Y Combinator Co-Founder Matching Platform
Where savvy founders go to meet potential co-founders.
We know even the best founders don't always have people in their network who are ready to start a company. That's why we built co-founder matching.
Why co-founder matching
Good for all stages — Whether you're getting to know people for the future, or ready to go now.
Come with or without an idea — Don't have the right idea yet? This is a great place to find it.
Explore on your own terms — No commitment, no equity, no strings attached.
World-class founders on the platform
Vrinda (Haas, Visa) — Built and managed the Visa platform that powers the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Bryant (Harvard, Microsoft) — Scored a perfect 180 (99.99 percentile) on the LSAT and was on law review at Harvard Law School.
Saba (Berkeley, DoorDash) — Youngest engineer to be promoted to E7 (Senior Staff) at DoorDash.
Curtis (MIT, Google) — Built Appetas, an instant website builder for SMBs. Acquired by Google in 2014.
Shreyas (UIUC, SpaceX) — Managed the full teardown and rebuild of a rocket engine turbopump in a single day.
Daryl (Cornell, Tesla) — Worked on autonomous cars at XPENG, AR games at Snapchat, planning algorithms at Google X, and gesture recognition at Tesla.
Network size
The largest network of its kind — over 100K matches made.
Active profiles in top cities:
- San Francisco: 3,200
- New York City: 3,000
- London: 2,900
- Bangalore: 1,900
- Los Angeles: 1,400
- Toronto: 1,200
- Berlin: 800
- Paris: 700
- Seattle: 700
- Singapore: 600
We also run exclusive in-person co-founder matching meetups for founders in SF and NYC.
Built with YC's expertise
We've distilled all of YC's knowledge about the make-up of successful founding teams into our matching engine — and into our confidential co-founder matching handbook.
Success stories from YC companies
Curtis and Matthew (Whalesync) — "Without this we never would have met, done YC, or started this company."
Philip and Mathias (AccessOwl) — "The YC Co-Founder Matching platform is a huge unfair advantage to filter for the exact people you're looking for and save time on the search. It's changing the game and enabling more people to start companies."
Andrew and Shreya (Pledge Health) — "Finding the right co-founder was always the biggest barrier preventing me from jumping in to start my own company. YC Co-Founder Matching felt like a cheat-code to solving that problem. Once we matched, we started working together every day and haven't stopped since. Couldn't be more grateful for Co-Founder Matching!"
Oliver and Royce (clearspace) — "This was by far the most valuable tool I had access to when making the most important decision for my company. The quality and quantity of people who are serious about their venture and serious about looking for a co-founder was unmatched. We're extremely grateful to YC Co-Founder Matching for bringing our founding team together."
How it works
- Create a profile and tell us about yourself
- Our matching engine shows you profiles that fit your preferences
- If a profile piques your interest, invite them to connect
- If they accept your invite, that's a match! Find a time to start the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who is this for?: Anyone who is looking for a co-founder. You can have an idea in mind or just be exploring. You can be already working full-time on a startup or just interested in doing one in the future.
- Does YC take equity in return for using this? Are there strings attached?: No, co-founder matching is a completely free product.
- I'm not sure if I want to start a startup yet, can I use co-founder matching to just meet people and see what happens?: Absolutely, co-founder matching is a great way to meet cool people in your city who are interested in startups.
- Will my profile be public? Can my employer find me?: No, your profile is not public to the internet. Your profile is visible only to other people who have been approved for co-founder matching.