How to get a job at a Y Combinator startup

Y Combinator has funded thousands of startups, and at any moment a large share of them are hiring. They hire differently from big companies: the team is small, a founder usually reads your application, and the process can go from first message to offer in a couple of weeks. That rewards a different kind of application. This guide covers where to find the roles, what founders look for and what to ask before you accept.

How hiring at an early-stage startup is different

• Founders hire. At a company of ten people there is often no recruiter. The person reading your application is the person you would work for.
• Range over specialism. A “founding engineer” or “full stack engineer” may own the frontend, the API, deployments and a customer call in the same week.
• Speed. Fewer interview rounds, a practical exercise (sometimes a paid trial) more often than puzzles, and decisions in days.
• Equity is part of the pay. Offers usually mix a salary with stock options, and the mix varies a lot between companies.

Where the jobs are

Work at a Startup (workatastartup.com) is Y Combinator’s own job platform for its companies. You make one profile and apply to companies from it, and founders can also find you there. Many YC companies also post on their own careers page, through an applicant tracking system such as Ashby, Lever or Greenhouse.

The Lazee job board reads every open role at hiring YC companies every 12 hours, alongside the career sites of other tech companies, so you can filter YC roles by role type, level, region and remote work in one place. Many YC listings state a salary and equity range, and the board’s “salary listed” filter keeps only those. Every listing links to the job on Work at a Startup, where you apply.

• All Y Combinator startup jobs
• Remote Y Combinator startup jobs
• All remote tech jobs

What founders look for

• Things you shipped. A product with users, an open-source project people depend on, a feature you owned from idea to launch. Link to it.
• Ownership. Bullets that say “I decided”, “I built”, “I fixed”, not “I was part of a team that”.
• Interest in their problem. Founders can tell who has used the product or read their launch post. Mention something specific.
• Speed of reply. A startup that replies in a day expects the same.

Writing the application

Keep your Work at a Startup profile short and concrete: one line on what you do, your two best projects with links, and what you want next. When a company asks why you are interested, answer like you would to a person, because you are. The guide to answering “Why do you want to work here?” applies directly: one thing about them, one thing about you, how they connect.

It is also normal to write to the founder directly, by email or on X, once you have applied. The cold email guide has a template for exactly that.

Questions to ask before you accept

An equity offer is only meaningful with numbers behind it. It is normal and expected to ask:

• How many shares or options, and what percentage of the company is that today?
• What is the strike price, and what was the valuation at the last round?
• What is the vesting schedule? Four years with a one-year cliff is common, but not universal.
• How long do I have to exercise options if I leave?
• How much runway does the company have, and when is the next raise planned?

Treat equity at an early-stage company as a bonus that may be worth nothing, and make sure the salary works on its own.

Applying faster with Lazee

• The Lazee extension adds an “ATS match” button to each job row on Work at a Startup, so you can see how your profile fits a role before opening it. The score explained post covers what it counts.
• It is on by default on Work at a Startup and fills the application fields from your profile, for free. Open questions get an AI draft from your real experience if you want one.
• On the job board, save the YC roles you like (up to 300) and come back to them; they drop off by themselves when the company closes the role.