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Vinkius

YC Startup Prover Connector for AI agents.

1 live capability

Get a brutal reality check on your product-market fit and startup strategy.

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Why people use YC Startup Prover

YC Startup Prover for Validating Product-Market Fit

This Connector changes the dynamic. Instead of your AI client just nodding along to your ideas, it puts your plan through a rigorous filter based on Y Combinator's core principles. It forces you to name specific users, prove their willingness to pay, and commit to unscalable manual work. You get a clear verdict on whether you are seeking solutions, scaling too early, or just chasing vanity metrics.

  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • Cursor
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Windsurf

What Vinkius changes

You get a clear, actionable audit that tells you exactly why your startup might fail before you waste money building it.

Use it from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another AI client you already have.

One account · 5,900+ Connectors

  1. Real-world use case 01

    The Cool Tech Trap

    A dev wants to build an AI-powered glaze mixer but realizes they are building a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.

  2. Real-world use case 02

    The Scaling Trap

    A cheese maker wants to open 20 stores but the Connector shows they haven't validated their price point or shelf life yet, warning against Premature Scaling.

  3. Real-world use case 03

    The Vanity Metric Trap

    A tutor wants to celebrate 10k followers but the Connector forces them to show actual student retention and revenue instead of just signups.

Complete set · 1capability

The complete YC Startup Prover capability set.

These are the exact actions your AI can choose when you ask it to work with YC Startup Prover.

Capability set01 / 01

01

1 capability in this set.

Part of 1 available through YC Startup Prover.

  1. 01 Capability

    Validate yc startup

    Submit your startup strategy to receive a structured reflection on its viability. This capability identifies specific failures in your business model and tells you what to fix first.

Set up in minutes

One URL. Then ask YC Startup Prover to work.

Claude and ChatGPT only need the Connector URL. Copy it once, add it in settings, and use YC Startup Prover from the conversation.

Choose your client

Live preview
Advanced clients IDE · CLI

Claude · Web + desktop

Official guide ↗

Connector URL · ready to paste

Streamable HTTP
https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_g1EMCKEIjzrv2vEB6KdwkkLWZjkjDWP97a5rpZ9x/mcp
  1. Step 01

    Open Connectors

    In Claude Web or Claude Desktop, open Settings and choose Connectors.

  2. Step 02

    Add the URL

    Choose Add custom connector, name it YC Startup Prover, and paste the URL above.

  3. Step 03

    Turn it on in chat

    Select +, open Connectors, and enable YC Startup Prover for the conversation.

Where the request belongs

Work YC Startup Prover can move forward.

Built around the request

This is for founders who have a big idea but need to stress-test it against elite standards. It's for anyone who wants to avoid the common mistakes that kill early-stage companies.

01

Startup Founder

The person who wants to move from a pitch deck to a real company without wasting six months on the wrong product.

02

Product Manager

The lead trying to trim a bloated roadmap to find the one 10x feature that actually moves the needle.

03

VC Analyst

The person who needs to quickly stress-test a portfolio company's growth strategy and business model.

04

Early-stage Engineer

The dev who wants to make sure their technical solution actually solves a painful human problem for a paying customer.

Build the capability set

Add more capabilities.

Each Connector adds new actions and data without changing how you work.

Browse Connectors
Techstars Mentor Prover logo
01 1 capability

Techstars Mentor Prover

A founder pitched for 45 minutes without mentioning a single customer conversation, a single mentor challenge, or a single dollar of revenue. Zero feedback sought. Zero market validation. Zero network. That is not acceleration. that is solo building in a vacuum. This capability forces five Techstars-level axes: mentor leverage, feedback discipline, customer discovery, revenue readiness, and network strategy.

View Connector
Customer Discovery Prover logo
02 1 capability

Customer Discovery Prover

An AI defined the ICP as 'busy professionals aged 25-45 who value productivity.' It described the problem as 'everyone struggles with time management.' Interview questions: 'Would you pay $29/month for this?' The startup built for 14 months, launched to silence, and shut down. 42% of startups fail because of no market need. and the discovery process guaranteed it. This capability forces persona grounding in real interviews, problem evidence from specific conversations, Mom Test methodology, segment separation, and willingness-to-pay commitment signals.

