/database
Each product below is a self-contained database — read it on the web, or grab the PDF on Gumroad. Everything is free. New products ship every few weeks.
Every YC Request for Startups, decoded into a buildable playbook.
We took YC's 2026 Request for Startups and turned each of the 15 categories into a complete founder playbook — the problem, who feels it, the wedge, 8-week MVP path, pricing, first 10 customers, and a 90-day action plan.
32+ companies YC (or top VCs) said no to. What they did next.
Pinterest, Airbnb, Stripe, Canva, Zoom, Pandora — companies that collected hundreds of rejections before becoming category-defining businesses. Each entry: who rejected them, the snapshot at rejection, what changed in the next 6 months, today's valuation, and every source linked.
60+ alumni profiles — the unit economics, the pivot, the moat.
Full profiles of YC alumni from S05 through W25. What they pitched, what they shipped, the pivot that worked, the metric that mattered, the moment they hit PMF.
Real accepted applications, annotated.
A growing archive of accepted YC applications with line-by-line annotation showing what worked and why — paired with the partner notes we could find.
More products land here every few weeks. Want to suggest one? hello@ycplaybook.xyz