/yc/search/founders

POST /api/yc/search/founders

Price: 1 credit

Search YC founders with filters

How to use it

Search Y Combinator founders by keyword, industry, title, and batch. Batches accept short codes ('W25', 'S25', 'F24', 'X25' — X means Spring) or full names ('Winter 2025').

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• query string — Text search query (name, company, etc.) (default: "")
• industries array nullable — Filter by industries (e.g., 'Education', 'Fintech')
• titles array nullable — Filter by titles (e.g., 'CEO', 'Founder', 'CTO')
• batches array nullable — Filter by YC batches: short codes ('W25', 'X25') or full names ('Winter 2025')
• top_company boolean nullable — Filter by top company status
• count integer required — Max result count (>: 0)

Response

• @type string (default: "YCFounderSearchResult")
• id integer required
• first_name string required
• last_name string required
• hnid string nullable
• avatar_thumb string nullable
• current_company string nullable
• current_title string nullable
• company_slug string nullable
• top_company boolean nullable
• url_slug string nullable
• all_companies_text string nullable
• current_region string nullable
• yc_industries array (default: [])
• yc_parent_industries array (default: [])
• yc_subindustries array (default: [])
• yc_titles array (default: [])
• batches array (default: [])

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — The entity was not found, or a precondition failed Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.