View Connector
Pitch Deck Prover logo
03 1 capability

Pitch Deck Prover

An AI built a pitch deck that claimed a '$4.2B TAM' with no source, described the problem as 'everyone struggles with this,' showed '15K downloads' as traction with 3% D30 retention, and asked for 'funding to accelerate growth'. no amount, no use of funds, no milestones. The deck got rejected in 8 minutes. This capability forces problem validation with evidence, sourced market sizing, defined unit economics, retention-based traction, and a specific fundraising ask.

View Connector
Bezos Flywheel Prover logo
04 1 capability

Bezos Flywheel Prover

A startup benchmarked against 5 competitors instead of talking to a single customer. It proposed standalone initiatives instead of a flywheel. It built an end-user product instead of infrastructure. It formed a committee instead of a two-pizza team. It optimized for this quarter instead of a 7-year thesis. That is not strategy. that is a project list. This capability forces five Bezos-level axes: customer obsession, flywheel design, infrastructure-first, Day 1 culture, and long-term compounding.

View Connector
Founder Vision Prover logo
05 1 capability

Founder Vision Prover

A pitch deck said '1% of a $10B market' and 'run Facebook ads.' That is not a startup. that is a PowerPoint. This capability forces it to prove behavioral pain, calculate bottom-up TAM, show cohort retention, build a $0 CAC moat, and model unit economics that recycle capital in under 12 months.

View Connector
Product Discovery Prover logo
06 1 capability

Product Discovery Prover

Block engineering waste. This gatekeeper demands hard data, behavioral segments, and proven willingness-to-pay before a single line of code is written.

View Connector

Bring your own AI

Change the model, client or framework. Keep YC Startup Prover connected.

  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • Cursor
  • VS Code
  • Windsurf
  • ZCode
  • Cline
  • Zed
  • Continue
  • Kiro
  • Roo Code
  • Zencoder
  • Goose
  • Void
  • Augment Code
  • Amp
  • Qodo
  • Tabnine
  • Pieces
  • Sourcegraph Cody
  • JetBrains
  • Warp
  • Amazon Q
  • Antigravity
  • BoltAI
  • Raycast
  • Jan
  • LM Studio
  • AnythingLLM
  • Open WebUI
  • Msty
  • Cherry Studio
  • LibreChat
  • TypingMind
  • Chorus
  • 5ire
  • n8n
  • LangChain
  • LlamaIndex
  • CrewAI
  • Vercel AI SDK

Before you connect

Questions about YC Startup Prover.

The practical details behind the request, access and result.

How does YC Startup Prover help me find product-market fit?

It acts as a stress test for your business model. It forces you to prove you have a real problem and a way to solve it that people will pay for, preventing you from building something nobody wants.

Can I use YC Startup Prover to check my pitch deck?

Yes, you can feed your pitch or business plan into your AI client to get a structured audit against YC's core axes. It will highlight if you are focusing too much on tech and not enough on users.

What are the 'unscalable' things the Connector looks for?

It looks for manual, high-touch actions like personal onboarding or direct delivery. These are the things you must do personally to learn what your customers actually need before you spend money on automation.

Will YC Startup Prover tell me if my features are too many?

Yes, it specifically identifies Feature Bloat. It forces you to define the one thing your product does 10x better, helping you strip away the fluff that slows down your growth.

How is this different from regular market research?

Market research is often an Ivory Tower activity. This Connector forces you to move past reports and demand real conversations with specific people who have a painful problem right now.

What happens if my startup strategy fails the YC Startup Prover audit?

You get a specific verdict like Solution Seeking or Vanity Metrics. This tells you exactly where your logic is flawed so you can pivot your strategy before wasting more time or money.

Why does it reject 'our proprietary algorithm'?

PG: 'Make something people want.' Not 'build something cool.' Start from the problem. Who has it? How do they solve it today? How much do they pay? The technology is the last step, not the first.

What does 'default alive' mean?

At current growth rate and burn rate, will you reach profitability before running out of money? Yes = default alive. No = default dead. This single question determines if you survive.

Why ONE thing instead of many features?

Dropbox: file sync. Stripe: payments in 7 lines of code. The feature list is the problem. Find the one thing you do 10x better and strip everything else. Users describe you by your one thing or they do not describe you at all.

One connection away

Give your agent a direct line to YC Startup Prover.

Connect YC Startup Prover once. Keep it beside 5,900+ managed Connectors when the next task needs more.

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