Are there any YC startups based around open source software?
5th March 2014
My answer to Are there any YC startups based around open source software? on Quora
There have been a few.
Meteor.js is the most obvious example (YCS11, fully open source, raised $11.2 million): Meteor Raises $11.2M Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Reddit have released all of their source code though I’m pretty sure they did that long after they went through YC: reddit on GitHub
DotCloud (YCS10) have pivoted to focus on Docker, which is fully open source.
If you browse through the list on Y Combinator Company List you’ll certainly find some others.
More recent articles
- My review of Claude's new Code Interpreter, released under a very confusing name - 9th September 2025
- Recreating the Apollo AI adoption rate chart with GPT-5, Python and Pyodide - 9th September 2025
- GPT-5 Thinking in ChatGPT (aka Research Goblin) is shockingly good at search - 6th September 2025