Consumer Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) in the San Francisco Bay Area that are currently hiring 2026

We exist to lift as many people up the socioeconomic ladder as possible. We dramatically improve lives by letting professionals turn extra time and ambition into career growth and financial opportunity. We achieve this with our app-based marketplace that connects workplaces and professionals, allowing professionals to book on-demand shifts and workplaces to access on-demand talent.

Founded in 2013, DoorDash is a San Francisco-based technology company passionate about transforming local businesses and dedicated to enabling new ways of working, earning, and living. Today, DoorDash connects customers with their favorite local and national restaurants in more than 600 cities across the United States and Canada. By building intelligent, last-mile delivery technology for local cities, DoorDash aims to connect people with the things they care about — one dash at a time. Read more at blog.doordash.com, and find us on Glassdoor.

Instacart is the North American leader in online grocery and one of the fastest-growing companies in e-commerce. Instacart’s same-day delivery and pickup services bring fresh groceries and everyday essentials to busy people and families across the U.S. and Canada in as fast as an hour. Since its founding in 2012, Instacart has become an essential service for millions of families, while also serving as an immediate, flexible earnings opportunity for hundreds of thousands of shoppers across North America. The company partners with more than 350 retailers and delivers from more than 25,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Today, Instacart is accessible to more than 85% of households in the U.S. and more than 70% of households in Canada.

Pax Historia is an alternate-history sandbox game where players choose a country, a moment in time, and rewrite the course of history. What if Rome never fell? What if the Soviet Union survived? What if Genghis Khan ruled for another generation? We go beyond history, too. What if aliens invaded Earth? What if you were a college dropout creating a tech startup? The ability to create, edit, and copy custom maps, actors, historical context, and more means that users can play nearly any scenario they can imagine. In the last four months we've organically built a passionate fanbase of tens of thousands of daily active players and we're excited to expand on this early start. Consider joining us to help build vastly better tools for creators and experiences for players.

Fifth Door unlocks the power of imagination by making it easy for everyone to create, share, and play games anywhere, with anyone. We exist to stimulate the creativity, connection, and joy that people get when they play games.

Social networks are dead. Social media became more media than social. My friends aren't on social media anymore - it's one third ads, one third content from strangers, and one third AI slop. Our social lives are fragmented across dozens of different apps - iMessage, WhatsApp, Find My, Partiful, and Venmo. Digipals is the first AI-native social operating system that improves our relationships with friends. We built ambient AI agents that use social context from our location, calendar, and photos to take action and write code in our group chats. We are the last social platform anyone will ever need. Launch Video https://youtu.be/KW2tjLl6sxM

Miniswap a marketplace for complex hobbies, starting with Warhammer. In hobbies as complex as Warhammer, finding what you want on general marketplaces is a huge pain. Filters don't work, free-form listings mean that products are regularly misidentified, and piles of counterfeit junk crowd search results. Miniswap saves hobbyists from this chaos with its catalogue of more than 20,000 unique miniatures. Sellers match their listings against Miniswap's catalogue giving buyers more information and structure as they shop. The global market for tabletop games is estimated to be worth $20B in 2025 and Warhammer alone is projected to grow to $3B by 2030. By capturing the market in this untapped niche, Miniswap is strongly positioned to bringing greater transparency, simplicity, and connectivity into adjacent verticals. Miniswap's founding team merges deep domain knowledge with elite programming expertise and years of experience in business consulting and startups. Co-founders Zak and Will met while studying together at Cambridge, bonded over their love of Warhammer and early modern history. They have been best friends ever since.

Riff is a music editor with superpowers — helping artists work faster and making it easier than ever for hobbyists to break into music. As we continue to build, we see Riff turning into an entirely new paradigm for creating music.

Mosaic is an agentic video editing paradigm. It enables anyone to create and run their own multimodal video editing agents in a node-based canvas. Our mission is to accelerate hours of video editing work to seconds.

Emergent is the AI coding platform builders use to create production-ready software. Describe what you want in the chat, and our coding agents handle everything else: frontend design, database architecture, backend logic, authentication, payments, deployment, and automatic scaling. We've grown to 700,000+ users and $10M ARR in just 2 months because we solved the real problem: the best software comes from people who understand the problems.

x1 helps anyone build a real, native iOS app — step by step. You describe what you want to build, and x1 generates a clear plan that takes you from idea to App Store. Each step ships a real feature and explains how the pieces fit together. Instead of asking AI to one-shot an entire app, x1 guides it through the build — the first tool that teaches you and builds with you.

