# YC Startup Prover MCP MCP > YC Startup Prover forces your business plan through five critical founder axes: problem discovery, unscalable beginnings, metrics discipline, user obsession, and core value focus. It won't tell you what to build; it tells you if the idea is fundamentally flawed before you waste time or money on engineering. ## Overview - **Category:** business - **Price:** Free - **Tags:** yc, y-combinator, startup, paul-graham, product-market-fit, lean-startup, founder ## Description Building a product usually starts with an algorithm or a cool technology. This MCP flips that script. Instead of assuming your solution is needed, it forces you to validate whether there's actually a painful problem people are paying to solve right now. It takes the fluff out of early-stage planning, asking hard questions about who has the pain point and how much they’re willing to spend. You'll analyze if your plan relies on vanity metrics like signups or if you have genuine retention data showing repeat business. By running through this validation process, your agent checks for common founder pitfalls—like premature scaling or feature bloat—that kill otherwise promising startups. Because Vinkius runs every MCP in its own isolated sandbox with 34+ security rules enforced on every single call, you can trust that the core logic is executed securely while you focus entirely on making your idea bulletproof. ## Tools ### validate_yc_startup Runs a startup idea through five axes (problem, unscalable beginnings, metrics, users, core value) to assess its fundamental viability. ## Prompt Examples **Prompt:** ``` Our proprietary algorithm uses deep learning. We plan to hire a sales team. We have 50K signups. Market research shows a billion dollar TAM. We have 12 features planned. ``` **Response:** ``` SOLUTION_SEEKING — Five fatal gaps: technology-first, premature scaling, vanity metrics, ivory tower, feature bloat. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Problem: SMBs spend 4hrs/week on invoicing (5 users confirmed, $29/month willingness). Unscalable: personally onboarding each user via Zoom, migrating their Excel data. Metrics: 68% weekly retention, $2,400 MRR, default alive in 3 months. Users: 12 conversations this week, discovered mobile need, changed roadmap. Core: '5-minute invoice app' — NPS 72. ``` **Response:** ``` STARTUP_PROVEN — Startup strategy validated. All five axes pass. Ship it. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Problem validated with 8 users. Doing unscalable onboarding (Zoom calls). But our metrics show 5,200 signups, 180K page views, and 12K app downloads. We have 4 features live and 8 more on the roadmap. ``` **Response:** ``` Two axes pass (problem, unscalable). Three fail. VANITY METRICS: signups, page views, downloads are vanity. What is weekly RETENTION? Revenue? Default alive? FEATURE BLOAT: 4 live + 8 planned = 12 features. What is the ONE thing? Strip to the core 10x value. ``` ## Capabilities ### Problem Validation Determines if a specific, painful problem exists and if identifiable users are already paying to solve it. ### Manual Process Assessment Checks if the early user interaction requires manual, high-touch effort that cannot be scaled yet. ### Metric Discipline Check Validates whether growth is measured by revenue (MRR) and repeat usage (retention), not just activity counts. ### User Conversation Analysis Forces the evaluation of market direction based on qualitative user conversations, not surveys or assumptions. ### Core Value Isolation Narrows down a complex product idea to one single function done significantly better than current alternatives. ## Use Cases ### Pitching an untested idea to partners. A founder runs their pitch through the validation tool. The agent immediately flags 'Solution Seeking' because they described the technology first, forcing them to restructure the argument around a confirmed, paid user pain point. ### Revising a product roadmap post-launch. A PM feeds in their current feature list and growth data. The tool identifies 'Feature Bloat' because they listed more than one core value proposition, forcing them to cut everything but the single most valuable function. ### Starting from scratch with a new industry. A strategist uses the tool to structure their initial market research. The agent mandates talking to potential buyers every week, preventing 'Ivory Tower' planning based only on academic reports. ## Benefits - Stop basing strategy on signups. The validation forces you to think about real metrics, like weekly retention and MRR, rather than just total downloads or user count. - Avoid feature bloat by forcing you to isolate the core value—what does your product do 10x better than anything else? If you can't answer in one sentence, you're not focused enough. - Don't hire a team until you prove the problem. The tool mandates that all ideas start with naming specific people who have a painful, paying problem first. - Prevents building solutions nobody needs. It shifts your focus from 'what tech can I build?' to 'what pain do users actually have and pay for right now.' - Structures abstract concepts into actionable checks across five axes—Problem, Unscalable, Metrics, Users, and Core Value—giving you a clear pass/fail verdict. ## How It Works The bottom line is: you get an immediate, critical assessment of your business model’s fundamental weaknesses. 1. Input your entire business plan, including the proposed solution and target market. 2. The MCP analyzes the input against five founder axes, flagging any area that fails to meet real-world validation rules. 3. You receive a structured verdict detailing which specific startup failure mode (e.g., Vanity Metrics or Solution Seeking) is present in your plan. ## Frequently Asked Questions **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. **How does running `validate_yc_startup` protect my confidential business plans and data?** Your input data remains highly secure. Vinkius processes all tool calls inside an isolated sandbox, meaning your keys are used only in transit and never stored on disk. **Are there rate limits or performance constraints when I use the `validate_yc_startup` tool?** The platform handles infrastructure scaling automatically. For very large volumes of data, we recommend batching your prompts to maintain consistent processing speed and avoid hitting temporary usage caps. **Can I integrate the results from `validate_yc_startup` into a larger automation workflow?** Absolutely; you can chain this MCP with others. Connect it through Vinkius to build automations that take its output and feed it into, say, a messaging or CRM tool. **What is the best way to structure my prompt for `validate_yc_startup` to get the most useful critique?** The clearest method is providing segmented data. Structure your input by clearly addressing all five axes: problem, unscalable actions, metrics, users, and core value. **Does using `validate_yc_startup` require me to manage specific credentials or keys outside of the Vinkius platform?** No. You connect your preferred AI client once through Vinkius's zero-trust proxy. All necessary authentication is handled by the platform, keeping your actual keys secure.