fund you?

Future Plans

What will you do with the money YC invests?

YC-Specific

What, exactly, makes you different from existing options?

Market & Competition

What’s an impressive or surprising thing you (or your team) have done outside of this startup?

Tough/Curveball

What's an impressive thing you have done?

Miscellaneous

What’s an impressive thing you, as founders, have done?

Team & Founders

What's new about what you make?

Product & Market

What’s the average revenue per user (or average selling price)?

Revenue & Financials

What's the biggest mistake you have made?

Challenges & Mistakes

What’s the biggest product mistake you’ve made so far, and what did you learn?

Product & Market

What’s the biggest threat or risk to your success?

Tough/Curveball

What's the churn rate?

Growth & Distribution

What's the conversion rate?

Growth & Distribution

What’s the funniest or most unexpected thing that has happened to your team so far?

Team & Founders

What's the funniest thing that has happened to you?

Miscellaneous

What's the repeat buyer rate?

Growth & Distribution

What’s the worst conflict you’ve had as a team, and how did you handle it?

Team & Founders

What's the worst thing that has happened?

Challenges & Mistakes

What’s your biggest threat or risk, and how will you address it?

Vision & Strategy

What’s your conversion rate from interested to paying (or active) users?

Growth & Distribution

What's your pricing strategy?

Revenue & Financials

Where do new users come from, and how do you get more of them?

Users & Customers

Where do new users come from?

Growth & Distribution

Where do you see yourselves in five years?

Vision & Strategy

Where is the 'rocket science' in what you’re building?

Product & Market

Where is the rocket science here (if any)?

Product Development

Which category do your brainstormed ideas fit: new features, bug fixes, A/B tests, etc.?

Product Development

Which competitor(s) do you fear most?

Market & Competition

Which customers or users should you target first?

Product & Market

Which customers should you avoid?

Users & Customers

Which gaps in the team do you still need to fill?

Team & Founders

Which hard idea will improve the KPI most? Which medium? Which easy?

Product Development

Which metric shows that your company is succeeding?

Growth & Distribution

Which of these metrics are you trying to move this development cycle?

Growth & Distribution

Which part of your project will you build or improve first?

Operations & Logistics

Which skill sets or expertise does each founder bring to the table?

Team & Founders

Who are the most desperate customers, and how do you talk to them first?

Product & Market

Who are the other founders? (If you have <10% ownership founders)

Team & Founders

Who are your competitors, and how do you compare?

Market & Competition

Who are your competitors?

Market & Competition

Who gets the most value out of your product?

Users & Customers

Who in your team does what (for product building)?

Product Development

Who in your team does what on a day-to-day basis?

Team & Founders

Who is 'the boss,' or how do you make decisions as a team?

Team & Founders

Who is going to be your first paying customer?

Users & Customers

Who is writing down notes at your product dev meeting (how do you track decisions)?

Product Development

Who is your customer or ideal first user?

Users & Customers

Who might become competitors in the future?

Market & Competition

Who might become competitors?

Market & Competition

Who needs what you're making?

Product & Market

Who suffers from this problem most urgently?

Problem & Need

Who would be your next hire?

Team & Founders

Who would use your product, and why?

Users & Customers

Who would you hire next, and why?

Operations & Logistics

Who would you hire or how would you add to your team for product development?

Product Development

Why did you choose this idea?

Problem & Need

Why did you choose to partner with these specific co-founders?

Team & Founders

Why did you pick this idea to work on?

Product & Market

Why did your team get together?

Team & Founders

Why do you think you can beat the odds in this market or with this technology?

Tough/Curveball

Why do you think your team is the right one to solve this problem?

Team & Founders

Why do you want to join YC?

YC-Specific

Why is now the right time to solve this problem?

Problem & Need

Why is this a 'need to have' and not just a 'nice to have'?

Problem & Need

Why is your commission or margin so high/low?

Revenue & Financials

Why isn’t someone already doing this, or why haven’t they succeeded?

Market & Competition

Why isn't someone already doing this?

Market & Competition

Why might users be reluctant, and how do you address that?

Users & Customers

Why should I believe it's you and not someone else?

Miscellaneous

Why should we invest in you specifically?

Tough/Curveball

Why will you succeed over the long run?

Vision & Strategy

Why will you succeed?

Miscellaneous

Will we need to compose a business plan for you?

Miscellaneous

Will you reincorporate as a US company (if not already)?

Operations & Logistics

Will you reincorporate as a US company?

Miscellaneous

Will your team stick at this (commitment to building)?

Product Development

Won't [big company] just launch a [whatever your company does] feature and kill you?

Market & Competition

Would you relocate to Silicon Valley?

Miscellaneous

Would you relocate to Silicon Valley?

Operations & Logistics