Most relationships, romantic or platonic, don’t end in one moment, they drift apart over time. Missed check-ins, surface-level conversations, busy lives, and routines replace real connection. Candle helps couples and friends stay close through 1-minute daily rituals that bring back presence, play, and curiosity. Candle gives couples and friends a daily, low-pressure game designed to create emotional momentum: the most essential, and often most neglected, ingredient in long-term connection. What started as a swipeable questions game has grown into a full platform and private space for your relationship: - Daily Prompts & Games: Thoughtful, funny, and unexpected questions, couple quizzes, audio and photo challenges that update and adapt monthly - Shared Canvas Widget: Leave notes, doodles, or drawings right on each other’s home screen - Now in beta: Date Ideas Swiping**: Get 60 curated date ideas based on your area (yes, even San Francisco :)), updated weekly. Swipe to match on what you both want to try. From pop-up events to hidden gems, it’s the easiest way to try something new together or even with friends or family! We’d love feedback here! - Streaks & Shared Progress — Build accountability and a shared rhythm - Adaptive Decks: Smarter, more relevant questions over time - Shared Photo Albums & Memories: Keep track of all your photos and logged memories

https://streamable.run

AI entertainment feels like slop because companies value technology over human creativity. DreamRP is here to change that. Companies like to focus on technology because it usually lets them win. But what fans love has never been about the tech. A fan doesn’t fill their apartment with posters because of the lens a movie was shot on. They do it because of the mind behind the camera.f Like all technology, AI is just a tool. In the wrong hands, it makes endless sludge. In the right ones, fans will love entertainment more than ever before. DreamRP builds for creatives, from indie artists to global stars, because they have always been the real reason audiences love what they love.

Willow is an AI dictation app that lets you type with your voice. Built to 4x the productivity of anyone spending too much time on email, docs, and AI prompting workflows. We’re Mac-only for now. You can try it free at WillowVoice.com

Lovable for Minecraft Mods. Empowering over 100,000 players to become creators.

BrowserOS is an open-source agentic browser that runs AI agents locally.

Stardrift is AI travel search for frequent flyers, helping you plan and book complex itineraries. Users use us to find the flights that work for their schedules and preferences.

Overlap builds multimodal AI agents that can do literally anything you want related to video, such as finding specific moments, generating clips, or analyzing your video library. What takes media companies thousands of hours, we do in seconds.

Ego AI is building Character AI + Roblox. Our conviction is that 3D embodiment, shared activities in games and AI imbued with human-like personalities will solve the existing problems of low-stakes, shallow and generic interactions that impact retention in consumer AI chat experiences.   We’re fine-tuning a foundation model for characters to behave in human-like ways—indistinguishable from real people—and building a UGC platform around it to allow users to create, experience and form meaningful connections & mutual stories with these AI characters. On our platform, simworld, users will be able place the characters in a Stardew Valley style simulated town, where the AI characters will live, work and play, leading rich internal lives. Users who deepen bonds with these AI character friends can invite them out with them to Discord, Minecraft or even a Netflix-n-chill session. Our Character engine, ego AI, built on top of Unreal, will allow users to create, deploy and even monetize their characters across any surface that supports our CCProtocol. The first use case for our characters will likely be DnD-style roleplay, Minecraft RP, and Twitch streaming. Characters will always live and exist in Simtowns with other AIs (and humans) where they will all lead varied internal lives replete with conflict, danger, opportunity, and love…just like humans in the real world! During YC, we used our engine to build TownWorld - a 3D interactive Twitch live stream of the Stanford generative agents paper (https://www.twitch.tv/townworld). To the best of our knowledge, it's the first ever AI 3D simulation of a small town in real time YC Launch - https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KeD-ego-an-ai-native-3d-simulation-engine-getting-us-closer-to-the-matrix-one-pixel-at-a-time Demo video: https://docsend.com/view/mzf6i7kiwkkgg669 AI 3D TownWorld video: https://docsend.com/view/ig6t2shuz26z7wha

We are Same (YC W24). We want to help people easy develop and run products. We believe that soon everyone will be able to freely explore, create, and implement various ideas without being restricted by technology and time. Coding in its current form is still too complicated for most people. It gives control to a small elite, takes years to master, and remains unintuitive and time-consuming to the average person. We spent the last two years building tools like Million.js and React Scan that extend what millions of developers could create. Now, we're going to share that magic with the rest of the world. We're based in San Francisco and Shanghai.

Call, text, or email Martin. He manages your calendar, inbox, phone calls, to-dos, reminders, notes, and more. It is the most advanced AI personal assistant, light years ahead of Siri, Alexa, and CoPilot.

Roame is flight search engine design for credit card points and miles. We help travelers redeem their points for dream vacations in seconds rather than days. At Roame, we are on a mission to revolutionize travel and consumer finance. We stand at the intersection of travel tech and fintech.

LazyEditor is an AI-driven video editor that instantly handles the entire editing process, from removing silences and filler words to adding b-rolls and enhancing overall quality. We help content creators produce professional, high-quality videos that maximize engagement with minimal effort.

