We review YC applications for free
with feedback from YC founders
Details
- External ID
- 46817278
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- We review YC applications for free
- Website domain
- ycroaster.com
- Launched
- Jan. 29, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 6
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.2549407114624506
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
Description
Hi HN, We just launched YC Roaster, a free YC application review service run by Lobster Capital. If you’re applying to Y Combinator, you can submit your application and get written feedback from founders who’ve actually gone through YC and built real companies. How it works * You submit your YC application (PDF) * It’s reviewed by successful YC founders in our network * Everyone gets written feedback * If we think you have a strong shot, we offer a short 1-on-1 Zoom call Why are we doing this for free? Lobster Capital is a VC fund that exclusively invests in YC companies. We’ve reviewed hundreds of YC applications over the years and backed 100+ YC startups. This is our way of giving back, and hopefully helping more strong teams get in. There’s no guarantee of acceptance, no pitch requirement, and no obligation to talk to us afterward. What we’re curious about * What parts of the YC application do founders struggle with the most? * What feedback have you found most useful when applying? Website: https://www.ycroaster.com Happy to answer questions or take feedback (including criticism).
Enrichment
- Theme
- indie hacker passion projects
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Communication
- Audience
- B2B
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Commercial product
- Normalized one-liner
- free yc application review service
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Yes This is a classic LLM wrapper: it accepts an uploaded PDF/document, extracts the text, sends it against an evaluated rubric/system prompt, and displays structured feedback to the user.
Discussion
5 comments analyzed.
Concerns raised: Unclear affiliation with YC - branding similarity causes confusion, Only evaluates written application, not verbal presentation or video
Feature requests: Add feedback on founder verbal presentation skills, Evaluate founder and demo videos in addition to written application
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 23 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #17 of 24 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 77 days after the earliest competitor.
- The most Y Combinator YC application: it applied itself · hn · 2026-06-24 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- Foundertrace · hn · 2026-01-03 · 39 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- YC Has It · hn · 2026-07-24 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- YC has it · ph · 2026-07-24 · 220 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- Investor-Ready Self-Check · ph · 2026-09-27 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.40
- We charge $10/mo for wealth management that costs $100 elsewhere · hn · 2025-11-13 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.38
- FounderLens:Real feedback from founders · ph · 2026-09-28 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.37
- Editor for perfecting your YC App. Multiplayer w/ Durable Objects. OSS. · hn · 2026-02-04 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.37
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.