bookface.ycombinator.com APIbookface.ycombinator.com ↗
Search and retrieve Y Combinator portfolio companies via the Bookface API. Access founder profiles, batch data, tags, launches, and job postings.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/ba0c1d0c-ee4f-4a6e-a72e-4f61fc92d6a2/get_company?slug=airbnb' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Get detailed company information by Bookface company ID or URL slug. Returns comprehensive data including founders, launches, news items, social links, and group partner.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| slug | string | Company URL slug (e.g., 'parse-bot'). Either company_id or slug is required. |
| company_id | string | Bookface company ID (e.g., '30846'). Either company_id or slug is required. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"id": "integer",
"city": "string",
"name": "string",
"slug": "string",
"tags": "array of tag strings",
"batch": "string, abbreviated batch code (e.g., 'F25')",
"status": "string",
"country": "string",
"website": "string",
"founders": "array of founder objects with full_name, title, bio, twitter_url, linkedin_url, avatar_url",
"launches": "array of launch objects with id, title, body",
"location": "string",
"logo_url": "string",
"ycdc_url": "string",
"one_liner": "string",
"team_size": "integer",
"batch_name": "string, full batch name (e.g., 'Fall 2025')",
"github_url": "string",
"news_items": "array of news item objects",
"twitter_url": "string",
"job_postings": "array of job posting objects with title, url, location",
"linkedin_url": "string",
"year_founded": "integer",
"long_description": "string",
"primary_group_partner": "object with full_name and url, or null"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"id": 30846,
"city": "San Francisco",
"name": "Parse",
"slug": "parse-bot",
"tags": [
"Developer Tools",
"API",
"Big Data"
],
"batch": "F25",
"status": "Active",
"country": "US",
"website": "https://parse.bot",
"founders": [
{
"bio": "...",
"title": "Founder",
"full_name": "John Doe",
"avatar_url": "...",
"twitter_url": "https://x.com/alexscraping",
"linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-k-forman/"
}
],
"launches": [
{
"id": 95327,
"body": "...",
"title": "Parse - APIs for any website"
}
],
"location": "San Francisco",
"logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fd2b15ce8a8e404c0ec54c33a17f938963c26455.png",
"ycdc_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/parse-bot",
"one_liner": "Build an API to interact with any website.",
"team_size": 2,
"batch_name": "Fall 2025",
"github_url": "",
"news_items": [],
"twitter_url": "",
"facebook_url": "",
"job_postings": [],
"linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/parsedotbot/",
"year_founded": 2025,
"crunchbase_url": "",
"long_description": "Parse lets developers build APIs for any website...",
"primary_group_partner": {
"url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/pete-koomen",
"full_name": "Jane Doe"
}
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the bookface.ycombinator.com API
The Bookface API exposes 2 endpoints for querying Y Combinator's portfolio directory, returning structured data on companies and their founders. The get_company endpoint delivers over 10 response fields per company — including batch code, founder bios, Twitter and LinkedIn URLs, tags, and website — while search_companies lets you filter the full YC directory by keyword and batch season with paginated results up to 1,000 hits per page.
Company Lookup
The get_company endpoint accepts either a slug (e.g., 'parse-bot') or a numeric company_id (e.g., '30846') — one of the two is required. It returns a single company record with fields covering name, city, country, website, status, batch (abbreviated, e.g., 'F25'), and tags. The founders array includes one object per founder, each with full_name, title, bio, twitter_url, linkedin_url, and avatar_url.
Company Search
The search_companies endpoint queries the YC company directory with a free-text query (e.g., 'AI', 'fintech') and an optional batch filter using full season-year format such as 'Fall 2025' or 'Winter 2024'. At least one of query or batch must be provided. Results are paginated using a 0-indexed page parameter, with a configurable limit up to 1,000. The response includes total, total_pages, hits_per_page, and an array of company summary objects, making it straightforward to walk through large result sets.
Coverage Notes
Data covers YC portfolio companies accessible through Bookface, including active, acquired, and inactive companies. The batch field on company records uses abbreviated codes like 'F25' for Fall 2025, while the batch filter on search_companies requires the full format. Founders are embedded directly in the get_company response, so no separate founder lookup endpoint is needed.
- Build a YC batch tracker that lists all companies from a specific season using the
batchfilter onsearch_companies - Enrich a CRM with YC founder LinkedIn and Twitter profiles pulled from the
foundersarray inget_company - Generate a startup landscape map by querying companies by keyword tags like 'climate' or 'fintech'
- Monitor YC portfolio growth by paginating through the full directory and recording
statusandbatchper company - Create a founder directory by aggregating
full_name,bio, andlinkedin_urlfields across multiple company lookups - Filter YC companies by country or city using fields returned in
get_companyto identify regional startup clusters - Power an internal research tool that resolves a company URL slug to its full founder and metadata record
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Bookface have an official developer API?+
What does `get_company` return that `search_companies` does not?+
get_company returns the full founder array with individual bios, social URLs, and avatar URLs, plus the tags array and group partner. search_companies returns summary objects suitable for directory browsing but does not include per-founder detail or tags. Use get_company when you need the full profile for a specific company.Does the API return job postings or launch announcements for companies?+
How does batch filtering work, and can I filter by multiple batches at once?+
batch parameter on search_companies accepts a single full season-year string such as 'Fall 2025' or 'Summer 2024'. Filtering by multiple batches in one request is not currently supported. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to loop across batch values or add a multi-batch parameter.Is data available for inactive or acquired YC companies?+
status field on get_company can reflect active, acquired, or inactive states. If you know a company's slug or company_id, you can retrieve its record regardless of current operating status. Search results also include companies across all statuses.