Pair AI is Shopify for knowledge products. We empower creators, educators, and experts to launch addicting mobile-first video courses and provide AI-assisted coaching services at scale. Our platform is a one-stop shop to seamlessly monetize what you know! We make learning as fun and engaging as watching a TikTok.

The missing layer of the internet that aligns how you actually spend your time with your best intentions

Here at Spellbrush, we're passionate about making a good anime game. We also happen to be the world's leading generative AI studio — we're the team behind niji・journey. We are currently investigating how AI can be used to help human artists perform masterpieces in the most complex medium of our times: video games. Our games are characterized by a no-compromise approach to well-balanced gameplay married to a truthful love of visual arts.

Star makes game development accessible to anyone with an idea. Using AI, you can create complex, playable games without writing code - just describe what you want and iterate. We're building the future of creative tools for the next generation of game makers.

Roforco is one of the top game studios on Roblox. The team has launched 7 original titles played by over 100 million users and reaching a peak of 10.2 million monthly active users. Top games include: * https://www.roblox.com/games/10975855395/Korrupt-Zombies-UPDATE * https://www.roblox.com/games/9746160797/Sunsilk-City * https://www.roblox.com/games/4983678402/Disney-World-Magic-Kingdom-Theme-Park * https://www.roblox.com/games/6497455705/UPDATE-Iron-Seas Roforco drives virality through social reach, with 100K+ TikTok followers, 64K+ Discord members, and tens of millions of views across TikTok and YouTube. Founded by two 17-year-old high school dropouts who’ve been building viral consumer products since they were 12.

A personal cloud storage platform that's so good, it'll replace Finder / File Explorer on your desktop. Find anything with multi-modal, natural language search. Browse with a lightning fast interface that feels just like native. Organize, tag, view, edit, share, and more.

Vinci Games (YC S22) is building the next generation of social multiplayer VR games. Our first title, Blacktop Hoops, became one of the highest-rated sports games on Meta Quest with a passionate global community and critical acclaim. Our second title, Ruffnauts, is already one of the fastest growing F2P releases of 2025 on Meta Quest, with 30K+ reviews at 4.9 stars in its first month of Alpha Early Access. Ruffnauts combines creature catching, chaotic physics, and Gorilla Tag style locomotion into a groundbreaking VR adventure. The company is led by CEO Nathaniel Ventura (ex-Oculus, Google, Meta) and CTO Maciej Szcześnik, former lead gameplay designer at CD Projekt Red for The Witcher series. Our mission is to create genre-defining VR experiences that bring millions of players together.

Phind is an AI search engine. It uses multi-step reasoning to find the best answer for your question and generative UI to present it in the most beautiful and interactive way.

Reforged Labs Boa is the AI creative intelligence agent that answers all your questions about what ads are performing, why they work, and what to create next.

We create an affordable way for gamers to start playing crypto games and a secure way for investors to earn yield through NFTs.

OneStopKitchen (OSK) offers advanced technology and an innovative model which allows any restaurant to scale to multiple locations at zero cost. OSK offers an entire suite of AI powered advanced restaurant inventory, ops and logistics tech to scale quickly with limited risk. OSK operationalizes underperforming restaurant space and staff to run OSK kitchens which are located in prime downtowns and high walk-in areas. Think of AirBnB for restaurants. OSK is a preferred restaurant partner due to its innovative hyper scalable model. Consumers can mix & match multiple cuisines in a single order for dine in, pick up or delivery.

DreamWorld is a next-gen Minecraft with generative AI building. A game and platform for 3D user generated content, DreamWorld is a digital world with one of the largest multiplayer capacities ever developed. Our players grew up on User Generated Content games, but are now 13-40 and have aged out Roblox / Minecraft. DreamWorld provides more powerful building tools, better graphics, and massive social multiplayer.

Gather is a video chat platform designed to make virtual interactions more human. Our mission is to create opportunity and connection for everyone, no matter where they are. We do this by building the Metaverse, a virtual layer over the physical world where people can work, socialize, and learn. Since we launched in May of 2020, Gather has brought millions of people together. We have raised a total of $77 million in Series A and B from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, and more. We’re a small, friendly team based out of a state-of-the-art virtual office, where you can work whenever and wherever suits you. Come join us! https://www.fastcompany.com/90692692/gather-inclusive-metaverse-vr

Matter is a powerful, modern reading app that lets you save media from anywhere, pulls in your newsletters, lets you listen to your articles in a natural voice, and much more.

Pillar is the all-in-one business platform for content creators and talent managers.

LegionFarm is the world's top AI-powered marketplace for gamers to hire elite pros (top 1%) for coaching, carry and companionship services in AAA games like WoW, Destiny 2, CoD, and Apex Legends. Founded in 2016, YC-backed (W20) with $17.8M from Twitch founders and investors, we've served 250k+ customers via two web platforms and five bots, creating 10k+ jobs for Pros worldwide. We turn gaming hobbies into careers, delivering global entertainment and esports impact. Since 2023, our LLM-driven automation replaced 100+ ops roles, with an AI workspace featuring smart agents, real-time feedback, evals, and community fine-tuning for peak pro efficiency.

Plura (formerly Bloom Community) is a YCombinator backed startup based in Oakland, CA on a mission to use software to bring people together. Plura is a social and dating community that helps you meet new friends and partners organically through shared events and experiences. We partner with local event producers to help you connect and chat with other attendees before and after events. And, with a strong consent culture and referral-based community, we're the safest place to meet new partners and friends. The team is led by Luna Ray. Luna spent 5 years at Facebook, most recently leading viral user growth for Instagram from 700M to past a billion users in two years.

Short Story is a style discovery platform to help petite women find clothes that fit. The average American woman is 5'4" and petite, yet this remains an enormously underserved segment. We’re a team of curators passionate about finding style, quality, and fit for petite women. Our mission is to remove the “ugh” from the shopping equation and support petite women in telling their stories, stylishly and confidently.

Dex is a personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch with the people you would otherwise forget. Dex helps turn your acquaintances into your allies. Going beyond the superficiality of social networks requires commitment. If you remember to keep in touch thoughtfully, you can turn the interesting person you met at a networking event into a friend that has your back. I built Dex after failing to keep up with the tools I tried (Airtable, Notion, etc) for relationship management. Installing an actual CRM like Hubspot felt like a wrong fit for my informal relationships -- these people were 'my team,' not customers. Dex is a lightweight personal CRM that’s easy to stick with. Key to Dex is a Chrome extension that enables you to manage relationships while you’re in Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, and the social apps you already use. Dex can also send you actionable reminders (daily, or based on your calendar events) to log your interactions for next time. By using Dex, you can: - Build stronger relationships, by sending you a nudge to follow-up. - Be more thoughtful, by helping you remember where you left off. - Become a superconnector, by making connections you wouldn’t otherwise remember.

At Shef, we’re bringing humanity back to mealtime by connecting consumers with talented chefs in their community. By introducing the sharing economy to the dinner table, we create meaningful economic opportunities for chefs while making homemade meals more accessible and affordable. Shefs on the platform craft menus inspired by their passion and expertise, preparing meals in small batches and delivering them to your door—so you can enjoy the warmth of a homemade meal without the hassle. We have raised over $100M from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, and M13, as well as founders and executives from Instacart, TaskRabbit, StubHub, AngelList, Lyft, Airbnb, and Yelp.

Helping creators build smarter and more successful businesses with websites, email marketing, ecommerce, and more.

AmpUp provides the simplicity and reliability enabled Tesla experience EV charging solution in private commercial locations where vehicle dwell times are 6 hours and longer; EG, workplaces, MUDs, and fleet depots. Within 2 years, it achieved 8th in ranking in market share in the commercial level 2 charging sector in the US. AmpUp is growing even faster now with their dominant growth channel in the commercial lighting vertical set to take off at the end of 2023 and early 2024.

Wanderlog is the one-stop app for planning your next vacation, with a focus on excellent design. You can track your plans in our collaborative document, discover new places to visit and hotels to book, and share travel advice with friends and fellow travelers.

Community Phone is building the best phone for communities in America. We are your hair salon’s business phone, how your auto-body shop texts you or gets appointments, your local government agency’s operations line, and your mom’s phone that she sometimes answers on her computer. We have more than 20,000 customers today, and are building the Square of phones. Our team is ~80 people strong, across 15 countries. We are growing quickly, backed by Y Combinator Accelerator and Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. We are customer-obsessed to the core. When we had a major network outage, everyone from recruiters to engineers to marketers to customer support agents got on the phone with our customers. Our team exemplifies our purpose. Join us on our mission to make it as easy as possible for people and people at organizations in our communities to communicate.

DreamCraft enables anyone to create, publish, and monetize video games. The company’s core product is a code-free game creation platform, bundled with high quality art assets. DreamCraft is backed by March Capital, Makers Fund, Tencent Corporation, Y Combinator, and other top investors in the gaming space. The company was founded in 2018 and now has a global team of 20+ people with half remote and half based in Silicon Valley.

Proven is a data powered skincare company that creates personalized skincare products based on more than 47 factors about an individual's skin, genetic background, lifestyle and environment. Our formulations are rooted in the largest beauty database in the world, the proprietary Skin Genome Project, built in-house by Proven's cofounder Amy Yuan, a computational physicist from Stanford. The database has won MIT's AI Technology of the Year award and encompasses more than 20Million consumer datapoints and thousands of scientific articles on skin. Our challenge now is to tell the story of Proven, and share our industry leading personalized skincare products with the world.